BMW is planning to reveal a special version of the i8 hybrid sports car at the upcoming Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The new BMW i8 Concours d’Elegance Edition will benefit from a series of styling tweaks and will be ultimately auctioned at the Gooding & Company Pebble Beac Auction.

This will happen on August 16th with all proceeds going to the Pebble Beach Company Foundation.

At the exterior, the special model stands out thanks to the BMW Individual Frozen Grey Metallic finish and new laser headlights.

Inside, the Bavarian company offers Dalbergia Brown upholstery, embossed headrests, new badges, BMW i Blue contast stitching and new trim. Of course, the powerplant will remain unchanged, therefore, you will get a hybrid powertrain consisting of a 1.5-liter engine and an electric motor.

The total output is rated at 362 horsepower and 570 Nm of torque for a 0-100 km/h sprint in 4,4 seconds.

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Marcus M.

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It seems that this whole i cars that BMW has going on is not just for their image nor is it just an exercise in engineering.

The German car maker is planning to really expand and improve on their already successful design and make the i sub-brand a whole new side of BMW.

Right now, two vehicles sport the greener drive units, the small city car i3, and the larger hybrid sportscar i8. The foundation is therefore set, but while they are working on new models, they also have in mind solutions for the infrastructure they will need.

For this purpose they presented the Solar Carport Concept, which are basically ecological recharging stations for i cars. As this is BMW designing them, the concept has been pushed a bit beyond conventional limits. Not only are they using solar panels to generate electricity, but even the structure itself is build out of bamboo, which is considered the eco option, as it grows rather fast.

In Europe, once these Solar Carports start popping up, they will come with a 30 year warranty. Big plans for the German manufacturer, but they do have the resources and ideology to bring them to fruition.

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Marcus M.

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We can all agree that the i branch of BMW is off to a great start, with both its small i3 city car and the hybrid i8 sports car exceeding even the most optimistic expectations.

They also plan to expand and add variety to the green Bimmers, and there are high hopes for the new models to take their place next to the i3 and i8.

BMW plans to reach a production volume of 100.000 units each year, and while they might still sell well, the main reason behind this volume is another. As you might have heard, CO2 emission laws will become stricter come 2020, and each company has to average a certain value across its vehicle range.

The 100.000 i cars a year seems to be the minimum for BMW to comply with the new regulation without having to drastically modify the rest of the range. It’s quite a shame really, having to increase production not because of demand (which is still quite high) but rather because of laws.

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Marcus M.

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German car maker BMW continues to unveil more and more information regarding their new models, with an interesting tidbit surfacing involving the i8.

BMW took the time to explain the aerodynamics of the hybrid sports car, although not going too much into detail.

I have to admit, when pictures of the i8 first surfaced the internet, I was taken in by the aspect of the car, but if at that point anyone would have told me that the styling follows rigorous wind flow dynamics, I might not have believed them.

But fact is that for a while now, the automotive industry has been doing really well in designing awesome looking cars without going against aerodynamics principles. BMW’s i8 model is one such car, and it’s now wonder that BMW is so proud of their creation. After watching the video below, there is only one thing that still puzzles me. Where is this water droplet shape they talk about?

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Marcus M.

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It is a known fact that the BMW i3 uses a lot of new tech the car maker developed especially for the electrical city car.

Some feared that, while the car itself isn’t that cheap on its own, maintaining it could also prove to be quite expensive.

Or maybe not, as Manuel Satting, BMW i’s Communications Manager recently stated. The chassis uses mostly CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced plastic) with the body panels built out of plastic. The clip-on system used for the panels makes for an easy replacement procedure of just a few minutes. This is both time and cost effective.

Besides the low cost of the maintenance, there is also the obvious low fuel consumption, but the advantages don’t stop there. Another side to this whole business is the insurance. It seems that the BMW i3 will grab low prices for all classes, further improving on the long term economy of the car. With more information becoming available, it’s easy to see that the small i3 did earn all the awards it got and will continue on getting.

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Marcus M.

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Every time a new model is announced, excited enthusiasts always let their imagination run wild at the possibilities.

And those that posses some graphic skills, even go as far as to render the model in either 2D and 3D.

