It doesn’t take a genius to see that BMW is investing a fair bit of its vast amount of pocket money into new automotive technology. And at the firm’s latest annual press conference, it appears that things have been stepped up a notch when it comes to the future.

We’ve finally got a confirmation that the i8 Roadster will hit showrooms by 2018, making one of the sexiest looking cars on the road even sexier if we base the upcoming model’s looks on the i Vision concept unveiled recently.

Elsewhere, we were told that the Mini will be the latest car in the fleet to receive PHEV treatment – sure to be a huge success for the mass market.

With the i3 due for an upgrade at the end of this year, things are certainly looking up for BMW…