I should go to one of those events and have fun with the people that put it on.
BMW i4 M50 - Fat and Furious
Hi guys!
BMW does this marketing roadshow every year that they call the "Driving Experience Tour". They bring along 10 or so BMW models for street test drives, and pick one special model for a parking lot autocross. This year the autocross diva was the i4 M50, BMW's new electric vehicle based on the 4-series hatchback.
My full thoughts on the i4 M50 are here, but I thought I'd share some of my takeaways here. It was an eye-opening experience about the pros and cons of building an EV off of an internal-combustion platform.
Pros:
Cons:
I'd hoped that BMW would use some M magic on the i4 M50 it make it dance like an M car, but really the i4 M50 moves like other powerful EVs. It overachieves in a straight line and underachieves in the corners.
Best!
Mike
![]()
![]()
![]()
BMW does this marketing roadshow every year that they call the "Driving Experience Tour". They bring along 10 or so BMW models for street test drives, and pick one special model for a parking lot autocross. This year the autocross diva was the i4 M50, BMW's new electric vehicle based on the 4-series hatchback.
My full thoughts on the i4 M50 are here, but I thought I'd share some of my takeaways here. It was an eye-opening experience about the pros and cons of building an EV off of an internal-combustion platform.
Pros:
- The i4 M50 looks nearly identical to a 4-series, which means it is very pretty from 3 out of 4 sides. 😂 There's no wacko EV styling to turn you off of the i4.
- The i4 M50 is very powerful with 536hp and 586 lb-ft. In EV fashion, it launches as hard.
- Like a V2 CTS-V, the i4 M50 has a good balance of ride quality and body control. It never hides its considerable weight, but it handles its heft well.
Cons:
- Making an EV out of a gas-car platform resulted in huge weight, and also packaging bloopers like a floor with a transmission tunnel bump in a car with no transmission.
- The curb weight is 5018 lbs! The i4 M50 may accelerate with fury, but it's undeniably fat!
- Those poor front tires, they have so much work to do in the corners.
- The i4 M50 may be as powerful as an M3, but it doesn't have sports car reflexes. There's no extraordinary agility in the i4 M50, and it lacks trick LSDs.
I'd hoped that BMW would use some M magic on the i4 M50 it make it dance like an M car, but really the i4 M50 moves like other powerful EVs. It overachieves in a straight line and underachieves in the corners.
Best!
Mike
3
1 - 11 of 11 Posts
Why have a grill?Hi guys!
BMW does this marketing roadshow every year that they call the "Driving Experience Tour". They bring along 10 or so BMW models for street test drives, and pick one special model for a parking lot autocross. This year the autocross diva was the i4 M50, BMW's new electric vehicle based on the 4-series hatchback.
My full thoughts on the i4 M50 are here, but I thought I'd share some of my takeaways here. It was an eye-opening experience about the pros and cons of building an EV off of an internal-combustion platform.
Pros:
- The i4 M50 looks nearly identical to a 4-series, which means it is very pretty from 3 out of 4 sides. 😂 There's no wacko EV styling to turn you off of the i4.
- The i4 M50 is very powerful with 536hp and 586 lb-ft. In EV fashion, it launches as hard.
- Like a V2 CTS-V, the i4 M50 has a good balance of ride quality and body control. It never hides its considerable weight, but it handles its heft well.
Cons:
- Making an EV out of a gas-car platform resulted in huge weight, and also packaging bloopers like a floor with a transmission tunnel bump in a car with no transmission.
- The curb weight is 5018 lbs! The i4 M50 may accelerate with fury, but it's undeniably fat!
- Those poor front tires, they have so much work to do in the corners.
- The i4 M50 may be as powerful as an M3, but it doesn't have sports car reflexes. There's no extraordinary agility in the i4 M50, and it lacks trick LSDs.
I'd hoped that BMW would use some M magic on the i4 M50 it make it dance like an M car, but really the i4 M50 moves like other powerful EVs. It overachieves in a straight line and underachieves in the corners.
Best!
Mike
![]()
![]()
![]()
How else would you recognize it as a BMW?
Curiously, while the top 75% of the grill is sealed closed, the bottom 25% takes in air. I don't know what, if anything, the in flow of air is cooling. (In BMW's iX SUV the grill is 100% sealed.)
1 - 11 of 11 Posts
