2023
Automatic
Tax: £0
Mileage: 4,022
Electric
2024
Mileage: 5,088
Mileage: 5,278
Mileage: 5,313
Mileage: 5,362
2022
Tax: n/a
Mileage: 5,701
Mileage: 6,521
See if CarMoney can save you £££ on car finance. Rates from 8.9% APR. Representative 17.9% APR. CarMoney Ltd is a broker not a lender
Mileage: 8,074
Mileage: 8,509
Mileage: 9,032
Get cars straight to your inbox
Thank you!
Your cars alert has been created.
The ICE age, as in 'Internal Combustion Era', is almost over and BMW is ready for what lies beyond. This car, the i4, was at launch the most important EV the brand had introduced to date. And there's a good case for calling it the most important BMW for decades. The company's been dabbling with EVs for a very long time now, ever since its 'Project i' division produced the ground-breaking little i3 back in 2013. After that though, there was a rather disappointing seven year gap, at the end of which we got a conventional looking EV version of the X3 (the iX3), then a year later, what looked like a properly dedicated design, the iX, which did in fact merely run on a (heavily modified) version of the company's combustion-orientated CLAR platform. The i4, launched in 2022, isn't designed around a properly bespoke EV platform either - that's coming with the 'Neue Klasse' EV models the company's introducing later in this decade. But it is very much a 'proper' BMW, as we're about to find out. It's proved to be the best-selling BMW EV worldwide, with over 83,000 sales in 2023. And the i4 M50 xDrive has been the best-selling M model in both 2022 and 2023. To build on that success, BMW introduced a light i4 range revamp in Spring 2024, which has brought us the car we look at here.
The i4 still sets benchmark standards for drive dynamics in the mid-sized EV segment. But the combustion-orientated chassis that allows it to do that compromises practicality and rear seat space. If that's not an issue and you don't mind paying a touch more than expected for your mid-sized premium-badged EV, then there's lots to like here. We can't really see why you'd compromise with the smaller-battery eDrive35 version. Or why you'd really need the manic performance of the top M50 variant. Which leaves the mid-level eDrive40 model offering the sweet spot in the range. It's a pity BMW hasn't invested in the 800V architecture that features in some rivals for ultra-rapid charging. But battery charging speeds are very competitive by 400V system standards. The challenge now is to BMW to replicate the engaging handling on offer here as part of the bespoke 'Neue Klasse' EV chassis that will be used in the brand's future electric models. What we need from them is what we've got from this i4; which feels like a BMW to the core, from its rear-biased drive system to the style of the panel work and the iDrive-cleverness of the interior. Previously, if you loved BMWs but needed an EV, you really needed to buy something else. Now the Munich maker has your number. And this might well be it.
Borrow £6,000 with £1,000 deposit over 48 months with a representative APR of 18.1%, monthly payment would be £172.36, with a total cost of credit of £2,273.28 and a total amount payable of £9,273.28.
