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I think the design has a few too many un-necessary flourishes, and it probably won't age very well. It definitely grabs your attention, but in a few years when
by Jack000 11y ago
I think the design has a few too many un-necessary flourishes, and it probably won't age very well.
It definitely grabs your attention, but in a few years when electric cars are less rare I bet it will look kind of gimmicky.
- galago 11y agoI assume that BMW knows what they're doing and this is a look that the target customer actually wants. Sometimes fashion is about getting noticed, and that can result in design elements that are either ugly or easily dated. It would be interesting to see a "Jony Ive" version with all of the horrible parts removed from the body.
- nocman 11y agoI don't know, I thought it looked pretty cool and I didn't even know it was an electric car.
- jonknee 11y agoIt should be in good company at least, I don't think any 1G electric cars will age well (it's hard finding old parts for cars these days, but I imagine finding old software will be quite tricky).
- kllrnohj 11y agoGenerally cars in this segment don't age well to begin with. For example a new BMW 750i will cost you $100k+. A used 2009 750i with only 60k miles though? $30k. Not just BMW, either, a certified-used 2009 911 Turbo can be yours for $70k, less the half the starting MSRP of $150k. But the people who buy them don't care. They'll just buy whatever the new thing is.
- hugh4 11y agoMeanwhile the people who buy 2009 7-series for $30K get a ridiculously nice car for the price of a Camry... but they pay maintenance costs which are a lot higher than the Camry driver's. There's a reason not everyone is buying cheap used luxury cars.
- kllrnohj 11y agoAbsolutely, I certainly wouldn't recommend it. But the maintaince aspect is yet another argument in favor of my point, which is that people dropping over $100k on a car typically don't care if it holds value. It's irrelevant if the i8 is still cool in 5 years to the people that can afford an i8.
- galago 11y agoI think the design antitheses of the i8 is the Nissan Leaf. It costs 1/4 as much, and has a little less than 1/3 the horsepower. However, its also visually indistinguishable from other sub-compacts. The Leaf is for people who don't want to notice that their car is electric. I can see why someone who spends $130K doesn't want to just blend in with traffic.
- pconner 11y agoThe Leaf is instantly recognizable. It's so weirdly shaped compared to other crossovers/hatchbacks. The Volt, on the other hand, looks a bit more like a "regular" car from far away. The most normal-looking electric vehicles are the ones that are variants of existing gas vehicles, like the eGolf or Ford's EVs.
- jsight 11y agoThe Leaf is a Versa hatchback with some design flourishes. It's really not that different (though it does look better).
- hugh4 11y agoRegular car manufacturers making electric cars want to visually distinguish then from their normal vehicles. But any good-looking design consistent with their existing design language is something they've already built. So they make something that's either ugly (i3) or impractical (i8). Tesla doesn't have regular cars to distinguish from, so they can afford to make something that just looks like a normal luxury car (a Jag crossed with a Maserati). You can also buy an electric RAV4 which looks just like a normal one but nobody does because what's the point of driving an electric car if strangers can't see how rich and virtuous you are?
- cardinalfang 11y agoThe electric car as a virtuous statement matters to the company as well. VW has made an e-Golf that is indistinguishable from an oil burning Golf. The NOx Incident has people saying VW is a dinosaur with no plans for the electrically powered future. They should have made a headline-grabber instead.
- tempestn 11y agoI feel like it looks gimmicky already. I would seriously consider one of these if not for the (to me) hideous styling. The Model S is clearly better from a pure performance standpoint, but I expect the details of the BMW would be better, as well as likely the handling (although would have to drive them to see!) Also I don't live near a Tesla repair facility, which is really making me second guess getting one. However, I really don't think I can drive a car that looks like this. Especially with the silly blue trim.