Car Sightings | BMW i8

When you reside in a Third World country rarely you’ll ever see exotic cars or those classic vehicles of yesteryears. It is quite rare when you ever see something different on the road with an abundance of jeepneys in Manila. It is also a surprise to come across those types of cars you thought that you’ll only find in Western countries that are now rampant with going green. In one of the cities that makes up Central Luzon rarely you’ll ever see an electric or hybrid car driving beside jeepneys until you see a BMW i8 going through intense traffic.

The BMW i8 was originally introduced almost a decade ago at the 2009 International Motor Show Germany. Initially first unveiled as a turbo diesel concept car as the “Concept Vision EfficientDynamics” that would eventually become part of BMW’s portfolio in bringing hybrid cars to mass market. It is a plug-in hybrid sports car as part of BMW's electric fleet "Project i" being marketed as a new sub-brand, BMW i. The debut year which was the 2015 model year BMW i8 has a 7.1 kWh lithium-ion battery pack that delivers an all-electric range of 37 km (23 mi) under the New European Driving Cycle.

You can never see a BMW i8 plying the roads of Manila until recently this morning along Taft Avenue. Never will you ever see one quite often that was first introduced in the 2016 Philippine International Motor Show (PIMS). But the car being shown at that exhibit was the standard color white which was the production version of the BMW i8 was unveiled at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show.



In the streets in Manila you’ll find this one creeping through traffic along with the smoke belching jeepneys trying to move its way out of its crowd of other locals. It is quite noting how it is out of place with the carbon spewing public vehicles beside the buses and common cars that you see every day in this particular city that so much congestion for most of the daily activity of the locals.

The sleek metallic blue BMW i8 was an eye catcher for most of the denizens who have never seen such beauty with its space age sci-fi aesthetics that you can only see in toy stores in diecast form as Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy has included it to the Tomica line-up of collectible cars.



To this day there have been several variations of this car outside the Philippines which has been one of the popular hybrid sports cars ever produced in the world. The production BMW i8 was designed by Benoit Jacob, which features butterfly doors, head-up display, rear-view cameras and partially false engine noise. Series production of customer vehicles began in April 2014. The electric two-speed drivetrain is developed and produced by GKN. It is the first production car with laser headlights, reaching further than LED lights.

There have been special edition and roadster editions with several variations specifically released in Asia, Europe North America, and other territories. If ever you see one in your country it might be common, but in Philippine roads it is a gem and a rare sighting indeed for the BMW i8.