BMW has reportedly decided to cancel its new electric supercar program, which would have competed with the new Tesla Roadster.
Last year, BMW unveiled an electric Vision concept that looked like a next-gen i8 sports car.
Like the BMW i8, the ‘BMW Vision M NEXT’ is also a plug-in hybrid – though it features a much longer all-electric range of 100 km (62 miles) on a single charge and greater performance.
Later, the company talked about bringing an electric supercar to market based on this new concept and some thought it would be sooner rather than later in order to compete with the Tesla Roadster and due to replace the i8, which BMW killed earlier this year.
However, reports from German media and the BMW Blog suggest that the automaker abandoned the supercar program:
“According to both our own sources inside BMW and German publication Manager-Magazin, the M NEXT has been cancelled and for some time now, actually. While BMW hasn’t publicly announced this, it’s our understanding that it’s legitimate and that the futuristic hybrid supercar project is no more.”
The pandemic and a lack of success with the BMW i8 were cited as reasons to give up the new project.
BMW still has other electric vehicles coming to market soon, including the BMW i4 and the iNext coming within the next year.
Electrek’s Take
That’s a bummer. I was really hoping that they would step up and create an all-electric next-gen BMW i8 that would look this Vision concept.
I disagree with the i8 not being a success. They made about 20,000 of them before killing the program, which isn’t bad for that type of vehicle.
It was also one of the most electrified supercars and the main complaint in our review was that the drawbacks of the car could be linked to the internal combustion engine:
The BMW i8 would have made a great all-electric supercar and I wish BMW would see that.
At one point, I thought we should crowdfund money to buy and convert a BMW i8 to an all-electric powertrain just to show BMW how great of a car it could be and then raffle the car amongst people who helped crowdfund it.
Some people convinced me that it was a bit too crazy of an idea, but I thought it would be cool.
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