BMW i16 is the radical i8 successor that never was
The car was kept secret for four years
Striking hybrid supercar, based on Vision M Next, was heavily inspired by the legendary M1
BMW designed a radical mid-engined hybrid supercar to succeed the i8 - but never put it into production.
Kept secret for four years but now revealed by BMW head designer Domagoj Dukec on social media, the i16 was a striking electrified supercar that could have been the M performance division's second bespoke model after the M1 supercar.
As it was, says Dukec, "the world changed in 2020" at the onset of the Covid pandemic, and "work on the project unfortunately had to be stopped".
BMW M has since revealed the XM hybrid SUV as its second bespoke product - a dramatically different proposition to the supercar revealed here.
It is a faithful evolution of the Vision M Next concept BMW revealed in 2019, albeit with some subtle revisions aimed at making it road-legal.
Dukec describes the car as having "all the style of a future classic", and notes the influence of the Guigiaro-designed M1 in its angular, cab-forward silhouette, vented rear arches and louvred engine lid.
The i16 was conceived to use the i8's composite structure – no doubt in a bid to cut development costs and thus bolster its viability as a production car – but it is not clear whether it would have used the same plug-hybrid powertrain.
The i8, BMW's first PHEV, paired a 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine with an electric motor on the front axle for a total output of 356bhp and a 0-62mph time of 4.3 seconds - making it a natural rival to the Porsche 911.
A battery in the transmission tunnel gave an electric range of more than 30 miles in later cars.
It was produced from 2014 to 2020, being discontinued to make way for a new line of bespoke electric BMW models including the iX3, i4 and iX.
The Vision M Next hinted at what an i8 successor could look like, but plans to produce it were shelved over concerns about high R&D costs and low sales potential.
However, M boss Frank van Meel hinted to Autocar in 2022 that the door was not totally shut to the prospect of a new hybrid supercar: "It’s always something we can look at. As car guys, we are always dreaming of making such cars. It doesn’t mean we’ll make them, but we keep exploring those ideas.”
He said the concept's cancellation did not mean BMW was "not thinking of a super-sports car," tellingly adding that he was "always trying to figure out how it would work".