Lately BMW has taken two distinct approaches to its electric vehicles – something like the big and bold iX is a continuation of the spirit original i3, which was a radical departure from BMW norms.
While the iX is a large SUV that carries over the i3’s distinctive design cues and carbon fibre construction, BMW’s secondary approach is far more traditional, with the likes if the iX3 and i4 being simply electric versions of more run-of-the-mill ICE cars from the company’s line up, with the iX3 obviously being an electric X3, while the i4 is an electric version of the 4 Series Gran Coupe.
Splitting the difference between radical and conservative is a smart strategy in a market where some people still want an EV that is distinctive and, almost compulsorily a bit weird, while others just want something that looks like a normal car that also happens to be electric.
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And that is exactly where the i4 comes in – being more or less an electric 4 Series Gran Coupe (four door, in other words) with a techy interior, the i4 brings all the expected dynamic excellence of a 4 Series along with the silent silky-smooth effortlessness of a BEV.
Inside it is very much a modern BMW, with high quality materials and excellent build quality, but the huge screen (well, two screens cleverly pretending to be one...) that dominates the dash marks it out as something a bit more special.
And, of course, it is a bit more special than an ordinary 4 Series, because under that 4 Series skin lies an 83.9kWh battery with a WLTP-tested range of up to 465km with electric motors front and rear. This does mean that, because this is essentially an electrified ICE model and the extra electric bits and pieces have to go where the engine used to go, there’s no frunk here.
Still, this particular i4 has an all-important letter stuck on its rump as well that also denotes something even more special. Namely, an M.
The M50 is the hottest version of the i4 you can currently get with AWD courtesy of two electric motors and some serious shove. Like its ICE equivalents, the fact that there are two numbers following the M means it isn’t quite a full-blown M car (they only get one; M3, M4, etc), but the fact it pumps out a healthy 400kW and 795Nm and will rocket to 100km/h from a standing start in 3.9 seconds means it is not that far off.
In fact, the i4 M50 is actually more powerful than the roughly-equivalent M3 Competition xDrive (AWD, four-doors) which ‘only’ packs 375kW and 650Nm, although it is slightly slower to 100km/h (the M3 does it in 3.5 seconds) by virtue of the fact that it weighs a fairly hefty 435kg more, thanks to its batteries.
But that extra weight melts into insignificance when you hammer the throttle pedal in the M50 and it smashes forward at what can honestly be described as “an alarming rate”. The M50 is brutally, violently fast off the line, with the same sort of internal-organ rearranging force of a Tesla Model 3 Performance, but with the dynamic polish of a BMW.
And, yes, it even has a distinct RWD bias to its aggressive performance, with the rear regularly giving an enthusiastic wag out of corners and under heavy acceleration. This, of course is clearly intentionally dialed in by BMW, as there is simply no reason an AWD EV would do this, except purely for fun. Kudos to BMW for that...
The steering is as sharply accurate and communicative as most modern BMWs (which is actually damning with faint praise, as most modern BMWs are still ever-so-slightly distant in that second regard) and the extra weight is not really all that noticeable in the real world.
So, brutally fast, impressively agile and highly equipped, the BMW i4 is pretty much the perfect BEV, right?
Well, not quite, as there is one fly in that ointment in the form of the I4’s Euro NCAP safety rating. When the 3 and 4 Series were tested back in 2019 they breezed through with full five-star ratings from the safety body, but when the i4 went through the system three years later, it didn’t make top marks, only scoring a disappointing four stars.
Why? Well, while the i4 uses the same safety assists as the 3 and 4 Series, that three years makes a difference as NCAP testing has got tougher in that time. Basically, the i4 is as safe as the ICE variants, it’s just that they probably wouldn’t get five stars now either...
Whether that actually bothers you or not is subjective, but it is a strange oversight from BMW that it got caught out – I mean, you shouldn’t really be caught out by shifting goalposts if they are always moving at a constant speed in the same direction...
And it could well be quite a costly oversight too, considering the i4 smacks right up against the Tesla Model 3, which is widely considered to be one of the safest cars in its segment, and the Polestar 2 which sprang from the loins of safety pioneer Volvo.
The i4 M50 is a truly fantastic car to throw down a winding road, which neither of those competitors can manage to claim quite as convincingly, but as such asks a question of potential buyers; does a single safety star mean more to you than an engaging and thrilling driving experience?
