[JWDnl]

     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com

From Thursday to Saturday BMWi organized the Launch Event of the Pure Impulse program in Leipzig (Germany).

(Don't like reading? Pictures are below!)

The event consisted of 1 'walking' dinner Thursday evening in a 2 Michelin star Restaurant/Bar on the top floor of the Westin Hotel in Leipzig where you could meet other early i8 adopters and the BMW team behind the i program in a casual setting.

Friday we went on a factory tour in the Leipzig plant where the i3 and i8 are build, you could literally touch the i8s that were being put together since they let us on the factory floor.

We were told it was quite exceptional and it also felt special being so close to the birth of the i8s.

They explained and showed every detail of the process to us from the carbon production to the 'mating' of the life cell and other components, very impressive!

Friday evening they organized a gala dinner in the once largest wool spinning plant in the world, during the dinner all main characters involved in the process from concept to production of the current i8 told us about all the work involved getting the car together, it made me loving the car even more if you know how much they had to do to get the car the way it is now.

Again we were able to talk with the members of the BMW i team and I happend to sit on the same table with Dr. Ulrich Kranz who is the Senior Vice President of BMWi so I had a very nice evening talking about all the ins-and-outs of the car and some upcoming models .

Did I learn some new things?
A lot, but I'm not sure if I can share everything on a public forum .

Most of us wanted to know about the display key and yes it's coming soon, moreover it will be compatible with the first i8s.
They were planning to release it sooner but there were some problems with the Chinese manufacturer.

Time for some pictures....

This was not what I expected, overnight we had quite some snow and the car is on summer tires....


The roads were clear so before we knew it we were in Germany filling up with 102 Octane fuel (yes you can feel the difference).


BMW got us a very nice room in the Steigenberger GrandHotel Handelshof which is located in the city centre of Leipzig.


"Back to the factory" decals


Main hall of the Leipzig plant.


Unpainted cars on their way to the paint shop, they 'float' through the whole main hall, very cool.


This thing has been all over the world.


The photo's of the production line had to be removed - sorry for that.

Here's a stock picture of what we've witnessed, the production line was very short and very efficient.
All parts were put in/on the car by hand.


Employee parking lot, enough space to charge your car, we were by bus unfortunately.


Benoit Jacob (Head of Design) telling us how the i8 took shape.


Leaving again after 2 wonderful days.


The back seat was put to good use again with all the luggage.


With an empty battery it takes way longer to reach the top speed, so time for some charging.


Charging time, I had to drop the speed to 140mph and the car is so stable at that speed I had time to fill up too .


Ouch, talking about filling up, traveling at top speed took it's toll and emptied the gas tank before I could reach a gas station.


The good thing was that I had charged the battery so I was able to reach the gas station with my 100% EV.


Pfew....


Stats after the trip, I had to fill up 3 times and still got an average of 150kmh, got to love the empty Autobahn on Saturdays.
401 miles in 4h23m.


All in all I had a great time and all the insights made me to appreciate the car even more than I did before.

Thank you BMWi !!!

[Pitkis]

Thanks for nice info. Shame I had no dates free for the event even though I received an invitation. I hope they fix similar visit later on.

[ericsi]

Super cool thread and thanks for posting. You are a ballsy man to have personalised your car like this!

[ChiTownM]

How much slower is the i8 without battery power to get up to max speed and how quickly does it drain when you go high speed? That is one of my main concern since buying the car tbh.

Also over 14l per 100 KM seems rather high, even though at 150 km/h average - at least you can run the car down to empty and still cruise to the gas station IF you have recharged the batteries - smart move!

Wondering if the PI customers in the US will get treated to something special as well.

Thanks for confirming that the smartkey will work on the MY 14 - wondering how much it will cost in the US. What about the PI customers in the US, will there be any special events as well? Oh, and share what else may be coming (if you are selling your car now I know a faster and more powerful i8 is on the way )

[Big Fred]

You noted above, "Most of us wanted to know about the display key." What is this about? Not familiar with this issue.

[crawfordbay]

Excellent write up. Thanks for posting!

[vladberca]

Great event! Plus the unrestricted empty motorways as a bonus!

[Diver]

Great photo series.

[hellrotm]

Originally Posted by ChiTownM

How much slower is the i8 without battery power to get up to max speed and how quickly does it drain when you go high speed?

Question I always asked, never got a concrete answer. Most responses said the battery never fully runs out. Apparently not the case.

[GOLFFRR]

very cool! love the shot with the doors open

[Johan6961]

What, 1,44 litres per 10 km in an i8 at 150 km/h???
My E46 M3 can easily do 1,30 at the same conditions....
I thought the i8 could save me some gas money, but obviously it´s the opposite...

