BMW
BMW's i8 Is Where Every Supercar Manufacturer Needs to Go
Hybrid electric coupes are fashioned for efficiency—with fangs
It wasn't that long ago that every major sports car manufacturer scoffed at the idea of inserting hybrid-electric powertrains into their track-tuned road-rockets. They reasoned electric motors simply don't light anybody's fire. Even if you don't particularly like that argument, it's a fair one. There really isn't anything like the sensation of unleashing a howling V8 on the open road, or near a gaggle of awestruck teens in the neighborhood. Performance cars exist to arouse a multitude of senses. Their engines sound amazing.
The car I'm riding in today—BMW's fast, edgy 2015 i8 plug-in hybrid coupe—sounds, well, amazing. It has a puny-by-sports-car-standards three-cylinder, turbocharged engine that produces a modest 228 horsepower, but its exhaust note has been tuned to sound growly and menacing. (That's helped along by a synthesized audio boost, but alas.) The car's electric motor coughs up another 129 hp, for a very healthy 357 hp combined. That may not be Ferrari turf, but the BMW's lightweight, carbon-fiber construction and its high-torque electric motor helps ensure that every horse is put to good use. It'll get you to 60 mph in a perfectly spry 4.2 seconds.
But back to the big picture. Another reason electrification sat so low on the priority scale was the implicit, and largely unspoken, belief that some cars simply get a pass on the epic buzzkill that is "fuel economy." Their drivers are wealthy enough to not really sweat gas prices, and the cars are sold in such modest numbers and driven so rarely that their impact on pollution and global warming was negligible. The world could tolerate a few thousand Lamborghinis and Ferraris shredding twisty back roads on Sunday mornings, but a few million 12 mpg Ford F-150s and Volkswagen Touaregs was a different matter altogether.
This, too, is a reasonable argument, even if that particular reality makes your eye twitch. But it's reasonable only up to a point, and that point is the one where supercars become daily drivers, as they increasingly are. Porsches got there years ago, and the advanced engineering and infinitely adjustable ride characteristics of, for instance, Lamborghini's new Huracan and the Ferrari 428 generate perfectly comfortable, docile touring cars that will nevertheless wake up at a moment's notice so you can unleash the Kraken on that poor Camaro at the stoplight.
Comments
Post a Comment