As a general rule, these rendering are fun up until the point the manufacturer decides it is time for an official unveiling, letting the whole world see the shapes of the new model. The same was with the BMW i8, which had a few renderings before BMW decided to make it public.

What is interesting about the i8 is that even after the official unveiling, people still execute renderings of the model, with a recent one coming from E Milano. Their version had the advantage of already knowing what the actual i8 looks like, so they just redesigned the parts they didn’t particularly like.

So, this is more of a tuning rendering rather than a normal one. Still, their effort should be commended, for they did deliver an awesome looking picture.

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Marcus M.

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The BMW i3 will be unleashed upon the streets on November the 16th, and BMW is prepping the way for a warm welcome.

The latest effort involves a very nice promotional video, displaying the i3 model, with a special appearance of its sportier cousin, the i8.

The video is put together quite well, with emphasis on the slow but steady technology advance towards a future free of fossil fuels. Besides the obvious ecological message introduced in the video, BMW also made sure to outline the basic technologies that make the i3 stand out in the EV crowd.

Thus, the words born electric are spread around with a dash of carbon fiber and the omnipresent driving pleasure that the BMW i3 is sure to bring. As for the other features and innovations the i3 brings to the table, we have already covered those extensively in the past. So the question remains, are you ready to embrace an electric future alongside BMW? If you feel uncertain, you can always watch the video below for a bit more motivation.

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Marcus M.

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With the BMW i3 already in showrooms, everybody is expecting the industry to shift, just as the German car maker promised.

But as you might think, even an excellent electric vehicle won’t be enough to bring about the change.

A big part of a vehicle’s success, especially one that is not conventional yet, is the infrastructure. And this is still a limiting factor for most electric cars around the world. In order to put some doubts to rest, BMW UK decided to make a short video explaining just how well the country is equipped for the new i3.

To be more specific, they are explaining the option you will have when it comes to recharging your vehicle. Basically, there are three options so far: charge your BMW i3 at home, at work or at the 5.000 stations across UK.

If you choose to charge at home, you have the option of using a normal wall socket, or you can go for a charging station, with its installation cost being covered 75% by the government. But just check it out for yourselves below.

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Marcus M.

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The post BMW UK explains i charging appeared first on BMWCoop | BMW Blog, BMW News, BMW Reviews.

With the occasion of the Frankfurt Motor Show, we found out a lot of information concerning BMW and its future plans.

While a bit disappointing to some, the German car maker announced that there will never be a M variant of any model in the i Series.

More information details the separation of the sub-brands even further. From what it seems, no M engineers were involved while BMW developed the i8 model, with the results being unaffected by outside influence. This was crucial to make sure that the vehicle was as original as possible.

With the i8 shaping up to be one of the most interesting hybrids on the market, the path BMW has chosen to the eco branch seems to be the right one, with no changes foreseen in the immediate future. Cypselus von Frakenberg, BMW’s head of technology communications also commented on this separation of labor, saying “I don’t think that it would make sense to mix these two sub-brands in one car. We have the Ms, we have the is, and we have the BMW, the core brand”.

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Marcus M.

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BMW has posted all over the medias that their “born electric” i3 city car would be a real game changer when it comes to electric vehicles.

True enough, with all the details available to us, we can see that the car is indeed a great feat of engineering.

But the fans’ approval, while a good indication of the EV’s quality, is not the only appreciation the BMW i3 is getting. Prizes have already started gathering under the car’s name. Featured in UK’s 2013 Next Green Car Awards, the electric Bimmer managed to bring home 2 prizes.

The first of the prizes is the 2013 Supermini Award, earned mostly because BMW managed to bring high quality, performance and connectivity to the electric urban car segment. The second of the prizes is the 2013 City-Car Award. The qualities that brought the BMW i3 this one is, as Suzanne Grey, General Manager of BMW i put it, because of “weight, packaging, range, emissions and driving dynamics”.

The 2013 Next Green Car Awards featured 8 categories, and this year there were 26 nominees, with models already out or close to the release date. For BMW i3 to take home 2 of the 8 prizes is quite an achievement, and we are awaiting the industry shift it promised.

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Marcus M.

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