BMW recently admitted that this year would be the end of the production of their flagship plug-in supercar, the I8. While we are sad to see it go, we are interested in seeing how having the end in sight will affect the car’s value,. More importantly, we want to see if it will become something more affordable for consumers to set their sites on.

Continuing Sales

While some may argue that the BMW I8’s days in production were numbered, it’s cancelation seemed to be a shock to most. In fact, the car is still available brand new from many car dealerships. Since the car can still be purchased at the BMW lot, it will most likely hold it’s value here for a good while. Eventually, the I8s will be sold into the consumer population and become only available as used, preowned cars then. Until that happens, their value as a ‘new’ vehicle shouldn’t be expected to drop. As with any car, the value of the car depreciates greatly as soon as it becomes owned and is driven off the lot, and the I8 is not currently an exception to this.

BMW Depreciation

The BMW I8 has already depreciated greatly since its original debut in 2014. First available for almost $160,000 new this spaceship-like hybrid can be more commonly found on the market for between $60,000 and $90,000 used or in good shape. It’s no surprise to us that the car depreciated so heavily, it is a BMW after all, and in a few years, the cars will have aged enough to have dropped a considerable amount in value. The high cost of ownership, sketchy reliability and expensive maintenance make BMW one of the quickest and most dramatically depreciating consumer car brands on the market overall.

Rarity

The cease in production means there will be no more I8s ever produced – obviously. The car was already created in low production numbers, and with those numbers no longer increasing, they will become rarer and rarer as some meet their untimely demise. As the car becomes less common it is only logical that the car would become more valuable to collectors. While this argument may stand true for more favorited, older generations of BMW, such as the E36, we can only make an educated guess as to whether this car will hold the hearts of their owners, or be disregarded for the latest and greatest BMW.

There is no doubt that the BMW I8 looks like a street-legal concept car, and it’s unlike almost anything else on the market or on the streets. With that being said, the market for hybrid sports cars is still new territory and with the technology and design evolving fast, the I8 may just get left behind as a piece of pioneering history. In fact, rumor has it that BMW will be replacing this flag-ship car with something even better, but they aren’t ready to reveal quite what just yet. If BMW is able to produce a car that looks somehow more stunning than the I8 and can out-perform and out-tech it, the I8 value might just fall through the floor.

Only time will exactly how the I8 will depreciate – or even possibly become more valuable. While it is so far one-of-a-kind in the BMW lineup, we’ve been promised a newer, better electric or hybrid just on the horizon, and while we can’t wait to see what the future holds for BMW in the realm of plug-in supercars, we hope that the I8 doesn’t just become a forgotten piece of history.