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We’ve been hearing rumors about a BMW i8 Roadster for some time. Ever since the concept hit the Beijing auto show way back in 2012, we’ve been waiting for a topless experience in the futuristic plug-in hybrid sports car. In 2015, it was confirmed for eventual production and today we got an official video from BMW showing it off a little.
The brief 21-second video shows us the car, still in camouflage, on a rotating platform in a wind tunnel. A techno beat pounds as we see the i8 Roadster from different striking angles with wind tunnel animations showing off the car’s superior aerodynamics. It ends with text saying the i8 Roadster is “in its final testing phase” and that it’s an “icon of a new era.” The era they’re referring to is presumably the mass electrification that’s about to take place at BMW.
This is kind of a weird way to demonstrate a roadster. Most of the time we see ads for roadsters, it’s of someone enjoying top-down fun in a scenic setting. In this video, we saw the car with the top on in a wind tunnel.
From the BMW press release; “BMW i is looking forward to welcoming the third member of the BMW i family. In 2018 the BMW i8 Roadster will unlock the door to a whole new dimension in pioneering open-top driving pleasure – virtually silent and with zero local emissions.”
That’s about all we know for sure since the paragraph above is the entire press release along with the video. We can reasonably expect it to share a lot of the virtues of the hardtop i8 including its plug-in hybrid drivetrain which pumps out 357 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque. We’re excited to see more of this thing in action, hopefully with its top off.
