This is what happens when you grow up working class and practical.
You learn to use a clutch and manual transmission in the lane behind your Vancouver Special on a three-on-the-tree Vauxhall. Your friends laugh at the fits, starts and stalls. You are briefly unleashed by dad’s upgrade to a 4-barrel carburetor in his fourth straight Ford pickup. But your first car is the one Dad the Ford Man helps you buy – a red Pinto with a manual tranny and his one concession, mag wheels and wide tires.
The red Ford becomes the go-to vehicle for teen party nights. That’s because your friends’ cool cars – a Triumph TR4, a Jeep CJ Willys, a Datsun 510, are usually limping and in the shop.
Years later, you finally discover what it’s like to drive a car that actually enjoys the road, a 1987 Honda Accord that accelerates so smoothly to 150 km/h that you lose your licence briefly for racking up too many speeding tickets. Before your sentence, you drive from Vancouver to Kamloops in two and a half hours, an hour quicker than I drive it today.
Then you repent, move to Kamloops, get married and practical (again). You buy a Jeep Grand Cherokee that’s ideal for backroads, multiple hockey bags, camping gear and the winter hell that is the Coquihalla Highway.
You’re so jazzed by all-wheel drive that you downsize to a Subaru Forester. It’s is great in the snow, has the best sight lines ever, a bike and ski rack. But while beloved, it weighs a tonne, requires advance planning for highway passing. It is the equivalent, in gas consumption, to an 80s stockbroker in love with the “smell” of coke.
Years later, you start writing about plug-in electric cars. You really want one but move to Toronto where charging stations are as common as small class sizes in public schools. So you get a Mazda CX-5 that’s fun and gives you about 150 km more per tank than the Subaru. And then – out of the blue – you get a chance to drive a BMW i8 Roadster.
I have friends who talk about cars like I talk about punk bands, and now I understand why. Driving the i8 Roadster is a little like discovering as a teenager that sex – while abundantly entertaining in the learning, solo phase – goes interstellar when two are involved. And thanks to the i8’s blend of electric motor and economical three-cylinder gas engine, getting behind the wheel of the i8 makes you feel more responsible. It’s safe sex with a supermodel.
My Batman wallet will never be fat enough to afford this car. But for a week, I had my Batmobile. I’ll never look at cars quite the same way again. That’s because the bar on what I crave in a vehicle just got raised.
Fast, fun and a dream to drive
By the time I reluctantly pulled in to the BMW dealer to hand back the keys to the i8, I was already missing it. It was everything I would want in a roadster. It was more than fast enough to provoke an adrenaline rush, with the finest interior and most comfortable seats I’ve ever experienced. Plus there was a drop-top that transforms to top-down in 16 seconds, and sensational cornering.
It does all this and – depending how much you drive around town in fully electric mode – produces fewer carbon emissions than even the most economical gas-powered car.
The BMW i8 gave designers there a chance to experiment with hybrid technology. They pulled out all the stops. A turbocharged 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine is mounted just behind the seats, and drives the rear wheels. It also recharges the i8’s battery pack. And this is where the technology kicks in. Depending on the driving mode you choose, you can be driving fully electric for up to 40 or 50 km. Or, you can use a blend of electric motor power to the front wheels and gas power to the rear.
It makes for get-up-and-go (the electric motor kicking in for a power boost) and remarkable stability while cornering. You can also crank up the driving experience with a switch from automatic to manual via the i8’s paddle shifters.
Synthetic growl
The i8 growls when in anything other than full electric E-Drive mode. It gets angrier when you choose sport mode, at which point the all-digital instrumentation morphs from blue to a kind of volcanic red-orange.
Supercar geeks may not be keen on the i8’s synthetic growl. It’s manufactured by BMW’s sound engineers, not by that little three-cylinder engine. But it suits the stunning look and power of the i8. And it’s not so loud that it kills the conversation for the couple on the roadside patio. At least until they stop to gawk at the sleek, carbon-fibre roadster.
Ideally, the owner of an i8 will install a Level 2 charger in their garage or in their designated parkade spot. In E-Drive, you’ll be an all-electric eco warrior for short trips around town. The i8 isn’t compatible with DC fast chargers, but doesn’t need that option – you can go from zero to fully charged at a Level 2 in less than three hours.
Yes, it’s impractical, unless you have lotsa money (and another car to get you to hockey)
Time for a few negatives. Already wide, the i8’s eye-popping scissor doors require a couple more feet of clearance to open. So if you’re in a tight parking spot, there’s usually only room for the driver of this two-seater to enter. That makes parking strategic, as is getting in and out of the vehicle. The best tactic on entry is to drop your butt into the seat, then swing your knees inside. Exit is more challenging, kind of like trying to climb out of a reclined La-Z Boy.
