German automaker BMW has put an interesting spin on the green car industry, having announced their first production electric car will be a sportscar of sorts. After last year’s i8 Coupe Concept, the Auto China 2012 in Beijing (23 April – 2 May 2012) was the venue chosen for the debut of a new concept, the i8 Spyder.
This plug-in hybrid is closer to the production form than the previous concept, and presents a number of interesting technological innovations. The most impressive is the new powertrain, which uses a 1.5-liter turbo engine to power the rear via a dual-clutch transmission, while an electric motor with 129 hp motivates the front axle.
Each unit can power the car independently, or they can both be used to provide an output of 349 hp and peak torque reaches 550Nm (405.6 lb-ft).
The other big announcement made by BMW is the fact that they’ve trademarked “eDrive”, the new designation for the drive technology of all future electric and plug-in hybrid cars.
Now, it might seem trivial that the i8 has two motors, but it’s not simply a question of slapping as many engines as they could. For instance, the traction control has two work with adjustable settings in FWD, RWD and AWD. Now that’s a job for a BMW!
Each unit can power the car independently, or they can both be used to provide an output of 349 hp and peak torque reaches 550Nm (405.6 lb-ft).
The other big announcement made by BMW is the fact that they’ve trademarked “eDrive”, the new designation for the drive technology of all future electric and plug-in hybrid cars.
Now, it might seem trivial that the i8 has two motors, but it’s not simply a question of slapping as many engines as they could. For instance, the traction control has two work with adjustable settings in FWD, RWD and AWD. Now that’s a job for a BMW!