Quote:
Originally Posted by Matski
Every car I've ever seen crashed in the snow/ice has been of the internal combustion engine only variety. I think you are looking for significance that isn't really there.
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What does that mean? Every i8 that's crashed that you've seen has not had the electric front drive in it, or do you mean you've only seen ICE -powered automobiles crash in inclement weather because they are the prevalent type of automobile driven at this point in history?
I'd hate to think BMW is driving around test mules on public streets in inclement weather without the weight-balancing electric front drive mounted in the nose of the i8, because that would be a seriously rear-biased weighted car, and prone to lose stability in inclement conditions.
From the two crashes posted in this Forum, from the small amount of pictorial data I've seen and description of the incidents, it looks like the i8 just veers off course. In the snow picture, the i8 just went left into the snowbank; it's not sideways, nor had it spun; it just veered left. In the other rain incident, it looks like from the pictures and description, the i8 just lost control and was kept on the road by the guardrails. The description noted the i8 went left and banged off the left median rail, then ended up on the right side of the road.
Maybe the design of having two separate, independent and dissimilar drivetrains acting in tandem is more of an engineering challenge than BMW initially expected.