Frankfurt Live: BMW i3 and i8 Concepts

Picture an indoor race-track built high up off the ground and running all the way around an exhibition hall, and you'll be on your way to envisaging the huge launch arena that BMW managed to build this week in Frankfurt. The huge German manufacturer were given prime-time to kick off the 2011 IAA Frankfurt Motor Show Press Day and they managed to impress with the release of many cars but most notably, the i3 and i8 Concept Cars.

The i3 is a pure electric vehicle with absolutely zero emissions and a range distance of just under 100 miles. It's designed to be cute and practical and manages to really achieve this with its futuristic sculpting, blade alloy wheels and the still unmistakable BMW kidney grilles. It is aiming to be the ultimate city car and even though it is a tree-hugger, it can put in a good fight with many other road-going vehicles thanks to a 125kW electric motor and surprisingly sporty rear wheel drive.

However the bigger, smarter and sexier older sibling, the i8 Concept was the car that had us drooling. Cutting a sleek line onstage and demonstrating flappy scissor doors it really draws the eye in and BMW's designers have outdone themselves yet again. The front of the car gets some styling cues from the current market Z4 whilst around the back the long glass rear window and the multiple LED lights all around gives the impression of something you would see from the movie iRobot.

Performance-wise, this Deutsche darling shoots from 0-62mph in a sub five seconds and shows off an incredible fuel consumption of only 3 litres per 100km. This is all thanks to a plug-in hybrid system output of 260kW which also allows for a range of 35km in solely electric mode.

An interesting point to note is how the doors are see-through in some parts! So make sure you don't go out in your underwear as other motorists may get an interesting flash. Whether this peculiar feature makes its way through to production is highly unlikely but altogether, the whole i8 Concept package looks phenomenal and it has rendered me excited about BMW's future.