Admittedly, there are probably more meaningful vehicles for the summer holiday at the campsite. A VW California maybe. Or a white Fiat Ducato with alcove construction. Why did we want to drive with a BMW i8 for camping? Honestly? Because this car has always fascinated us since its market introduction two years ago. What did we experience with him on the journey through East Germany and Poland? Get in and join us ...
The mixture makes it
So the BMW i8. A plug-in hybrid sports car, which has the ability to excite self-indulging car antipathisers for the automobile itself. How does he do that? With the mixture of high-tech product and the design of a concept car. He's just too exciting to look away. And even technologically refusing, economical and sensible people are excited after a few minutes from this carbon-containing time capsule from the future. The many hard plastic in the cockpit you can easily see.
Not even so impractical
So we are facing the DMC DeLorean of the 21st century and suddenly there are much more rudimentary questions. Questions like, "How the hell is all this camping gear (clothes for a week, a tent, a cooking box, sleeping bags, two chairs and all the sensible and less meaningful survival equipment for the wilderness) in the tiny trunk under the glass rear window?" The answer? "Not at all!" But fortunately, the i8 is a four-seater. And because we're only going to be two on the road anyway, and we might want to spare claustrophobic hitchhikers the tiny back anyway, everything still finds its place.
Comfortable to travel, pleasant to use
Departure. Our planned route has a length of over 3,000 kilometers. We want to break the first 900 of them in one day. From Munich to Rügen. So what we need is comfort. The i8 delivers. What we want to do is sports car driving and low fuel consumption. Yes, and the interplay between the electric motor and the combustion engine can be so perfect and fast (the 362 HP feel like more horses), but a plug-in hybrid makes a little less sense on the long-distance. We still use the breaks on the motorway to recharge the 7.1 kWh lithium-ion batteries with a usable capacity of 5.2 kWh. Free quick-charging columns (which are even free of charge) are now sufficient. At the end of the trip, we land at an acceptable average consumption of 7.5 liters of SuperPlus.
Suspicion and envy? Wrong indication!
The mushroom collectors, our Swedish tent neighbors and the old gentlemen in the supermarket car park, these concept problems are no matter. The first question is usually: "How far do you get electric with the car?" We answer "theoretically 37 kilometers", but know that practically even the 30 kilometer mark is rather difficult. The second question of interested passers-by? "What does that cost?" When they hear "130,000 euros", many are once frightened. But suspicion or envy as a part-time i8 rider never meets us. And even if we were not in a region where you had to wait 30 years ago for a felt eternity for a new Trabant 601. Or where you could also buy a whole village for the basic factory price.
If you want attention ...
Apropos village: With the rock-like cobblestone slopes, which in the east are also referred to as local thoroughfares, the carbon flounder with comfort suspension works well. And also the low ground clearance makes no problems with the rather coarse braking thresholds. Nevertheless, we usually drive a little slower than the permitted 50 km / h in the city, so that the two people participating in road traffic can also take a look. It is photographed, waved or shown with a finger. Some of them raise their gratitude and a Polish granny somewhere between Stettin and Stargard looks at us as if we were driving the dad's mobile and the re-emerged Karol Józef Wojtyla took the glass rear-end. Naked.
The Messiah who can not save the world
So we came to our enlightenment: For even if BMW with this forward-looking plug-in hybrid car will not save the world, he is not only celebrated and accepted by the natural camping community as such a messiah. The i8 creates a positive awareness for alternative drives in all company strata and so it is despite wing doors the currently grounded and most reasonable sports car ... which can accelerate even to 4.4 in 4.4 seconds. So would we go back to the tents with an i8? Probably already, because for 12.40 euro you get not only one overnight stay for two people and a parking space for car and tent, but also still-inclusive electricity for the batteries. At least in Dźwirzyno at Biala Mewa Camping.
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