For those who like the idea of environmentally-friendly transport but who aren’t quite so keen on the antiseptic styling of at least some of it, BMW is making an effort to pique your interest.
This matt-black hydrogen-powered i8 looks like it rolled straight off the set of a Batman movie. Glide silently into town behind the wheel and it’s a fair bet that you wouldn’t be getting catcalls from the boyz in the hood.
Detailed info is thin on the ground, but we gather that the electricity-generating fuel cell sits in the space behind the rear seats normally occupied by the three-cylinder petrol engine.
We also understand that the rear-mounted electric motor is good for 245bhp, a little way down on the standard petrol-electric i8’s 357bhp but still enough in this lightweight application to deliver a five-second 0-62mph time. Carbon fibre body panels and the absence of big, heavy batteries both play a big part in keeping weight to a minimum.
In fact, this is an old model that’s already been pensioned off by BMW in its rapid march towards what it sees, in part at least, as a hydrogen-fuelled future. It’ll be interesting to see what comes next.
