Remember this thing? When the patent leaked out of China for what looked like a Hydrogen fuel cell concept from BMW, we labeled it an abomination. Well now reports claim it’s actually a 2-cylinder hybrid that gets up to 706 mpg. 706 miles-per-gallon. That’s a lot of miles per gallon.
When CarNewsChina released the patent photos and details for the ugly-BMW-duckling, it detailed a conceptual Hydrogen power-plant set up previously seen on that Back To The Future-esque i8 concept.
BMW did work on a technology that would use a combination of gasoline hybrid and hydrogen technology in the early 2000s, but abandoned it. The new concept car is said to be getting an i-branded badge, so it would make since for it to be a more traditional hybrid like the i3 and i8.
Autocar is reporting details from a BMW insider claiming the funky new mystery concept is actually powered by a 1.0 liter 2-cylinder gasoline engine mated to a hybrid power-train, targeting the funky Volkswagen XL1 concept we all fell in love with, except offering a back seat and bigger boot for more practicality.
Those hybrid batteries are also special, from Autocar:
Energy for the electric motor is provided by a battery that is described as using a newly developed chemical process for faster charging, greater energy density and a longer zero-emissions range.
The concept aims for a super-efficient, lightweight hybrid that is reported to get up to a ridiculous 706 mpg by using the carbon-fibre structuring technology employed on the current BMW i-lineup formed into a seriously-aerodynamic body.
Those ugly-duckling-looks produce a drag coefficient of just 0.18 - in comparison to 0.24 on the super smooth looking Tesla Model S.
Autocar also claims the BMW concept will reach 62 in less than seven seconds and hit a top speed of 112mph. I bet you lose a few hundred mpg’s trying, though.
The car also uses a few other tricks that likely wouldn’t make it to production, like the flying-saucer wheel covers for increased aerodynamics and cameras in place of rear-view mirrors.
Still, there’s a lot of wiggle room to drop that 706 claimed mpg figure and still be impressive, though it all sounds too good to be true. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Contact the author at justin@jalopnik.com or @WestbrookTweets.