i3 - i8 - i thoughts.....

"Top of the Mind" quick thoughts about these two great cars.

1. The i8 is the car of the century. Carbon fiber, Heron wing doors (could not resist as our home is Herons' House.) Through the road all wheel drive, a v8, v10, v12 supercar performance, with a straight 3 and the electric motor from the i3. The excellence of the entire package.

A quiet front wheel drive winged angel in electric mode and a screaming full throated all wheel drive nasty beast in sport mode. 

60 - 80 mpg in a typical (25miles) days drive beginning with a full charge. A stunning work of art that does 0-60 in 3.6 seconds according to car and driver and me. Stealth mode while driving in the city up to your favorite restaurant or hotel (the coolest of the bunch)

2. The i8 makes me appreciate our i3 even more. In typical brand hierarchy, the top tier car will be the most well appointed, the next level, somewhat less so, the next level somewhat less so, and so forth. We have both the Tera World i3 and the Tera World i8. The i3 interior is just as nice as the i8. In fact, with the wood dash and floating screens, the i3 interior is even better in my opinion, than the i8. The i8 does have custom stitching similar to the ActiveE.

3. The white color in the i3 is one of two standard colors. The white color in the i8 is the only premium color with a $1200 upcharge. Strange? As far as I can tell with the naked eye, I can see no difference in the i3 and the i8 regarding the white paint.

4. I'm better looking in the i8.

5. You can tell they're siblings if not twins, not identical twins, but twins.

6. The i3 features more advanced hi tech such as the self parking and the adaptive cruise control. The i8 does not offer either. Both have collision avoidance and pedestrian avoidance. The i8 has this really cool from the top looking down back up screen. How the heck did they do that?

7. The i3 professional nav is much larger than the i8 nav screen.

8. The i8 has the same HK stereo with the same watts as the i3 if you have the HK stereo option. Both sound the same and amazing. I would pay extra to upgrade to a Bang & Olufsen system, but then again, I am Danish!

9. I'm sexier in the i8.

10. The i8 draws from me and those that see the car, a lustful emotional response. Different than a Lambo, Ferrari or other. It's more approachable and beautiful in some unexplainable sort of a way. The i3 draws interest, curiosity and inquisitiveness, but not lust. So do you want practical or sensual, dare I say sexual ... I suggest both.

10. The blue seat-belts are the bomb! Please offer in the i3.

11. I loved the adjustable interior light show of the Mini-E. This went away in the ActiveE and also is not present in the i3, except for the really cool blue interior light when you unlock before you open the door. In the i8, it's an amazing display of interior thin light strands that can change from white to orange to blue with various levels of intensity. It's simply stunning. Please bring this to the i3!

12. I'm 6ft 4in, and 300 pounds. I drop right into the i8 and can get out just as easily thanks to the long doors. I prefer the one leg in and then drop in technique, reversing that on the way out. You don't open the door and "get in and get out" of the i8. You swing the door up and you fall in and extract yourself out. But it is so so worth it.

13. The seating position in the i8 is very similar to the ActiveE. It is not as low as the Mini-E where you were basically sitting on the floor board, legs unbent straight forward, and not as high as i3. Julie loves the higher seat position of the i3 , but is very happy that the i8 is more like the ActiveE than the Mini-E which she did not like.

14. Good to very good visibility in the i8, considering its form factor this is a remarkable achievement. Great visibility in the i3.

15. The i8 is as simple to drive as the i3. Less regen in the i8 however when you use the brakes, there is regen on the brake pedal as well. This is a similar arrangement, although better implemented by BMW, as the Honda Fit EV.

16. In the i8, the little shift knob, when positioned to the right is good Peder. When flicked to the left it is bad Peder. I can be good or bad depending on the shades of....(never-mind)

17. I did 24 miles of EV drive today in the i8 before the gas engine kicked in for the last mile of our 25 mile drive to the county building this morning. Our mpg was somewhere north of 99.9mpg.

18. The i8 puts into focus what a great bargain the i3 is. Truly, the i3 at it's price point is an amazing car. It's helpful to have the i8 and to see how similar and how much of the same technology is in the i3.

19. Our i8 will join our i3 as an electronaut version very soon.

20. Bravo BMW.

Cheers!