Photo: BMW
Founded as BMW Motorsport GmbH in 1972, the go-faster division started rather humbly, with only 35 employees to its name. A force to be reckoned with right off the bat, BMW M GmbH developed the likes of the 2002 Turbo and M1 supercar all the way to the atrocity known as XM.
Currently developing the ultimate electric driving machine, BMW M ended 2022 with record sales. No fewer than 177,257 vehicles were delivered last year, up 8.4 percent compared to 2021 despite a few notable difficulties in terms of logistics and supply chains. The United States of America was the performance-oriented brand’s most important market, followed by Germany and the United Kingdom, according to the attached press release.
Said release also reveals that an electric vehicle was the best-selling M of 2022, namely the i4 M50. “This is a clear signal that the unique M feeling has arrived in the world of electrified vehicles,” declared head of customer, brand, and sales Timo Resch. The company didn’t provide a detailed breakdown of sales, so we don’t know how many i4 M50s were delivered.
Codenamed G26 – just like the 4 Series Gran Coupe on which it’s based – the i4 is manufactured at BMW Group Plant Munich in Germany. The Bavarian automaker paused vehicle production for six weeks in the summer of 2020 to gear up for the zero-emission i4 luxury sedan, which requires different production procedures compared to its combustion-engined kin.
The 4 Series Gran Coupe doesn’t have a full-on M variant, only an M Performance variant in the form of the M440i with rear- or all-wheel drive. The i4 M50 that sold better than every other M in 2022 is considered a member of the M Performance family as well, not a true, bonafide M car.
Be that as it may, its dual-motor setup is more powerful and torquier than the Competition-spec version of the S58 engine. Lower down the spectrum, the i4 comes with rear-wheel drive in the form of the eDrive40 and eDrive35.
Have a wild guess which of these three has the best driving range of the bunch. That would be the middle-of-the-pack eDrive40, which promises 301 miles (484 kilometers) under the EPA’s testing protocol. The eDrive35 makes do with 256 miles (412 kilometers), whereas the range-topping i4 M50 promises up to 270 miles (435 kilometers) in the U.S.A.
Based on the CLAR cluster architecture of the 4 Series Gran Coupe, the i4 currently starts at $51,400 sans destination charge in this part of the world. The eDrive40 is $55,900 at press time, whereas $67,300 gets you the M50. The latter’s pricing is pretty good in comparison to the M4 Coupe in Competition xDrive specification, namely $82,400 excluding destination.
Said release also reveals that an electric vehicle was the best-selling M of 2022, namely the i4 M50. “This is a clear signal that the unique M feeling has arrived in the world of electrified vehicles,” declared head of customer, brand, and sales Timo Resch. The company didn’t provide a detailed breakdown of sales, so we don’t know how many i4 M50s were delivered.
Codenamed G26 – just like the 4 Series Gran Coupe on which it’s based – the i4 is manufactured at BMW Group Plant Munich in Germany. The Bavarian automaker paused vehicle production for six weeks in the summer of 2020 to gear up for the zero-emission i4 luxury sedan, which requires different production procedures compared to its combustion-engined kin.
The 4 Series Gran Coupe doesn’t have a full-on M variant, only an M Performance variant in the form of the M440i with rear- or all-wheel drive. The i4 M50 that sold better than every other M in 2022 is considered a member of the M Performance family as well, not a true, bonafide M car.
Be that as it may, its dual-motor setup is more powerful and torquier than the Competition-spec version of the S58 engine. Lower down the spectrum, the i4 comes with rear-wheel drive in the form of the eDrive40 and eDrive35.
Have a wild guess which of these three has the best driving range of the bunch. That would be the middle-of-the-pack eDrive40, which promises 301 miles (484 kilometers) under the EPA’s testing protocol. The eDrive35 makes do with 256 miles (412 kilometers), whereas the range-topping i4 M50 promises up to 270 miles (435 kilometers) in the U.S.A.
Based on the CLAR cluster architecture of the 4 Series Gran Coupe, the i4 currently starts at $51,400 sans destination charge in this part of the world. The eDrive40 is $55,900 at press time, whereas $67,300 gets you the M50. The latter’s pricing is pretty good in comparison to the M4 Coupe in Competition xDrive specification, namely $82,400 excluding destination.
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