The grapevines are at Germany’s Autobild are whispering that last year’s BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept is headed for the production cycle and will debut at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show.
It will reportedly hit the market in 2013 and will be wearing an I100 badge on its rear. The ‘I’ moniker points to the car being under BMW’s project I that is also behind the MegaCity EV.
Much like the concept car, a hybrid drivetrain will most likely sit under the sheet metal with a 1.5-liter three-banger that would highly likely be a diesel paired with an electric motor based on the architecture of the hybrid powertrain in the BMW 7 Series Hybrid. The power from that combo will go to the rear wheels while the front spinners would get motivation from another electric motor.
Storage for the electrical energy would be courtesy of a lithium ion battery pack. It remains unclear though if the plug-in capability of the concept would be retained although that would be a major boost in marketability.
The rumourmill kept on weaving that an M version of the car would be made available too with the next-generation M3’s 450hp twin-turbo V8 mated with a set of supercapacitors instead of a battery pack.
We’re going to take all this with more than just a pinch of salt but even if it doesn’t make the jump from prototype to production, it should at least been given a cameo in the upcoming movie Tron: Legacy.
Source: Autoblog
