While the dedicated staff at BMW of Catonsville don't work with them in the same volume as do a lot of other really excellent vehicles, the BMW i8 definitely is one of our favorite cars ever to roll of the assembly line and onto our lot. Everything about it screams perfection, from the high efficiency to the gorgeous looks to the flawless engineering (and so much more).
We love the car, as does just about every reviewer who's ever been given the opportunity to see it and drive it in person, but despite all of that it's certainly worth mentioning that this is about as far from “conventional” as automobiles come these days.
How, then, does a vehicle find this type of success while shattering the boundaries of design in the process? According to BMW i chief designer Benoit Jacob, breaking the rules is exactly what made the i8 so special in the first place.
“My personal conviction is that there is no good design if there are no good constraints,” said Jacob in an interview with BMW Blog. “Cars have made huge steps in terms of quality, appearance, safety and performance. It (the i8) is a perfect model, which is very hard to formally evolve.”
But they did manage to do that by finding a way to create something beautiful yet practical, powerful yet efficient, pleasing yet daring. Perhaps most importantly, it was a car that Jacob himself admits was developed to give consumers a vehicle that could feature all of these modern efficiency technologies while still being fun to drive.
That's exactly what this vehicle is, and we've definitely been pleased to see it grow into such a massive success here in the U.S. in such a short period of time.
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