BMW i4

BMW i4 eDrive35 debuts with smaller battery, lower price

The eDrive40 is no longer the entry level BMW i40 model, this title now goes to the i4 eDrive35 which becomes the third model in the electrified i4 family. There are no visual changes to the new car, all differences are found under the hood.

The i4 eDrive35 gets a smaller battery, it is still Li-Ion pack, but the capacity is 66kWh which is quite a bit less when you compare it to 80.7kWh available on the more expensive models. The full capacity of the battery pack is actually 70.2kWh (vs 83.9kWh on the eDrive40) with the 66kWh being the usable part.

The electric motor powering the new entry model comes with 281 horsepower output and 291 lb-ft of torque which is still plenty for everyday driving. The 0 to 60 mph acceleration takes only 5.8 seconds, yes it is slower than the i4 eDrive40 but we doubt you'll feel the 0.1s difference in real life situations.

Where you will see the difference is the range - BMW claims the car can achieve 260 miles, but it is only an estimate at this point. Even if it was accurate and it was the EPA range, it would be significantly lower than the 300 miles achieved by the i4 eDrive40.

The smaller battery pack can take advantage of 180 kW DC fast charging and BMW claims it can be charged from 10% to 80% in about 32 minutes.



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First Impressions - BMW i4 M50

BMW has done an excellent job here, once you’re in the car you feel enveloped in quality. You can feel where every cent of your money went. You can smell the quality, the whole car just comes together and wraps you up in unobtrusive luxury. When you’re in a Tesla Model 3 you can’t stop asking where did the money go, you feel you’ve been scammed by a timeshare seller. Mercedes does a great job as well but that comes at a €20,000 premium. So - the BMW i4 M50 is a bargain. Consumer advice at its best.


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What’s the best EV for just being normal?

Electric cars might be the new normal, but the i4 brings some of the old normal and mixes it in nicely

There are two distinct types of electric car – those that look like electric cars, and those that don’t. Some people want a flashy electric looking car to flaunt their environmental credentials, a vehicle that makes everyone else feel bad because they don’t recycle enough.

But of course some people just want an electric car that looks like a car – one that’s familiar from the cars they have driven before, with recognisable doors and wheels and suchlike. A car that doesn’t scream as they go down the road because they don’t want everyone to look at them or feel sad about not recycling enough.

It’s a mark of the maturity of the electric car market that we’ve started to move from the boorish, in yer face EVs that first heralded the arrival of an exciting new technology – catnip to early adopters, you understand – and now companies have started to cater for everyone else. Not that BMW drivers are quite capable of being lumped in any sort of ‘everyone else’ category, but you understand the point.

Its understated car-ness is the reason we quite like the BMW i4, even if it isn’t one of those cars that gets everyone skipping about with something approaching glee. We even gave it an award in our 2022 Electric Awards. Best Electric Executive Car, no less. It costs the same as a petrol 4 Series on finance and it’s easy to live with.

 
AC Schnitzer has tuned the BMW i4... kind of

Suspension and aero bits only, we’re afraid. But then power is hardly the i4’s weak point

Here’s a bit of a new conundrum: how do we tune electric cars?

The obvious answer is to dive into the software and ask for more watts than a Rolling Stones drum solo, but motors have very definite operating windows and batteries have hard limits on how much power they can feed to the motors in the first place. To change either of those things is to change the drivetrain entirely... which is about where tuning ends and modding begins.

That seems to be the hard place that AC Schnitzer has rocked up to as well. But, of course, adding power isn’t the be all and end all of car tuning. And if EV drivetrain tuning isn’t a thing, it’s time for suspension do the heavy lifting, and aero to do the... heavy, um, putting back down again.

So Schnitzer’s tuned i4 rides an inch lower than standard and the best part of an inch wider, while various aero elements – such as that front splitter and winglets – ‘significantly improve the handling characteristics and ensure optimum driving values through increased downforce’. Just how significant appears to be a trade secret at this stage, but it’s a rare fish that wouldn’t welcome even a token improvement in front-end grip.


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BMW M announce new performance i4 M50 concept

The vast majority of publically accessible electric vehicles exist as sedans, hatchbacks and the lesser spotted electric bakkie. A minority within this silent space on the mobility spectrum consists of performance vehicles, which are starting to see a fair bit of growth compliments of Porsche and Audi. BMW has now become the most recent contributors to the e-performance genre with its high-performance i4 M50 concept.

A youtube video titled “Ready for the next chapter” was made public on 17 August on the BMW M channel, which showcased thrilling footage of a bright green i4 M50 speeding along city streets and winding mountain roads. As great as the footage is, the real highlight and attention grabber was the electric four door coupe clad in the firm’s signature camouflage —reserved for its prototypes— doing tyre squealing centre axis doughnuts, which were a dead giveaway to the all-wheel-drive system.

BMW M has confirmed that the camouflaged BMW is a high-performance electric M car based loosely on the i4 M50. The new electric M concept is the firm’s next attempt at bolstering its electric fleet. In past interviews, BMW CEO Frank van Meel stated that any electric M car released will still retain the beloved BMW rowdiness and spirit.


 
BMW 1602 Elektro by Ronnie Fieg

In 2022, BMW M's 50th anniversary year, a historic vehicle is bridging the gap between the past and the electrified present. As a BMW enthusiast, Ronnie Fieg has transformed a 1972 BMW 1602 into a contemporary electric car. A homage to history: at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, two BMW 1602s, converted into electric cars, were used at various long-distance competitions as accompanying and camera cars by the organisation committee. This was the start of a pioneering, forward-looking evolution of electrified vehicles at BMW.

The unique 1972 BMW 1602 Elektro by Ronnie Fieg will be handed over to the designer by the BMW Group. He already owns an impressive collection of BMW vehicles, including a legendary BMW E30 M3 by Kith stemming from Season 1 of the collaboration. His passion for BMW was sparked as a boy by his grandfather; the collaboration with BMW M means this comes full circle for him. Ronnie Fieg founded his Kith label in 2011. The collaboration between the BMW and Kith brands started in 2020 with the design of a BMW M4 Competition Coupé by Ronnie Fieg. The 150 editions of the exclusive BMW M4 Competition × Kith were sold out in less than 30 minutes.


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