Key considerations
- Available for £35,000
- Dual electric motors, all-wheel drive
- Predictably quick and classier than a Tesla
- Crazy amount of weight limits the driving fun
- Well built and so far largely problem-free
- You can get a Taycan for the same money
The G26 i4 M50 was the first all-electric M car. Prior to its announcement in late 2021, the number of M cars with a motor as well as the drive at the back had been the same as the number of fingertips on Ranulph Fiennes’ left hand, i.e. none. The presence of a motor between the rear wheels allowed BMW to lay claim to the old M ethos of sportlicher rear-wheel drivey type handling – but of course there was another motor at the front to balance things up and keep the important safety message front and centre.
All i4 M50s came with a Gran Coupe badge, which as we all know was BMW’s designation for a ‘sedan’ with a heavily raked rear roofline. Some say that the thought process behind the name was that your Gran was typically quite small and could therefore fit nicely in the back. Whatever, the i4 M50s had four doors and a hatch. Many say that made it a five-door, but if you classify a door as something you can go in and out of then really it’s not got five doors. Basically, then, the i4 M50 was a 4 Series Gran Coupe with two electric motors, one at the front with up to 255hp and one at the back with up to 308hp to produce a calculator-busting Sport Boost mode total of 537hp and 586lb ft.
How about the looks, then? Well, if you weren’t sure about BMW’s new front-end style, there was one surefire way to make yourself feel a lot better about it: look at an image of the monstrous XM SUV, which especially in lighter colours has something of the snowplough about it. Compared to that the i4 M50 looks quite handsome, but you may have a different opinion.
When the i4 M50 was announced at the end of 2021 its RRP was £63,825. Three and a bit years later, after a midlife update in the summer of 2024, the RRP had risen to £71,785, but dealers have been discounting that by £10k or more suggesting that the car is not an easy full-price sell for BMW.
It is a popular one though. In January 2025 the manufacturer announced that it was their best-selling M model of 2024, which was the 13th consecutive year of rising sales for the M sub-brand as a whole. The argument about what is an M car and what isn’t will continue to rage, of course. The eye-stingingly ugly XM was another big growth driver. All that was against a background of a doubling of sales of pure electric BMWs in the first nine months of 2022 when the i4 M50 was on sale.
Anyway, the number of new i4 M50s sold means that you’ll have no trouble finding a used one for as little as £32k from the hundred or so you’ll see on sale in the UK at any given moment. The day of the sub-£30k i4 M50 can’t be that far off. Have a squint at the spec below to work out whether you think that represents a lot of performance for the money. Read on to see what the potential catches (if any) might be – and become aware of a mad alternative that isn’t a Tesla.
SPECIFICATION | BMW i4 M50 GRAN COUPE(2022-on)
Engine: 400V Lithium-ion battery, 83.9kWh capacity, twin AC synchronous electric motors
Transmission: single-speed auto, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 537@8,000-17,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 586@0-5,000rpm
0-62mph (secs): 3.9
Top speed (mph): 140
Weight (kg): 2,290
Range (WLTP): 318
Wheels (in): 19
Tyres: 245/45 (f), 255/45 (r)
On sale: 2022 - on
Price new (2022): £63,825
Price now: from £32,000
Note for reference: car weight and power data are hard to pin down with absolute certainty. For consistency, we use the same source for all our guides. We hope the data we use is right more often than it’s wrong. Our advice is to treat it as relative rather than definitive.
ENGINE & GEARBOX
You don’t often see revs quoted in the power and torque specs for EVs but BMW made this data available for the i4 M50. Most PHers would probably have known that peak torque began at zero revs but fewer would have been aware of the high-revving nature of automotive electric motors, in this case spinning to at least 17,000rpm.
With a 400v 83.9kWh battery pack sitting under the floor, the M50 weighed just under 2.3 tonnes, which made it the heaviest non-SUV M car ever. Still, the power-to-weight figure of 235hp per tonne – the same as a BMW M2 – meant that it wasn’t short of performance. Its 0-62mph time of 3.9 seconds was less than half a second down on the all-wheel drive M3 and M4 Comp and exactly the same as the non-xDrive 2WD versions of those two cars.
