Missed opportunity?
The BMW i8 never had a successor after the model exchanged the temporary for the automotive eternal. Yet behind the scenes there were plans on the table for a successor. None other than BMW’s design boss Domagoj Dukec shares images via social channels showing what the successor to the BMW i8 could have looked like.
The BMW i8 caused quite a stir when it was introduced in 2013, a sensation that retrospectively illustrates how quickly times have changed. While electric supercars are now flying around your ears, the i8 has been raised an eyebrow more than once because of its plug-in hybrid drivetrain. It also partly consisted of a modest 1.5 three-cylinder. The run-up to the arrival of the BMW i8 was a long one. BMW already previewed the model in 2009 with the Vision Efficient Dynamics and in 2011 the Germans released a second preview of what the i8 would become: the i8 Concept. In June 2020, the 20,465th and therefore very last example of the BMW i8 rolled off the assembly line in Leipzig. There was no successor. BMW’s design boss Domagoj Dukec now shares images what could have become the successor to the BMW i8.
The car you see in these photos goes by the name i16. The BMW i16 is clearly the intended production version of the Vision M Next presented in 2019. A year after the presentation of that study model, laced with M1 influences, it became clear that the planned production version of the Vision M Next had been cancelled. Dukec also refers to that. “While we were working hard on the project, the world changed in 2020. And so we were forced to stop the project,” Dukec writes. Also interesting: according to Dukec, the BMW i16 should have built on the lightweight basis of the i8. You can indeed see something of that in the shape of the car.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl