The news surrounding the BMW i8 is relentless these days with information flowing in left and right. But sadly, the latest bit of news doesn't hold much promise for those looking forward to a sportier version of the i8 or a replacement for the M1 coming from the i8 platform.
Our German friends over at Autovisie sat down with Carsten Pries, BMW's head of Product Management M, for a recent interview. His issue lies with creating competition for its own i8 by flooding the already-small segment with low sales volumes. Not to mention the need to develop more powerful hybrid technology and a larger engine sized properly for an i8-like car. What's more, the i8 was developed from the ground up to be an electric hybrid with only a small gasoline engine.
The lack of an outright M model based on the i8 doesn't completely spell disaster. Friedrich Nitschke, the CEO of BMW M, says the fuel-saving technology from the i8 might wind up in future M models while the sportier aspects of the M Division might find its way onto future i models.
While these words came from BMW corporate heads, Pries and Nitschke may be bluffing about the existence of a high-performance hybrid supercar. Only time will tell, so stay tuned to TopSpeed for any breaking information.
Click past the jump to read more about the BMW i8.
BMW Plans No Hotter Version for the i8 originally appeared on topspeed.com on Monday, 19 May 2014 18:00 EST.
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