The i4 M50’s main competitor of course wasn’t another BMW but Tesla’s Model 3, the Performance version of which was quicker through the 0-62 run than any of the aforementioned BMWs and faster on top speed than the i4 M50 at 162mph (the M50 was limited to 140mph). The Tesla went slightly further on a full charge, and it was a few grand cheaper as well. It wasn’t a BMW though, and not everyone was convinced by its styling or perceived quality. The AWD 82kWh model was nearly 400kg lighter than the M50, or nearly 600kg lighter in RWD form. The Tesla’s lightness was both a blessing (for performance) and a curse (if you were looking for a BMW-like sensation of solidity).
In Sport mode the M50’s throttle response could seem a bit snatchy around town, not helped by a small delay between you putting your foot down and something actually happening. Once you got used to that though it was boomshakalak time all the way courtesy of the BEV’s always entertaining party trick of rampant acceleration with no obvious effort. For those interested in towing, the maximum allowable weight was 1,600kg.
Charging at home from a 7kW unit would fill the battery in 12.5 hours, while a nought to 80 per cent top-up could take just over half an hour at a public charger where a quick 10-minute squirt would add 71 miles of range. You’d have to drive like the Pope to get anywhere near the official WLTP 318-mile figure, though. The range suggested by the dash at 100 per cent charge would often be nearer to 220 miles, with the actual distance available on even a relaxed drive usually coming out at 180-190 miles.
Some battery packs have failed, but the eight-year/100,000-mile warranty on these still has a long way to go. As far as we’re aware nobody has been left high and dry. There was a recall in the first part of 2022 to sort out a small number of cars that had been sent out without the correct complement of battery-protecting ‘crash pads’, and another one later that year to rectify battery defects on a batch of cars. In 2023 a recall was put out for dealers to refit a cable bridge connector, followed by another one to fix defective (third party) charger units. Some cell modules needed to be replaced in some cars in 2024, and some ’24 manufactured cars had their longitudinal chassis beams inspected. There have been gear selector issues that have rendered i4s immobile but these are very rare. Servicing on the i4 M50 is typically required every two years or 20,000 miles; BMW Service Inclusive covers servicing costs for at least the first four years. On BEVs these plans can start from £324.
CHASSIS
Unusually, the i4 M50 had a hybrid springing system, steel up front and air at the back, with VDC adaptive dampers. The result was very nice bump absorption on lumpy urban roads and a plate-filling portion of ride refinement at higher speeds. The M50 ducked and dived with the best of them too, which was quite an achievement given the weight of the car, but it would be overstating things to say it was chuckable in the classic M stylie. How could it be with 2.3 tonnes to cart around? The 510hp M4 was nearly half a tonne lighter at 1.8 tonnes and a lot of folk thought that was excessive for an M car.
In Comfort, the i4 M50 ran mainly in rear-wheel drive, switching more into AWD in sportier modes, which in the historical context of M motoring you could say was a bit peculiar but there we are. At least you could introduce an extra degree of back-end fun by dialling back or even fully disabling the DSC (dynamic stability control). DSC calculated what the driver wanted/needed while also trying to give BMW what it wanted to help it develop that M driving experience. A moderate throttle press would trigger a continuously higher proportion of drive torque from the rear motor as speed increased.
In addition of course there were all sorts of nuances through DTC (Dynamic Traction Control) to provide optimum drive on different surfaces like snow or gravel. The system even took into account wind and uphill or downhill gradients as well as axle loadings. BMW said that the fully electric xDrive system would react much faster and much more accurately than any old-fashioned mechanical transfer box. It would take more time and space than we’ve got here to describe it in proper detail, but suffice it to say it was all very clever and worked very well. 19-inch wheels with Pirelli P Zeros were standard, 20-inch optional.
Some driver assist functions have needed software resets to restore them to full capacity. These had to be done at the dealer as no over-the-air solutions were offered in those cases. Stopping a performance EV can be a sub-optimal experience because conventional braking systems aren’t always that well integrated with the slowing effects of battery regeneration. The M50’s was an exception to that general rule, providing a natural-feeling mix of electronic and mechanical retardation once you’d worked out the best level of regen via the touchscreen menu.
