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Added on the 14/06/2018 13:15:11 - Copyright : Auto Moto EN
German car manufacturer BMW unveiled its brand new i8 Roadster model at the 2017 Los Angeles Auto Show on Wednesday. The i8 Roadster is a two-seater hybrid sports car featuring a soft-electric top and an aluminium body with a carbon-fiber passenger cell.The car comes with a battery that has an electric-only range of up to 18 miles before the 3 cylinder, 369 horsepower gas engines joins in. The i8 hybrid roadster is fast - its top speed is 155 mph and the sleek vehicle can accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour in about 4.4 seconds.
At the BMW Group, the use of 3D-printed components is on the rise. Over the last decade alone, the company produced a million parts by this innovative method, and this year output from the BMW Group Additive Manufacturing Center is expected to reach over 200,000 components — a 42 percent increase on last year’s total.Dr. Jens Ertel, Director of the BMW Group Additive Manufacturing Center: “The use of components made by additive manufacturing in series production of vehicles is increasing particularly strongly at the moment. We are following the development and application of advanced these manufacturing methods very closely indeed, partly through longstanding cooperations with leading manufacturers in the field. At the same time, we are engaging in targeted technology scouting and evaluating innovative production systems.”Recently the BMW Group fitted its one-millionth 3D-printed component in series production: a window guide rail for the BMW i8 Roadster. Thanks to the work of specialists at the Additive Manufacturing Center, the rail took just five days to develop and was integrated into series production in Leipzig shortly after. It is found in the door of the BMW i8 Roadster and allows the window to operate smoothly. The component is manufactured by HP Multi Jet Fusion Technology, a high-speed method enhanced by the BMW Group in conjunction with HP and now in use in the series production of vehicles for the very first time. It can produce up to 100 window guide rails in 24 hours.
In the heat of the summer it is time to look at the best cars that could bring us some coolness while driving towards a beautiful beach, a majestic mountain or just to a breathtaking view....
A plaque in the interior confirms that these 18 BMW i8 Roadsters (combined fuel consumption: 2.0 l/100 km; combined CO2 emissions: 46 g/km) came off the assembly line at BMW Group Plant Leipzig one after the other and are among the first to be handed over to customers. At BMW Welt in Munich, the BMW i8 Club received the keys for the exclusive first edition of the breath-taking plug-in hybrid roadsters from Peter van Binsbergen, head of Sales and Marketing BMW Germany. Their first outing was to drive in convoy to Lake Como in Italy for the Concorso d’Eleganza, where they will be displayed on the grounds of the Villa Erba this weekend.
The BMW i8 has performed the role of sports car of the future with extraordinary success since the day it was launched. The progressively designed 2+2-seater doubles up as an eye-catching object of desire and a technological pioneer. Indeed, the i8 has been the world's highest-selling hybrid sports car since it first hit the roads in 2014 and has collected an array of awards in recognition of its visionary design and trailblazing vehicle concept. The BMW i8's plug-in hybrid drive system has won the International Engine of the Year Award three years in succession (2015 - 2017) and paved the way for the constantly expanding number of plug-in hybrid models from the BMW and MINI brands. Now the allure of sustainable driving pleasure is poised to enter another new dimension. The new BMW i8 Roadster takes the i8's combination of locally emission-free mobility and high-calibre performance and sprinkles the drop-top driving experience into the mix. The Roadster exudes a whole new sensation of freedom, opening the door to virtually silent motoring with zero CO2 emissions and bringing an extra edge of purity to open-air motoring.