In an unexpected turn of events, Autocar reports that the upcoming 2014 BMW i8 will receive a gasoline engine instead of the 3-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine the current prototype is using. The UK magazine quotes R&D chief Dr. Klaus Draeger who said “as we want to sell it all over the world. Diesel is only really relevant to Europe”.
The news come as a surprise to us since BMW has advertised quite a bit the three-cylinder diesel engine, and in a recent interview with BMWBLOG, Dr. Philip Koehn, BMW Vice President Total Vehicle Architecture and Vehicle Concepts, said BMW chose diesel engine since it is the smallest engine available for a BMW vehicle at the moment. “The car became very efficient, the power required to maintain 155 mph is only 120 kilowatts, and we chose the smallest engine we could find in the whole company which would precisely deliver 120 kilowatts. The engine is a prototype and has never been used in a car. I believe it’s called “Engine 1″.
Lees verder: http://www.bmwblog.com/2011/02/24/autoc ... bo-diesel/
