BMW i8 Gets Race Car Rendering

With people willing to wait up to 18 months and pay 50% over MSRP to get a BMW i8 of their own, I think it’s safe to say that Bimmer was a winner on their hands. But is BMW willing to take its plug-in hybrid to the race track? So far we’ve got nothing official from BMW itself, but BMW Blog did come across this rendering by Jon Sibal of what an i8 race car might look like.

It’s everything you’d expect from a competitive version of the hybrid supercar, with a ground-scraping front lip, a lifted rear end, and a rear spoiler as big as a park bench. Sibal calls his creation the BMW i8 GT3, and though only a rendering, there’s reason to be hopeful if you’d like to see an i8 compete in motorsports. The BMW i8 has already been dubbed the official car of the Formula E series, and the automaker is also rumored to be working on a more powerful i8S or i9 to ring in its 100th birthday next year.

If it is going to happen though, it probably won’t be until 2016 at the soonest. With many potential racing seasons months, or even weeks away from beginning, BMW has yet to announce any plans for an i8 motorsports program. But that doesn’t keep us from hoping.

Source: Gas2

BMW i8 Deliveries Taking Up To 18 Months

Supply and demand drives the economy in its simplest form, and some automakers would rather limit supply in order to induce demand. Since there’s no lack of demand for the $136,000 BMW i8 hybrid supercar though, the German automaker is considering increasing production to reduce wait times for well-heeled buyers.

Automotive News reports that would-be buyers of the i8 are facing wait times of up to 18 months, and some buyers have paid 50% over the MSRP just to get behind the wheel of the plug-in sports car. BMW says that six months should be the maximum length of time people should have to wait to get a bespoke BMW i8, but in some markets the wait could be costing BMW potential customers.

So far in 2014 BMW has delivered some 760 cars to customers around the world, including over 400 in October. Those are no doubt customers who placed their orders earlier in the year; but somebody wanting to put money down on a BMW i8 today might not see it until mid-2016. That’s a long time to wait for a six-figure vehicle, but good things come to those who wait I suppose.

Of course long wait times for in-demand products are nothing new. Even with the recent factory retooling, many Tesla customers need to wait two or three months before taking delivery of their personalized Model S. There are more than 20,000 deposits for the upcoming Model X too, but those placing an order today were recently told that they shouldn’t expect their cars until “well into” 2016.

Who would have thought that two of the most in-demand cars would both be plug-ins?

Improved Cadillac ELR Could Bow At LA Auto Show

Even though the Cadillac ELR has only been on the market for less than a year, Edmunds reports that a revised version of the luxury plug-in could debut at November’s LA Auto Show. What can GM do to make its Tesla competitor more…competitive?

There’s a long list of common complaints from reviewers have not been kind to the Cadillac ELR. The most common criticism centers on the $76,000 starting price, but reviewers have also taken issue with the 2+2 seating arrangement, big and heavy doors, and so-so performance. The 4,070-lb curb weight doesn’t help the “sporty” plug-in coupe feel all that sporty, while the 207 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque from the electric motor has been mostly described as adequate, but hardly thrilling. It’s not all bad though; most people agree the ELR is a handsome car inside and out, and it’s HiPer suspension system delivers incredible ride comfort, Also, as Cadillac’s first plug-in car ever, it at least shows that GM’s heart is in the right place.

The automaker isn’t saying anything beyond “engineering enhancements” will be applied to the 2016 Cadillac ELR (there will be no 2015 model), so what can the General do to increase the appeal of the ELR? One thing that has helped sales rise and inventory fall have been incentives totalling $20,000 or more. Everybody knows the ELR is based on the $35,000 Chevy Volt, and the ELR just isn’t worth the $41,000 price premium GM tacked on.

As far as actual mechanical changes go, there are one of two things GM can do with relative ease that would make the ELR stand out; increase the performance of both the motor and the battery. An ELR with a 50-mile electric range would represent about a 40% increase in range over the Volt, and would allow drivers to make about 90% of their daily driving trips without ever tapping into the gas tank.

A more powerful electric motor could also breathe some life into the tremendously heavy coupe; consider that the Tesla Model S only weighs (at its heaviest) about 500 pounds more, but offers twice as much horsepower (up to 416 ponies). This allows the Tesla to keep pace with the BMW i8 hybrid supercar, both of which sprint from 0 to 60 MPH in about 4 seconds. Meanwhile the ELR has the same acceleration as the more-pedestrian BMW i3, an EV that also benefits from rear-wheel drive compared the the ELR’s front-drive setup.

More power and more electric driving range are the two things I hope the 2016 Cadillac ELR brings to the table. Besides a lower price, what else could GM do to make the ELR a better car?