The i8 Is So Damn Popular That BMW Has Doubled Its Production To Meet Demand

The BMW i8 is a frankly brilliant car. It’s the beginning of a new generation of more mainstream hybrid sports cars, and it looks absolutely fantastic.

Despite the fact it’s bringing this technology to a more mainstream audience than, say, the McLaren P1, it’s still a whopping £100,000. That hasn’t put punters off though, as there is currently a four month waiting period for customers who place an order.

To bring the waiting time down while ensuring the car remains a niche, limited-run product, BMW has doubled its production from 10 cars per day to 20. It seems it wasn’t expecting the car to be quite so popular, however BMW has found its production team can build the cars a lot quicker than they were expecting - the high carbonfibre content slows down the build.

Since the car launched last summer, BMW has sold 1741 i8 models, with a further 16,052 i3s sold last year. Research and development chief Klaus Froelich confirmed his team is currently determining what type of car the next ‘i’ model will be. He did confirm that the next car would not be based on something like the X5, saying the ‘i’ brand was about changing people’s perception of low fuel consumption vehicles with regard to their appearance and performance. Therefore, repackaging existing cars is not an option.

Source: Automotive News Europe via Automobil Produktion