This Is the BMW i8 Successor That Could’ve Been

BMW chief designer Domagoj Dukec spilled a secret via Instagram on Friday, and it’s a kick in the teeth. Allow me to explain: Rewind to January 2020, when the world was about to flip on its axis. We reported that i8 production would end in April of that year and that there was evidently no immediate successor.

However, you may recall, rumors were swirling that the German brand was working on a car based on the Vision M Concept revealed in 2019. The plug-in hybrid supercar was sleek and futuristic, a departure from what existed and what was yet to come. Sadly, the pandemic killed this project, Dukec says, and it never materialized.

“The I16 had all the style of a future classic, but there were still novel touches that moved the design forward from the M1,” Dukec says on his Instagram post. “Within less than 12 months the car was ready – inside and out. The key was to use the composite structure of the BMW i8. If you look closely, you will find a few cues!”

It’s not too late to bring the i16 back to life, BMW. It’s time.

Kristin Shaw fell in love with cars while visiting dozens of auto shows as a kid, which explains her love for big-finned 1950s cars and 1960s Corvettes. She competed in her first Rebelle Rally, an all-female off-roading competition, in the fall of 2022 in a lifted Hyundai Santa Cruz and will participate again in 2023. Her words have appeared in numerous publications like Popular Science, Edmunds, The Drive, GearJunkie, U.S. News & World Report, Forbes Wheels, Today, The Washington Post and more.