The future is here...

...and it looks bright too. As we all know the future of cars and motoring is all about efficiency and refinement in which the car uses its energy i.e. fuel. That is why many brilliant engineering minds are working on ingenious ways to make a car as environmentally friendly as possible.

But whilst all this is happening BMW have had a vision, for all I know, from the year 2009 to make the best of what we know now. BMW is utilizing the absolute peak of technology to create a series of cars that, in my opinion, closest resembles how cars are going to be laid out in the near future.
This series is called the i-series. Why does it have to be the letter i? I'm really not a fan of that. But anyhow. The star child of the i-series is the i8. It's a car that 5 years back was only a concept called BMW Vision EfficientDynamics. The name is far from being sexy, but the name spoke for itself. The i8 is everything the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept promised, it even looks like it if not better.

The BMW i8 has two engines an electrical one with 129 hp and then a rather interesting 1,5 litre 3-cylinder turbo, putting out a quite astounding 228 hp. That is 357 hp in total, which is in the Porsche 911 range. But then again, the i8 is a sports car so we shouldn't expect anything less. And because of those amazing engines the fuel consumption is unbelievably low, only 2,1 l/100km. Not even the small frugal city cars can match that.

I think this is a revolutionary car. I know the idea of mating a normal combustion engine with an electric motor has been around for the last 15 years. But the BMW i8 shows the car enthusiasts that in the world of cars words hybrid and economical have more potential that we ever knew.

I can't believe that this car is already on sale. It looks so much like a concept.
It's brilliant.

The emissions coming out of the back are only 49 co2/km.

Future of motoring

I saw this car today and I wondered is it a good thing to buy one instead of any other (I hate using this term) green car.

Chevrolet Volt

Yes it's a Chevrolet Volt or Holden Volt or Opel Ampera or Vauxhall Ampera depending on in which part of the world you live in. It's a hybrid. But compared to any other hybrid the batteries aren't there just for extra power. The electric motor is the primary power plant and not the 1.4 litre petrol engine. That makes it much more different to any other hybrid cars. It has a competitive range of a normal petrol car of about 500 km. But that's that about the specs. Here are some problems. It doesn't ride very well, it looks wrong somehow and for a family saloon it costs considerably more than any other cars in this size-class.
The car is innovative I'll grant that and cars like this will get better in time. But if you want a car that is economical why not buy a VW Polo BlueGT or any Ford Focus Ecoboost. I guess you buy this car not for its numbers - all though they are impressive - but for what it represents in the development of eco cars. Is this the first useable semi-electric car for today’s world?

Opel Ampera

Here are some cars that a "green" driver should consider. Cars that do exactly the same job as the Volt/Ampera but are far less expensive. And i mean, far less expensive.

VW Polo BlueGT

Ford Focus 1.0 EcoBoost

Volvo C30 DRIVe (or the entire DRIVe range)