Based on some strong hints it would appear that a secret BMW Supercar is being developed based on the i8. The latest and strongest hints come from Klaus Fröhlich, the BMW board member responsible for product development. A man who would clearly have good insight into such things. But what’s really interesting is that we’ve heard Fröhlich hint at this just a few months ago at the 2018 Paris Motorshow – “(A) Supercar is my personal wish … I think there is a next window of opportunity whenever we have the life cycle for i8. I’m working very hard to make it happen.”

(09/2010)

M1

Now he seems to be giving us a few new details that would hint at a hybrid power plant for said car (via Autocar):

“If we have these very compact and very powerful electric driving units, if we have a carbonfibre chassis – for example, the i8’s – and if we still have high-performance engines, then, if you do it cleverly, you can combine them into a real performance package.

BMW has a wide range of high performance inline six and V8s to pull from on the internal combustion side. They also have an upcoming plug-in electric motor in development that will have an output of more than 200 hp and up to 378lb ft within.

It’s easy to imagine the M5’s mighty 615 hp V8 combined with the 200 hp electric motor for a 815 hp all-wheel drive monster. Add to that the i8’s lightweight carbon fiber chassis and you’d have the makings of an incredible performance car.

The performance could be the first thing in 40 years to be truly worthy of a successor to the legendary M1. How likely is this to happen? We’ve not known many BMW board members to drop hints like this without some level of certainty behind it.