BMW i4
Published · Researched 2026-09-21
Nobody buys a BMW i4 by accident. You buy it because you drove one and the steering talked to you, and then you spend the next month rationalizing the price. Here's the rationalization, and its limits.
The i4 is BMW's electric 4 Series Gran Coupé — a proper liftback sedan on shared architecture, which means it feels like a car rather than a gadget showcase. For 2026 the lineup got cleaner: the slow-selling eDrive35 is gone, the M50 is now the M60 with 593 horsepower, and silicon-carbide inverters stretch the eDrive40's EPA range to an estimated 333 miles. Pricing runs $57,900 (eDrive40) to $70,700 (M60) before destination in the US.
The driving is the whole pitch, and the owner forums back it up with unusual unanimity. "To drive superb" is the representative verdict, and it keeps showing up in different words: steering with actual feel, balance that reminds you this is a BMW first and an EV second, a quiet and refined cabin, and a hatchback that's genuinely practical. The eDrive40's real-world efficiency satisfies owners — 333 miles of EPA range in a car this pleasant is nothing to sneeze at. One forum owner summed up the ownership experience about as well as it can be summed: "I4 is a great car. I don't think anything is wrong except maybe it's priced a bit high compared to its competitors?" That question mark is doing honest work.
Because the price is the first real complaint. $58k–$71k puts the i4 against the Tesla Model 3 Performance, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, and the Polestar 2 — all cheaper, most faster in a straight line. You're paying for the badge, the interior, and the chassis tuning. Whether that's worth it is personal, but the used market has already voted: depreciation is steep, and the forums are blunt that buying used beats buying new by a wide margin. First owners take the hit; second owners get a superb EV sedan for sensible money.
The reliability picture is refreshingly boring compared to the rest of this cluster — no ICCU-style saga, no bricking-update epidemic. What exists is the usual premium-EV background noise, and you should know its shape: software and update loops, infotainment or driver-assistance warnings, profiles and preferences that reset themselves. Occasional charging-component or drivetrain failures show up as individual cases — one owner reported a breakdown at 2,000 miles — but there's no pattern suggesting a systemic fault. Dealer wait times and parts availability are inconsistent, which is annoying rather than alarming.
The M cars deserve their own paragraph. The M60's 593 hp is hilarious and the range penalty is real; owners of the M50/M60 report substantially shorter range and expensive tires as the cost of the fun. Big-wheel M Sport cars ride firmly, and there are scattered reports of wind noise, rattles, and brake/regen blending quirks. The base seats take a beating in long-trip reports too — one forum verdict called them "crap" on longer journeys, so spec carefully if you tour.
A word on the evidence itself, because honesty requires it: this is the thinnest social file in the European half of the group. The owner forums are strong and the Threads posts are positive ("Test drove a 2025 BMW i4 today and fell in love"), but I couldn't extract posts from the 38,000-member Facebook owners group and found no usable Instagram owner content. The picture is consistent enough to trust the shape — great to drive, pricey, depreciates — but treat the complaint list as provisional rather than exhaustive.
The social pulse, such as it is: warm. This is the only car in the cluster whose community's main argument is about value rather than reliability. Nobody's organizing lemon-law petitions; they're debating whether the badge premium is worth it and advising each other to buy used. That's a good sign wearing a price tag.
Value call: new, it's a heart-over-head purchase at $57.9k–$70.7k. Used — one to three years old, eDrive40, warranty remaining — it's one of the most compelling premium EVs you can buy. Aim for a 2025: the facelift year — updated looks, iDrive 8.5, charging-optimized routing — with a full window of lease-return inventory as someone else has already eaten the depreciation. Skip 2022s — first-year cars with early iDrive 8 and the highest-mileage examples — and be cautious with 2026s: you'd pay near-new money for a transitional final year just as the Neue Klasse i3 arrives to make it feel old. The rational pick is the eDrive40; the M60 is for people who've already decided rationality is someone else's problem.
Skip it if you need maximum range per dollar, want cutting-edge EV tech rather than a great chassis with batteries in it, or flinch at BMW options pricing. Buy it — used — if you love driving and want the EV that feels least like an appliance. The i4 doesn't shout about the future. It just drives beautifully, and right now the used market is practically begging you to let someone else pay full price for that.