A near production-ready-looking BMW i8 Spyder was caught on camera testing at the Nurburgring Nordschleife last week, and this drop-top plug-in hybrid supercar looks a lot like you might expect it to look like.
The car in the video appears to be wearing light camouflage, with none of the body panels obstructed. It’s pretty obvious that this mule is an i8, but with a soft roof.
It’s expected that the open-roofed i8 will keep the same 1.5-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine and electric motor setup as the current car. But then again, it’s possible BMW engineers will attempt to tune the car up to cope with the weight that the soft-top roof mechanism will likely add to the car’s lightweight carbon fiber frame.
Originally, the i8 Spyder concept was shown in Beijing in 2012, but the German automaker has been relatively quiet on the new car since then. Considering how far along this topless version looks, though, we at The Drive are guessing we’ll see a production version of the i8 Spyder hit the streets within the next year.
Something about an opening roof on an i8 just sounds right. If you’re going to cruise in your future-looking electric-ish German sports car, might as well do it with the roof down.