BODYWORK
Most M50s you’ll see in the market will be painted black, white, or various shades of grey, which from a jollification point of view seems a pity. There are some blue ones about, though, and (more rarely) a nice dark green.
There were a few raised eyebrows at the sight of the M50’s rather tacked-on rear wheelarch extensions to handle its 12mm greater rear track width (the front track was 26mm wider, with increased negative camber). Tailgates have malfunctioned on early i4s, usually because of dodgy sensors or modules. These have been repaired under warranty. Rattling exterior trim was also reported on early cars.
You didn’t get any extra luggage space at the front of the i4 M50 but that wasn’t a massive problem as there were 470 litres of under-hatch space with the rear seats in place or 1,290 litres with them folded away.
INTERIOR
That thing about your granny fitting in the rear of a Gran Coupe wasn’t so far off the mark as the space back there wasn’t huge. On the plus side, the driving position up front in the M4-style seats was good and, despite the presence of the battery pack below, plenty low enough to generate a sporty feel,
The general look of the interior was deliberately 4 Series rather than iX, so there was nothing in there to frighten the horses. Just good quality materials, nicely assembled. Not everyone was enamoured with BMW’s decision to go down the ‘big info screen and not much switchgear’ route. The M50’s screen looked a bit stuck-on to some and the climate controls were in the menu rather than a knob but it all worked pretty well, even if the need to concentrate on something off to the left rather than straight ahead when travelling at the sort of speeds cars like this are capable of has always seemed like an oddity in these safety-conscious times. Especially when everything else in a car is so carefully designed to match up to the human being’s natural physical requirements.
Still, most would agree that the BMW had rather more premium-osity than the Tesla Model 3, either because of or despite the novelty of IconicSounds Electric, which were drive system sounds created by film score composer Hans Zimmer. These ’created an emotionally engaging driving experience’ via ‘configurable soundscapes’. Well that was the idea anyway. In reality it sounded a bit like the Death Star powering up for a spot of light planet vaporisation. It was very much a Marmite thing. Some loved it, others switched it off more or less immediately and never went near it again.
PH VERDICT
Sales wise the i4 M50 was quite a success. It wasn’t especially radical or different but it looked purposeful, went as quickly as you would probably ever want to go, held a good bit of luggage, and offered a decent range. Whether you would achieve that offering, or anything like it, was another matter.
Reported faults have been few in number. Although there was some moaning at the time about the £64k asking price you did need to remember that you were getting the best part of 540hp and 590lb ft for that. Finding another BMW that offered anything like that price/grunt equation wasn’t easy.
As noted, the Tesla Model 3 beat it on simple performance parameters but jumping into the BMW after a go in one of them you’d immediately notice the difference in perceived (and arguably actual) quality, and in the sophistication and comfort of the chassis. You could put at least some of that down to BMW’s longer and deeper experience in the auto game. The M50 was not a paragon of handling or agility, but it was a solid car that would do a great job for most people. To enjoy it to the full you kind of needed not to get too hung up on the M thing.
The elephant in the room is maybe not so much a Tesla as, madly, a Porsche. At the time of writing in May 2025 there were more Taycans for sale in the UK than any other Porsche model. Because there are fewer keen used Taycan buyers than there are cars, they have unsurprisingly depreciated like billy-o. You can take your pick from a gaggle of Taycans on PH Classifieds right now at under £35k. That’s not a typo. The Taycan is a more sporting drive than the BMW and, well, it’s a Porsche.
EV prices typically reflect, and are in direct relationship with, their mileages. It’s a fear of the unknown thing. The cheapest i4 M50s on PH, albeit with lower mileages than you’ll see on equivalently priced Taycans, were going for the same sort of £35k money as the Porsches, their values having been additionally depressed by an i4 model update early in 2025. This 27,000-mile 2022 car in black was the most affordable one we found at £34,500. Here’s another 2022 car with 20,000 miles at £36,200 and another one from the same year but with 19,000 miles at £36,400.
At the more monied end of the market, just over £42k would put you into this 2023 car with 12,000 miles on it, while just under £48k got you this 6,000-mile 2024 car.
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