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First BMW i8s Delivered at Welt Museum, Laser Headlight War Won

Whenever a manufacturer announces a piece of groundbreaking technology, it seems like its competition will do anything in its power to steal its thunder. At least that’s what the recent laser headlight war between BMW and Audi seems to suggest.
BMW i8 delivery 16 photos
Photo: bmw
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When BMW unveiled the i8 at Frankfurt, last year, they also claimed that this will be the world’s first car fitted with laser headlights, an innovation that further reduces energy consumption as well as weight on an automobile, while providing even better illumination at night.

However, Audi was also working on their own laser technology and they weren’t going to let BMW take the win. At the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, the Ingolstadt-based company announced that they will also introduce laser lights, when they unveiled the updated Sport Quattro Concept.

Later on this year they went a step further and claimed that they will introduce this technology for the first time on a road legal car through the Audi R8 LMX, a limited edition model whose sole purpose was to take the crown from the i8.

BMW didn’t fret at all and, after starting the production of the first such headlights, kept extremely hush-hush about their product, not answering to Audi’s all-out provocations. Therefore, this week, the company delivered the first 8 i8s to their respective owners, all of them being fitted with the laser lights. Game over!

That means the i8 is actually the first road-legal, production car to use the revolutionary laser lights and the war between the two companies is now officially over.

The event was filled with familiar faces to the BMW family, including Roland Kruger, Dr. Carsten Breitfeld, BMW i8 Project Manager, Benoit Jacob, BMW i Head of Design and DR. Helmut Schramm, Head of Production for BMW i vehicles. Parov Stelar was in charge of the music.

“In November of last year, we welcomed the first BMW i3 customers here at BMW Welt. Today, we are continuing the BMW i success story with the first eight BMW i8 customers worldwide. As ‘the first of a new era’, the BMW i8 combines the sustainable design of a carbon-fibre body with a powerful plug-in hybrid,” said Roland Krüger.

The rest of the i8 customers, worldwide, will from now on be getting the keys to their cars as the deliveries will begin on all corners of the world. Prices for the hybrid sports car from BMW start at $136,650 in the US.
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