BMW i8 Spyder green-lit for production

BMW has announced the i8 Spyder concept it showed at the 2012 Beijing motor show has been approved for production and will be on sale in the “near future”.

The news that the i8 coupe will spawn a roadster variant was revealed in an interview with the car-maker’s CEO, Harald Krueger, and German newspaper Handelsblatt.

Back in 2012, following the concept’s reveal, it was thought the roadster was close to production and would be offered for sale some time in 2013.

It’s now thought that BMW resisted launching a drop-top to allow its coupe version of the hybrid supercar to become more established in the market place.

As well as launching the Spyder, BMW is also set to apply some serious tech upgrades to the i8 coupe.

Currently, the i8 produces a total of 266kW from the combination of a three-cylinder, turbocharged petrol engine that drives the rear wheels and a 96kW electric motor that powers the front axle.

Rumours are rife that engineers are set to swap the i8’s current 170kW 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol for a significantly more powerful 2.0-litre inline four but, as revealed by motoring.com.au back in June, the German car-maker has ruled out that plan.

The longer four-cylinder will add as much as 91mm width and that would prompt a costly redesign.

Instead, a more realistic upgrade will see the current i8’s 7.1kWh lithium-ion battery pack swapped for state-of-the-art cells with a far higher energy density and more efficient cooling.

This will have a dramatic effect on performance with an expected mid-three-second sprint to 100km/h for the revised supercar.

The facelifted plug-in hybrid is also expected to be more efficient -- despite the fact the i8 already averages fuel consumption of just 2.1L/100km on the NEDC cycle.