BMW i8 successor’s plug already pulled

BMW’s successor to the discontinued i8 has allegedly been cancelled before its intended debut in 2023.

Widely believed to have been previewed by the Vision M NEXT concept shown at BMW’s NextGen conference last year, the supposed 441 kW newcomer, according to a report by the BMW Blog, has had its development uprooted not only by the Coronavirus pandemic, but also costs.

Citing Germany’s Manager-Magazin, the online forum claims that the project had been placed on the backburner for quite some time, despite no official confirmation yet, as the development costs, a projected price tag of $160 000 (R2 942 320) according to Car and Driver, and volume simply made no financial sense for Munich to commence production.

As mentioned, the global impact of COVID-19, which has resulted in the closure of a number of factories and implemented lockdowns, has also been fingered as an attributing factor with the loss in revenue making the potential huge investment financially impossible.

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