2022 BMW i4 review: Bavaria’s EV safe bet

Earlier in the year I drove the new BMW i4 M50, the first BMW to marry what some might regard as the competing interests of its ‘i’ and ‘M’ brands. It didn’t work. Weighing more than a Bentley Continental GT, it was unable to live up to the promise of its billing. But there is a less ambitious i4 on sale and I signed off my test saying, “I’ve not driven it, but I’d bet my house it makes more sense than this.”

Well now I have driven it and I’m glad to say the deeds will be staying put for now. Relieved of a couple of hundred horsepower you won’t want to use, traded for a considerable hike in range you most certainly will and yours for a five-figure saving, the i4 eDrive40 is a car with no identity crisis to spoil the experience.

Instead, and like the iX3 SUV, it is a capable, likeable, honest EV that’s plenty fast enough for almost all people, almost all of the time. It’s still heavy by petrol-powered standards but you don’t feel the mass as much as you do in the M50, probably because you feel no need to drive it anything like as fast.

So while I’d still advise those wanting a genuinely sporting compact family EV to keep looking because I’ve not found one yet, if what you want instead is a fluently executed, credible and modestly enjoyable compact family EV, right now I know none better than this.

2022 BMW i4 eDrive40 specification

● Price £63,905
● Engine Front electric motor, 80.8 kWh battery
● Power 335bhp
● Torque 316lb ft
● Weight 2125kg
● Power to weight 158bhp per tonne
● Transmission Single-speed, rear-wheel drive
● 0-60mph 5.7sec
● Top speed 118mph
● Range 367 miles (WLTP)
● Verdict More sense than an i4 M50.