Vehicle
BMW i8
The carbon-tubbed plug-in hybrid, and its layout is unlike anything else BMW has built: a 1.5 turbo three-cylinder driving the rear wheels through a six-speed automatic, and an electric motor driving the front wheels through a two-speed unit, with no mechanical connection between the two ends. So a complaint of lost drive can be either half, front and rear are entirely separate systems, and the road-speed signals the two controllers compare are all that ties them together. The engine itself is the same B38 family as a Mini Cooper's.
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Generations
-
I12 and I15 2014–2020
Petrol at the back, electric at the front, no mechanical link between them — two independent drive systems that agree only through their speed signals.
- Body styles
- Coupé · Roadster
- Platform
- BMW LifeDrive
- Engines
-
- 1.5 turbo three-cylinder — B38 · plug-in hybrid · 266–275 kW (357–369 hp) combined · 570 Nm (420 lb-ft) combined · rear wheels through a six-speed automatic; the front axle is electric only
- Transmissions
- 6-speed automatic · 2-speed reduction
- Drivetrain
- Four-wheel drive
Service information
Information, not instruction
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Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
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