View Single Post
      03-24-2012, 01:53 PM   #69
mapezzul
Special Agent
mapezzul's Avatar
United_States
74
Rep
1,731
Posts

Drives: Depends on the day!
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Bavaria

iTrader: (1)

Quote:
Originally Posted by southlight View Post
You're not seriously comparing the i8 to the 918, are you?


Best regards,
south
Not in the sense they are competitors as they obviously are not. Price point alone is going to be an astronomical difference. The general consumer market is quick to follow the leader- BMW will be first with the higher end, "born electric" BMWi brand. That is great. Much like Toyota with the Prius the i8 will be a star in Hollywood. The issue then will be that the Porsche is "better" sure it costs more but it is a true "halo" and Porsche is also working on a cheaper mainstream (by Porsche standards) car to compete more in line with the i8 but that is at least 4 years out after the i8 launch. So at that point the i8 will be dated even with an LCI as with these electric cars, much like consumer electronics computers etc- the moment you drop the money it is obsolete. BMW is making this as upgradable as possible but at what cost to early adopters, residuals and the wait and see mentality.

If BMW was to give the i8 a bit more performance at the sacrifice of MPG it would better serve those looking for a "halo" car. BMWi is about efficiency but it does not need to blow things out of proportion, they must find the happy medium as currently there is next to nothing efficient in this class of cars- TESLA doesn't count to me as BMWi is not being shoehorned.

I love the i8 as is but with 10,000 sales as the goal they are going to need to approximate the desires of the masses- lawyers/doctors/brokers etc. that want to drive this rather than a 911 or Ferrari to show they have money, speed and EFFICIENCY.

Marketing and final output is going to be real interesting.

I still think that CAR is off in this prediction- they guessed wrong with the M5, M6 where we and others were spot on... the number they have is not the same as what I have heard whispered.
__________________
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Appreciate 0