The flurry of activity in hybrid and electric supercars has led to several concepts being approved for production, but BMW still hasn’t publicly committed to a date for its high-tech green performance car.
Mercedes-Benz has its SLS AMG E-Cell; Audi has the E-Tron; even Porsche gave the green light last week to its astounding 918 Spyder hybrid supercar.
The striking BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept car, shown at last fall’s Frankfurt Motor Show, was reportedly approved for production last February, and as of that time, the year being bandied about was 2013. But unlike the others, that’s far from confirmed.
Now, at least, the car does have a name. Or a rumor of one, or perhaps two. Our colleagues at Motor Authority have said that the M8 name is being bandied about. Now a new reports suggests that perhaps it’ll be called i100 ActiveHybrid Coupe.
If it gets an “i” prefix, we wonder if it’ll be sold as part of BMW’s still-unnamed “Project i” sub-brand, which will launch its MegaCity all-electric carbon-fiber urban runabout in 2013.
Regardless what a production version may be called, the concept car was truly a jaw-dropper for the BMW faithful. It used a rear-mounted 1.5-liter three-cylinder diesel plus two electric motors to generate a total of almost 600 foot-pounds of torque.
The concept also was rated at a top speed of 155 mph, with a 0-to-60-mph time of 4.8 seconds. It would run for roughly 30 miles on electricity alone, with a total range between the two power systems of more than 400 miles.
[Auto-Bild via Motor Authority]
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