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First off, I personally am a fan of hybrid sports cars.
If you've ever watched LMP1 blow out an LMP2 or GT car in WEC you'll be a believer. The instant torque on the front wheels kicks in as you exit and you convert to the ICE power as you head down the straight. It's an excellent system.
A few flaws though. They cost a bunch and are very complicated. Despite costing millions and millions more than an INDYCAR they are still a few seconds slower at a track like CotA. Granted this isn't a great comparison, but it shows that the hybrid tech isn't really an improvement for light weight V6 with a turbo.
Batteries work by either putting out a little energy slow or a lot of energy fast. The i3 is slow and slow. It charges slow and dumps it's battery slow. An LMP1 charges batteries fast, dumps it's battery super fast as well for big power boost. It can only do 1 lap on hybrid power alone.
BMW already tried to release a hybrid sports car. You remember it? Nope. Active hybrid 3 and 5. Could do 3 miles on a charge but it also had 390 HP and weighed 3600 lbs. that's damn close to an M3 in power to weight.
Well the auto press hated it and it died. Nobody understands performance hybrid car tech and do they just wanted to know why it couldn't go 30 miles like a Toyota and why it had a big engine and poor mileage. Normal people think hybrids need good gas and electric range.
Activehybrid died and what replaced it? 330e. 180hp 4 cylinder with a massive battery and a 80 ho electric motor. It weighs in at 3800 lbs and has a range of 30miles. I think an article was just posted this week praising it.
The other hybrid car BMW releases was the i8, which has a proper set up IMO. Electric front and ice rear. Proper transition from electric to IcE for performance as you increase the revs. It has a 30 mile range battery set up though. Basically everyone who tracked it ran out of juice about 10 mins into a 20 min session.
You simply can't have proper electric performance for sport AND range. Batteries don't work that way. You want long range you'll not be able to recover that range fast enough to have hybrid performance for 20 mins, let alone a proper race like an 'M car' is supposed to be.
If BMW releases an iM8 with a proper ICE and a proper battery system I will buy my first new BMW ever.
Even better would be an i8 carbon fiber chassis with the Motorrad HP4 race 200 hp engine in the rear and a equally powerful émotor and battery in the front. High rev, 50 mpg, 400 hp, ultra light weight and an electric motor to fill the gap.
I think we will see electric turbos first as that's an easy way to be good boys PR wise, get a nice turbo, and promote the i brand.
As for a proper hybrid M3? I'm very skeptical. The new 3 series is already as big as an e60 and Will weigh in at 3700 lbs. you stack a 30 mile range battery and motor on top of that and you'll get 80 more HP and 400 extra lbs. yikes.
If BMW went for a proper torque dump battery the press would rage about the lack of range in a $70k hybrid.
The tech is far too New for the pop culture perception of it to allow for a good car.
I mean, I'm probably one of 2 people in this thread who even knows what an LMP1 is.
On top of that you have design and maintain a KERS system for 100k miles and warranty is for 50k of those , that will be expensive, let alone 300k miles.
BMW has no choice but to hybridized because of German politics.
I also don't think they can make a true M3 hybrid with a proper Racing hybrid system for under $100k. And keep in mind M cars should last 150k miles or more. You're pressing your luck.
I'd rather see M chase weight loss and electric turbos and let the i division Pursue an M3 rival that's hybrid. What I have a feeling we will get is a G20 M3 with a 330e battery in the trunk and an electric motor taped to the front of the ZF8.
Big yikes. And I hope nobody is dumb enough to buy it. No performance gain, just e range, to make the Bundestag feel good about themselves.
I also hope BMW i keeps the carbon fiber stuff, but I get the feeling they will just start making 4K lb 3 series with a battery and some touch screens inside.
BMW is looking for a hybrid racing series so I'm pretty confident they will try to do this. It will be sacrelige if the M brand is tarnished even more with that lazy engineering we see in the 330e.
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