BMW's i8 Spyder concept will soon become reality

The BMW i8 is a jaw-dropping piece of design. It also has some sweet tech under the hood, thanks to a tiny 1.5-liter gasoline engine mated to a plug-in hybrid power pack. We like it quite a lot. There's just one thing that BMW can do to make it look prettier: rip the roof off.

According to one report, that's about to happen. The German newspaper Handelsblatt (via Automotive News) quotes BMW CEO Harold Krueger as saying that a production version of the i8 Spyder concept, originally debuted at the Geneva Auto Show in 2012, will make its debut soon. Perhaps even as soon as CES next month.

The i8 coupe is a carbon fiber-wrapped "cluster of insanity," according to our Chris Ziegler. It produces 357 total horsepower from its electric and gasoline engines. We said it's the closest you can get to feeling like Bruce Wayne without literally being Batman. It's not the fastest car in the world, but it's definitely one of the prettiest.

And perhaps the only way to improve it is to open it up to 93 million miles of sky. Thank you, BMW.

As a reminder, here's the concept i8 Spyder that BMW debuted a few years ago — odds are the final car will look similar.