BMW i4 eDrive 35 lowers price of EV sedan; not yet confirmed for Australia

August 2, 2022August 2, 2022 Toby Hagon 4938 Views bmw

BMW has added a new entry-level model to its i4 lineup.

The BMW i4 eDrive 35 gets a smaller battery pack and less power than the i4 eDrive 40 that sells from $99,900 before on-road costs.

In North America, where it has just gone on sale (a long wheelbase version of the i4 eDrive 35 is also on sale in China), the i4 eDrive 35 sells for about 8 percent less than the eDrive 40.

If the same were to happen in Australia, the eDrive 35 should be priced from about $92,000 before on-road costs.

All of which is too early to speculate on right now.

BMW Australia says it has not decided if the i4 eDrive 35 will be sold here.

BMW i4 eDrive 35 — The new eDrive 35 looks identical to the eDrive 40 but has a smaller battery and less power

But while it is not confirmed, the door has clearly been left open to bring it here.

And it’s difficult to imagine why BMW Australia wouldn’t sell it here.

The i4 eDrive 35 looks identical to the i4 eDrive 40. The two share the same body – which is itself shared with the ICE-powered BMW 4-Series – and there are the same blue highlights to ram home the EV-ness within.

Beneath the skin, the eDrive 35 gets a smaller 70.2kWh battery pack with a usable capacity of 66kWh (that’s well down on the 80.7kWh of usable capacity in the two i4 models already on sale, the eDrive 40 and i4 M50).

That means the range has also gone down, from 301 miles (485km) in the 40 to 260 miles (419km) in the 35 (those figures are US EPA numbers rather than the WLTP ones more common in Australia).

There’s also less power from the electric motor, although it’s not clear if the lesser outputs are a result of the smaller battery or whether there’s been a hardware change with the motor itself.

Either way, it’s still got plenty of grunt, making a full 210kW and 400Nm, which BMW suggests will take it to 60mph (96km/h) in 5.8 seconds.

Those outputs are identical to what’s in the BMW iX3, the EV version of the X3 mid-sized SUV.

US deliveries of the new i4 variant are slated for early 2023.

BMW Australia reported 128 i4s sold in the first half of 2022, but it appears stock levels are tight. The BMW website suggests there are none currently in stock, whereas there are plenty of iX3 models available now.