The good news is some version of the BMW i8 will probably enter production. It’s still a looker, but the EfficientDynamics Vision concept was beyond belief, easily the greatest concept car so far this millennium. (Watch the designers talk about their baby — damn BMW removed that video, here’s another not as good.) Obviously the concept’s clear lower door panels wouldn’t make it to production and the high-mounted mirrors were unlikely, but the pre-production also loses the ‘u’ laser headlights and the folded bodywork floating on the glass. For over €100,000 BMW should deliver more of the awesome.
Comparing a pre-production rendering with the identical view of the concept at BMW makes me sad:
Now the rear looks especially weak, the rear quarter lights resemble the 300ZX’s, the rear fenders lost the bulbous teardrop shape and to compensate the side profile from the doors rearward is a flame-surfaced mess. The front has an ugly black center opening under the BMW kidney grille and so the black cuts no longer look like roads curving into the distance. The Camaro’s headlamps look closer to the concept than these generic eyebeams. Etc.
I’d make a pilgrimage to see the original, like Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.
nice car it is.