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      04-22-2014, 04:30 PM   #11
ddk632
Chief Senior Executive Managing VP of Orange Sales
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Drives: 17 BMW F87 M2 6MT MG HBDGR !
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Aventura, FL

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Thanks @Carac good point. I had a brain fart there.

In fact, @Blipit_, if you check this thread from December when I met Jacob Harb, the BMW i Brand Manager, I asked him that exact question:

http://bmwi.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=922608

Here's what he told me as I posted in the above thread:

Quote:
Originally Posted by ddk632 View Post
1. Will the electric motor keep charge if you drive the i8 hard, or at high speeds? Say if you take it to the track?

"It's an i8, not an M8". The BMW i Brand Manager confirmed that if you drive normally on the street, even going fast, the electric motor has its own alternator and will keep charged. That means you can do a cross country road trip and just use gas stations if you cannot charge the car, and the electric motor will stay charged giving you full power of both motors constantly.

Now, if you want to take the i8 to the track - some of us had discussed this on another forum - the issue becomes with battery heat more so than with motor charge. The batteries will get too hot from driving at 10/10ths and will be automatically shut off, leaving you with just the gas motor. The BMW i Brand Manager said the car will do laps, but not sessions. I have decided that taking this car to the track will be a bad idea. His explanation regarding batteries overheating made perfect sense.
So essentially, unless you're driving the snot out of it, you can actually get by driving spiritedly but not insanely, and not need to charge the car at all, and will never just be driving on the gas engine alone.
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