Yahoo Autos 2022 BMW i4 M50 First Drive: Who needs the gas version?
In the bad old days of EVs — B.M., perhaps, for “Before Musk” — automakers’ plug-ins were cobbled together and compromised. Companies took existing ICE models, and stuffed them with bulky, primitive batteries wherever they could, including cargo areas. The result was compliance-car dreck like the Toyota RAV4 EV; or models like a Volkswagen e-Golf, a solid driver rendered moot by sub-100-mile driving range that got even worse on winter-jacket mornings.
The 2022 BMW i4 is not that car, despite sharing the bones of a 4 Series Gran Coupe. From starship-baiting performance and fast-charging acumen to a competitive price, the i4 — like the equally magical Ford F-150 Lightning — upends old engineering assumptions. E.g., that an EV based on a modified ICE platform couldn’t be great, simply by dint of those shared genes. Or, that an EV built on a stand-alone electric architecture must be de facto superior, again by dint of that purportedly uncompromised approach. (See the Volkswagen ID.4, that generically styled dud of the ongoing electric revolution, for evidence to the contrary).
Unlike some luxury competitors, BMW is hedging its bets. BMW’s optimistic forecast is that 50% of global sales can be EVs by 2030; especially if its next-gen “Neue Klasse” architecture takes off, beginning around 2025. That Neue Klasse architecture can also accommodate ICE or PHEV powertrains, a development that raised some industry eyebrows. BMW, which must sell cars in 140 countries — including markets that will surely be slower to transition to electricity — has refused to be boxed in and declare a date for swearing off fossil-fueled cars.
“We’ve gotten some flak for not committing to that,” said BMW spokesman Tom Plucinsky. “We think, and we’ve said, that the market worldwide will eventually go electric, and Neue Klasse is the next step towards that. But in the shorter term, we need the flexibility.”
BMW i4 M40 left, BMW M440i Gran Coupe right
There are certainly some pros of stand-alone electric architectures, including on the brilliant-driving BMW iX. BMW acknowledges the i4 pays some penalties for platform sharing, including a curb weight that sneaks over 5,000 pounds in i4 M50 guise (there’s also the eDrive40 entry model). But the i4/Gran Coupe’s “CLAR” architecture — its central floor now updated to house higher-density batteries — brings its own advantages. The idea traces to 2015 and the first CLAR-based model, the 7 Series: A versatile, mixed-materials approach (including carbon fiber) that could support ICE, PHEV or full EVs. Critically, all three can be built on a single assembly line, giving BMW instant flexibility as consumer tastes change, gas prices swing or regulatory winds blow. Customers clamoring for EVs? Crank ‘em up. ICE models holding their own? Ditto.
“When you have a plant dedicated to a specific car, if it really catches on, you’re limited in how many you can produce,” Plucinksy says. “Or, you’re below factory capacity and not as efficient.
“10 years is a very short time in automotive terms, with our seven-year product cycles. There are things you just can’t just turn around and change.”
Makes sense, especially given the rampant unpredictability of our world in 2022. Another advantage: If an automaker can build every powertrain in a single factory, on a shared platform, it can spread costs and revenues around — helping to nurture or subsidize EVs as the growing baby of the family — without unduly starving the mature, revenue-generating side of the business.
I’m a need-for-speed driver, so the i4 makes the choice easy for me. As with the Lightning, driving the i4 M50 elicited this reaction: Why would anyone want the gasoline version?
Like a Lightning, Rivian or Lucid Air, the 536-horsepower i4 M50 rewires your brain for expectations of performance. Picture a 382-horsepower M440i Gran Coupe — already a potent sports sedan — only insanely faster, quieter and smoother. Picture the pace of a 503-hp M3 or M4 Competition (and faster for passing), but less flinty and hyperactive, for thousands of dollars less. All that comes in a familiar, fluid 4 Series GC shape, with a rich interior, just-right seats, new iDrive 8.0 infotainment (with dramatic Curved Screen displays and massive head-up display), and versatile hidden-hatchback layout. It’s so good that even the grille’s bloated kidneys — like a codpiece for some cheesy German metal band — elicit a “whaddaya gonna do?” shrug. The closed, plastic-shielded grille integrates a 10-position air flap to reduce drag.
Unlike a nearly identically sized Tesla Model 3, there’s no frunk. Popping the i4 M50’s hood (and plastic bay cover) reveals not a classic BMW inline six, but a power inverter, strut bracing, a gaggle of hoses and, as this is the dual-motor M50, an electric drive unit. In the rear-drive eDrive40, the latter is missing, resulting in a conspicuous void. There’s lidded access to a 12-volt battery, and fillers for coolant, brake and windshield fluid.
