Published: Dec 27, 2011

Spied: BMW i8 Production Prototype

Check out this pre-production i8 mule boasting production body parts and styling.

Courtesy of Bimmerpost, these are the first spy shots of the BMW i8 production prototype, appearing with significant changes from the concept. Its shark-like front slant has been replaced with a lower front bumper design and the headlights moved to the edge of the hood, which makes sense given the deeply set lights on the concept would have had a limited area of illumination. The windshield no longer joins the hood area, while the doors are bigger and lower to make for easier ingress/egress.

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The side view mirrors have moved from the A-pillar to the doors and the door handles have been lowered; that aside the body sculpting remains faithful to the concept i8 design. At the rear, the concept's shoulder wings and floating tail lights have been retained, but heavy camouflage and deceptive panels, including protruding bulbous lights that have no place on this car, leaves the lower part of the rear open to interpretation. Traditional split-spoke alloys come in for the futuristic wheels of the concept, and a sharkfin antenna is attached to what must be a carbon-fiber roof.

A high-performance 3-cylinder gasoline engine sits in the rear of the concept rated at 220hp and the i3's electric motor is up front limited to 129hp with a combined 406lb-ft of torque. 0-62mph in 4.6 seconds and a limited top speed of 155mph is the result, and these previously released specs give a good indiction of what to expect of the production i8 model, which is set to launch in 2014.

Source: www.e90post.com

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Spied: BMW i8 Production Prototype

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