[hytek]

150kmph was his average including stops. It looks like he was otherwise traveling at 250. There's a lot of wind resistance at that speed.

[Johan6961]

Ok, but computer doesnt include stand stills in average speed in the M3, I guess i8 is the same...

[JWDnl]

Originally Posted by BlackJetE90

Question I always asked, never got a concrete answer. Most responses said the battery never fully runs out. Apparently not the case.

It does and it does fast when you are in Comfort mode pulling from 130km/h to 250km/h, in comfort it only recharges when braking but at that speed you always have to brake harder than the generator can re-generate.
A solution would be to use the Sport mode (it recharges quite fast while coasting at 140mph) but that gives you a firmer ride and higher consumption.

In the end I found myself switching between comfort and sport keeping at least 10km in the batteries and that worked fine.

The car does ride well with an empty battery but you lose a lot of torque and that's very noticeable, it's like going from a M4 to a (stock) 435i, still fast but the difference is there.

[JWDnl]

Originally Posted by Johan6961

Ok, but computer doesnt include stand stills in average speed in the M3, I guess i8 is the same...

I think it does, the majority of the trip I was travelling at speeds above 210kmh.

I also have to note that the wider and grippier Michelin tires have a drastic result on the fuel economy.
We learned at the factory that they made the OEM wheels as closed (flat surface) as possible for better aerodynamics, my ADV.1s just destroyed at least 8 months of work they put in the wheel design, sorry!

[Carac]

Originally Posted by JWDnl

It does and it does fast when you are in Comfort mode pulling from 130km/h to 250km/h, in comfort it only recharges when braking but at that speed you always have to brake harder than the generator can re-generate.
A solution would be to use the Sport mode (it recharges quite fast while coasting at 140mph) but that gives you a firmer ride and higher consumption.

In theory couldn't you tell it to maintain state of charge (say the 75% level you get from sport), leave it in comfort, and have it generate electricity at the rate it would in sport at a high speed? I believe it will access sport mode levels of charging to maintain it's state if it needs to, no matter the mode if you tell it to maintain a certain level.

[Jay-K]

beautiful,
thanks for sharing...

[ChiTownM]

I agree that the average of 14l is rather high, still not sure if the wheel and tires make that big of a difference. We need to all go on high speed runs now and compare.....here in the US it may be better to do it on the track though

[SCOTT26]

Originally Posted by JWDnl

I think it does, the majority of the trip I was travelling at speeds above 210kmh.

I also have to note that the wider and grippier Michelin tires have a drastic result on the fuel economy.
We learned at the factory that they made the OEM wheels as closed (flat surface) as possible for better aerodynamics, my ADV.1s just destroyed at least 8 months of work they put in the wheel design, sorry!

Yes after market equipment takes away not only the visuals but also physical attributes of the i8 itself.
We recently had an internal incident with a customer who took issue on why his i8 was not performing at the most optimum even though he had completely bastardised the car with after market nonsense.

[MalibuBimmer]

Originally Posted by SCOTT26

Yes after market equipment takes away not only the visuals but also physical attributes of the i8 itself.
We recently had an internal incident with a customer who took issue on why his i8 was not performing at the most optimum even though he had completely bastardised the car with after market nonsense.

Can you give us more details? This would be interesting.

Also, do you know if messing with the coding may cause warranty issues?

[KKSigs]

Originally Posted by MalibuBimmer

Can you give us more details? This would be interesting.

Also, do you know if messing with the coding may cause warranty issues?

I spoke to my service advisor and service manager that I was going to code my car and he had no problems with it.

[JWDnl]

Originally Posted by SCOTT26

Yes after market equipment takes away not only the visuals but also physical attributes of the i8 itself.
We recently had an internal incident with a customer who took issue on why his i8 was not performing at the most optimum even though he had completely bastardised the car with after market nonsense.

Oh well, I don't have a team and a budget to test several options in a windtunnel .
For me personally it made a nice improvement because I wanted the car to perform better on B-roads and during spirited driving and that was hugely improved after fitting the wider Michelins.
I never bought the car for the fuel economy and I'm not complaining, 14l/100km is still very.... very impressive since there were countless times I had to brake, go back to 130 and full throttle to 220+ again.

I'm not sure what customer put a lot of aftermarket stuff on his i8 since I haven't seen too many customized i8s yet.
The worst things I've seen are 22" wheels with a terrible offset on a lowered i8, well yes then you are asking for it......