• Two small seats in the back
• Dinky boot for small bags
• Long and wide – requires care when parking

It might be a sports car, but thanks to a pair of rear seats practicality is better than you might expect – even if that rear bench is better suited to small children than full-grown adults, if not down to legroom then headroom certainly. If you don’t have kids, that pair of rear chairs will serve as a useful shelf for any smaller items of luggage – à la Porsche 911 – which is handy, as the boot isn’t the i8’s strong point.

Will the BMW i8 fit in my garage?

The i8 is both wide and deceptively long (not far off the length of a BMW 3 Series saloon), meaning that careful measurements are required before attempting to slot one into your garage. Also bear in mind that the gullwing doors don’t open like regular ones and need plenty of room. Parking sensors are included, as is a 360-degree camera giving you a greater perspective of the vehicle’s extremities.

Will my luggage fit in the i8?

There’s 154 litres of luggage space under that glass tailgate, which might sound reasonable but isn’t much more than a single airline carry-on bag. However, said figure is similar to the Porsche 911’s 135-litre front boot (though it also has a small area behind the rear seats), but this is not a car for long wistful weeks away together.

Unsurprisingly there’s no real storage space in the doors, on account of the fact they open upwards and outwards (so items would fall out of conventional door pockets) but there’s a normal sized glove box and chunky storage area in the centre console, complete with one cup holder for the front and two for the rear.

BMW i8 safety

• Strong underpinnings
• Six airbags as standard
• Not tested by Euro NCAP

With a carbon fibre ‘Life module’ (bodywork tub) and aluminium ‘Drive module’ (chassis), making up the firm’s LifeDrive architecture, safety should be competent, such is the strength of its structure. It’s this Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastic (CFRP) construction that allows for such large door openings without compromising strength, and after an offset front impact at 40mph the passenger cell remains intact. 

Of course that alone can’t offer the best occupant protection, but anyone involved in an accident while inside the i8 can rest easy in the knowledge that there are six airbags fitted as standard, including head/curtain airbags that extend to the rear seats.

The battery is purposefully mounted under the floor in the centre of the vehicle, an area that traditionally suffers from the least forces in an impact, and if the vehicle suffers such an impact the battery is disconnected from the high-voltage system. Plastic body panels, screwed into place, mean that low-speed bumps allow for easy replacement by authorised BMW repairers, while there’s no danger of corrosion under damaged paint. If the aluminium chassis is damaged it’s a different story, as this requires a special technique to repair properly, for which BMW has specialised repair centres.