It’s now three years since BMW whipped up a ton of controversy by revealing the current 4-Series Coupe and its jumbo double kidney grilles. The automaker and its design team stood firm, confident that we’d all come around to the look, just as we eventually embraced flame surfacing two decades earlier. And underlining that confidence in its original go-bold decision, the facelifted versions of every member of the 4-Series family, including the four-door Gran coupe seen here, and its i4 EV sister shown at the foot of the post, wear their grilles loud and proud in every one of the spy shots that have crossed our desks in recent months.

In fact, BMW seems so so sure it got the original designs right for the 4-Series Coupe, Convertible, Gran Coupe, M4 and i4, that it’s made almost no changes to the way they’ll look for the next three years. The only way most of us will be able to tell the current cars from the new versions arriving this fall and early in 2024 is by the new lighting signature visible at the front and rear of each. The shape of the light units themselves won’t change, but the arrangement of the DRLS and the rear LED pattern will be tweaked.

 

Judging by this white 4-Series’ side marker lights it’s a U.S. spec car being tested in Europe and the fairly aggressive bumpers, black window trim and large wheels say it’s wearing the optional M Sport kit (US$ 2,750 at current prices). That, and the round tailpipes, would make it a 430i, so powered by BMW’s 2.0-liter Twin-Power inline four that’s rated at 255 hp in its current form. The top-dog Gran Coupe, the M440i (there’s no M4 Gran Coupe), looks similar but has rectangular exhaust tailpipes.

The i4 EV seen below also appears unchanged apart from new lights front and rear, though it’s possible that more subtle changes will become apparent when the disguise is removed. We also wouldn’t be surprised if BMW made some modifications to the powertrain and battery setups to liberate a few more miles from a full charge. Though the mid-spec, single-motor eDrive40 offers a reasonable 484 km range, the base eDrive35’s smaller battery pegs it back to 418 km, and the high-performance M50 is rated at just 394 km.