BMW i4 pricing announced ahead of early 2022 on-sale
BMW has priced its upcoming i4 all-electric sports sedan from $99,900 plus on-road costs, or somewhere around $110,000 drive-away.
To be initially offered in two models – the i4 eDrive40 and the $124,900 i4 M50 – the i4 is effectively the electric evolution of the 3-Series that has long been at the heart of the BMW brand.
The new BMW i4 arrives in dealerships early in 2022 and will sit alongside the soon-to-arrive BMW iX and the BMW iX3.
With a distinctive bold grille and blue highlights, the new BMW i4 arrives as the company claims “the greenest electric car in the world will be a BMW”. The company says customers “can rest assured that their BMW will always have the smallest overall carbon footprint”, a claim that is almost impossible to scrutinise.
NEW BMW EVs COMING SOON:
BMW iX: X5-sized large SUV built on a bespoke EV platform
BMW iX3: mid-sized SUV utilising much of the BMW X3 body
The i4 eDrive 40 gets a single motor driving the rear wheels and producing 250kW/430Nm.
It’s claimed to top 100km/h in 5.7 seconds, which is about the same as a Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus.
The eDrive 40 gets an 84kWh battery claimed to deliver an impressive 590km of WLTP range.
The i4 M50 gets the same 84kWh battery but gets an additional electric motor driving the front wheels for all-wheel drive traction.
Outputs step up to 400kW and 795Nm, in turn lowering the 0-100km/h time to 3.9 seconds. That puts the i4 M50 on a par with the M4 Competition that is one of BMW’s hero cars that costs about $35,000 more.
Like the M4 – the two-door version of the BMW M3 – the i4 is all about driving excitement, BMW even recently showing off that its new EV can drift.
The i4 M50’s range drops to 510km, which still puts it towards the upper end of EVs currently on sale.
DC fast charging for both can be done at up to 200kW, allowing a 10-80 percent charge in as little as 31 minutes. BMW says a 10-minute charge starting at 10 percent state-of-charge will add 140km of range for the eDrive 40 and 140km for the M50.
AC wallbox charging can be done at up to 11kW for a full charge in 11.5 hours.
Home charging on a regular powerpoint will take as long as 46 hours.
For the $99,900 ask the i4 eDrive 40 comes with leather seats and fake leather on the dash. There’s also adaptive suspension with adjustable dampers, 19-inch alloy wheels, head-up display, powered boot, ambient lighting, sports electric front seats, wireless phone charging, digital radio tuning and a 10-speaker sound system.
Both models get a five-year Chargefox subscription that allows free charging across what is Australia’s biggest EV charging network.
The $124,900 i4 M50 adds to that with a glass electric sunroof, grippier tyres (still on 19-inch alloys), metallic paint, lumbar support, laser headlights (in lieu of LED), heated front seats and a 16-speaker Harman Kardon sound system.
The M50 also gets a unique suspension tune and some styling additions, including a rear spoiler.
There are various option packs that add things such as a heated steering wheel, heated rear seats, an alarm, tyre pressure monitors and a BMW Drive Recorder that uses the inbuilt cameras to record footage like a dashcam. The M Sport design pack ($1700 for the eDrive 40 and $1200 for the M50) will no doubt be popular given it steps up the design touches.
While it rides on a bespoke EV platform, the i4 doesn’t venture wildly from BMW’s current design philosophy inside or out. That’s no doubt been done deliberately for familiarity but also to seamlessly blend the i4 into the BMW family; there are even exhaust-shape elements in the lower rear bumper.
