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Michael Taylor19 Jan 2016
NEWS

BMW i8 convertible delayed

Bavarian car maker put the brakes on roofless i8 roadster

It's now teased us twice with convertible versions of the i8 eco-supercar, but BMW won't deliver a road-going version until 2017 at the earliest. It may even be a 2018 reality.

Not only that, but BMW has confirmed that even in the face of continuing Tesla growth, its own green brand, i, won't put a new model into production at all this year.

"There will be no new i models in 2016. Not even the convertible," a well-placed BMW source insisted.

In fact, the delay in delivering the i8 Convertible is so pronounced that it will likely be beaten into production by an upcoming battery-electric Tesla S fighter, likely to be dubbed i5, in 2017.

It could be that BMW and i are waiting to swing in the added power it uses in the fiddled i8 safety car seen at the head of the Formula E field, though it could also be that BMW neglected to initially engineer the i8 for roofless work.

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BMW first teased a convertible version of the i8 two years ago and delivered another one, the I Vision Future Interaction, at this month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

That car took the concept to even greater heights, ripping the doors off as well as the roof.

BMW has long insisted the carbon-fibre structure of the i8 was more than strong enough to cope with losing the extra torsional rigidity the roof provides, but that is yet to translate into a production car.

"The i8 is selling well enough now, so the lineup doesn't strictly need it," a senior BMW source said.

"We are doing it, we are just doing it slowly because it's not all we are doing."

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Written byMichael Taylor
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