Yesterday, BMW officially announced that
the i4 electric sedan will make its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show next
week in concept guise. We all know that the Concept i4 will be a
thinly-disguised production model. Speaking of the car people will actually be
able to buy, a BMW i4 prototype was spotted again undergoing cold weather
testing in the northern Sweden.
This gave our photographers the
opportunity to take pictures of the interior, revealing several updates since
the last time we got to peek inside the i4. Similarly to the iX5 electric SUV,
the main infotainment screen and the digital instrument panel have a
rectangular shape and form a single unit, unlike the separate displays borrowed
from the 3 Series we saw in an earlier prototype.
The rest of the dashboard however, appears
to be similar in design to that of the 3-Series but this i4 test car appears to
no longer feature hard buttons right underneath the center vents. The switches
seem to have been moved lower. The multifunction steering wheel looks identical
to what BMW uses in its latest models, featuring a three-spoke design and the
usual controls.
On the outside, the BMW i4 continues to be
fully covered with camouflage tape, though we can spot an interesting detail in
these photos – the snow chains mounted on the rear wheels only. This means this
particular prototype is rear-wheel drive, with reports claiming BMW will offer
two RWD variants of the i4, badged i4 60 sDrive and i4 80 sDrive. There will
also be an AWD model expected to sport the i4 80 xDrive badge.
While these model variants will be
available in North America and Europe, BMW’s home continent could get the i4 in
several other flavors. The 2021 BMW i4 will offer up to 523 HP, which
means it will sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in around four seconds and
will hit a limited top speed of 200 km/h.
A new battery with a capacity of roughly
80 kWh will give the i4 a WLTP driving range of around 600 km on a
single charge. Thanks to a charging capacity of up to 150 kW, the i4’s battery
will need around 35 minutes to reach 80 percent. A six-minute charge will yield
around 100 km of charge. Expect the production BMW i4 to debut
sometime next year, with more information about it to find their way online
after the concept debuts next week.
