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A BMW i8 has how many cylinders?

My daughter’s a rocket scientist at the JPL in Pasadena, and sometimes her mother and I worry that all that rocket talk is getting to her head. But the other day she showed up at our farm in Bakersfield with a BMW unlike any we’ve ever seen—an i8. Just the look of the thing, with its sleek, low-to-the-ground body and racecar looks made me nearly lose it (my usual ride is a John Deere 7R 350, max speed 31 mph). Her mom nearly fainted (turns out she was just dehydrated—Maureen’s fine now). How many cylinders does a BMW i8 have?

avatar
Jason Tushinski · Updated on
Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent.
The
BMW i8
is a hybrid electric vehicle that comes standard with a turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder gas engine paired with two electric motors.
Usually, a vehicle with fewer cylinders is less powerful than one with more, but your daughter’s i8 is not your average three-cylinder vehicle. Its turbocharged gas engine combines with two electric motors to make 369 horsepower and reach a top speed of 155 miles per hour. That’s significantly faster than your… tractor.
The i8 also offers solid fuel economy, with the EPA grading the 2020 i8 at 35 MPGe and an all-electric range of 22 miles.
The i8 proves that lower-cylinder vehicles do better on gas than higher-cylinder ones. As an example, one of the i8’s main 2020 rivals was the
Audi R8
, which sports a 5.2-liter V10 engine with 562 horsepower. Those 10 cylinders help the R8 reach a top speed of 200 miles per hour—way quicker than the i8. But the R8’s combined fuel efficiency is a comical 16 mpg, which is far less than the i8’s 27 mpg combined.
The fewer the cylinders doesn’t always mean less power, but it will almost certainly mean a smaller fuel bill for your daughter’s i8.
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