Other knocks on the car include the shortage of cargo space. There’s room for a briefcase or small overnight bag in the pop-up rear hatch, and for another briefcase or small bag back of the seats. But there’s notably no easy place within reach to put larger items like a sunglasses case, unless you use the one cupholder.
Driving the car to my weekly hockey game would be out of the question, short of plopping my stinky bag on the fine leather of the passenger seat (that would just be wrong). Or, doing the full ridiculous: wearing my gear and putting my skates in that tiny back hatch.
After learning to rely on my Mazda’s blind-spot monitoring, I was forced to do a lot of shoulder checks while doing lane changes in the i8. I didn’t find the blind spots as bad as have some reviewers. The combo of side mirrors and small rear window do a reasonable job. But it requires some head swivelling.
And then there’s the price for the BMW i8. Much has been written about the fact there are far faster cars out there for less money. The i8 Roadster as spec’d for my week of driving was over $170,000. That’s more than twice what I paid for my first townhouse in Kamloops, but this car wasn’t built for me. It’s for the person who has kicked ass financially, cares at least a bit about sustainability. They feel they deserve something special. And that it is.
BMW i8 Roadster at its best on a winding road
My teenage son hit the jackpot with another Ontario schools strike day, timed for a sunny and warm Thursday with no ice on the roads. It allowed him to join me on an adventure beyond the GTA’s traffic. We chose one of my favourite drives, the paved rollercoaster that is the Forks of the Credit scenic drive just northwest of Brampton.
The road hugs the Credit River for part of the trip before detouring for a hilly hairpin. After we drove the hairpin once, my son couldn’t resist camping out roadside with his smartphone. He captured some video of my repeat trip for a TikTok post.
On that twisty road, on the bumpy streets of Toronto, or on the 401, the car’s marriage of state-of-the-art interior design, power and handling make it a constant joy. And the thing that floors me is just how comfortable and confident I feel behind the wheel. The car may look super cool and intimidating, but its design and technology make it safe and easy to drive. And the teen-directed hip-hop on the i8’s sweet Harman Kardon speakers just added to the magic.
BMW i8: Fuel economy over optimum speed
I can only imagine the thrill of driving the i8 on a closed track or, roof down, on B.C.’s Sea to Sky Highway from Vancouver to Whistler.
The 369 combined horsepower of the i8 translates into a 0-to-60 time of 4.4 seconds. While plenty fast for most of us, that lags well behind many cars that cost less. That includes the Mercedes-AMG GT, the Jaguar F-Type, the Nissan GT-R, the Porsche 911 turbo, and the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. But those all guzzle gas. So the i8’s fuel economy of 6.7 litres/100 km and low carbon emissions make those rivals look like yesterday’s answer to fun on the road.
Driven wisely, you’ll get in the vicinity of 500 combined km range in the i8. And you’ll be producing at least 25% fewer carbon emissions than a Honda Civic. And, about a third the emissions of the Mercedes-AMG GT roadster.
If you want Raw Power, listen to Iggy and the Stooges. If you’re all about fighting climate change (and have the money), the fully electric Tesla Model S and its sub-three-second 0-to-60 times and great range is going to be hard to resist. But the i8 is a seductive gas-electric hybrid alternative. It’s a dazzling grand touring machine with supercar looks the Tesla can’t match.
On a personal level, I’d like to see BMW apply some of the things that are great about the i8 to more affordable hybrids down the road. BMW’s i3 electric is small, likeable and about a third of the price of the i8. But its gas-powered range extender still doesn’t add up to enough range (about 240 km according to the EPA) to satisfy most drivers. And from what we’ve seen of BMW’s Vision M Next Concept, a production version of that hybrid beast would be considerably faster than the i8. Plus it would be way out of the price range of mere mortals.
The mix of gas and electric will remain a more comfortable choice for drivers for years to come. That will be especially true in places like Ontario, stuck in the slow lane with changing infrastructure. The i8 proves that curbing carbon emissions doesn’t have to come at the expense of fun.
A writer and content creator working out of Toronto and Vancouver, Rob is a longtime journalist who has most recently zeroed in on writing about sustainability, including the rise of electric vehicles.
After years of work in the sports departments of the Vancouver Sun and Kamloops Daily News, Rob managed online content at Telus and BC Hydro before turning exclusively to a freelance career. He’s a seasoned traveller keen on food, wine and hoppy beers, who remains an avid hockey player, mountain biker, golfer, and tennis player who shares a love of soccer with his son.
