Here is the first drive review of BMW’s electric car i4. Its first fully electric sedan. Tune in.
Drive i’m sony that bmw has always been known to put drivers needs first which is why we were very curious to find out whether the electric cars would also retain this aspect here’s to him with the first drive review of the bmw i4 now if you happen to be someone who likes cars and driving then this rapid shift towards electrification looks quite bleak right but if
There was one car maker who you could count on to keep delivering the thrills even in this one dimensional age it would have to be bmw right that job rests on the bmw i4 for now it’s the first fully electric bmw sedan after all the numbers look good this i4 e drive 40 is rear wheel drive makes 340ps and 430 newton meter and can do its claims 0-100 kmph time of
5.7 seconds even in pouring rain pretty much the time tested bmw sport sedan formula then now on the road we’re happy to report that the situation is heartening the iphone feels quite a bit like what it is exactly a four series that happens to be electric so yes the typical four-cylinder grumble or they’re quite lively power delivery that you would otherwise find
In a bmw of this type is in there it’s replaced by quite a monotonous but brisker ev torque delivery that typically flat ev talk curve but put it into sport mode and the throttle response is sharp enough to bring back some of that excitement and of course the steering weighs up and the whole thing feels a touch more engaging then and of course you know how when you
Put your foot down a bmw always gives you the thrills with that in your seat action that still continues with the iphone for most the date driving you have the eco pro and comfort modes the comfort mode finds a nice middle ground performance is still sprightly and the steering light enough to not feel like a chore in traffic switching to eco pro is best kept for
Longer journeys but you might need to conserve charge the iphone feels a touch labored here but is still perfectly usable if you find yourself in heavy traffic or even on the highway but we found it easiest to just leave the iphone in the braking mode in crowded conditions especially since you don’t get paddles to choose between the three levels of regen in this
B mode the iphone can be driven with just one pedal slowing down to a complete halt with just the electric motor this harvests a significant amount of energy and makes life quite simple when you get used to it but the experience is so close to what you might get from a 3 series isn’t surprising the iphone uses a heavily revised iteration of the clar architecture
You’d find that most combustion engine bmws but the structure has been enhanced to handle the added weight of the ev with new torsion struts sheer panels and a front subframe even the suspension setup is unique here that’s not a whole lot to separate the i4 and 320ld in terms of creature comforts both get a panoramic sunroof three zone climate controlled powered
Front seats acoustic glass and leather upholstery but if you are looking for rear seat comfort and are driven around a lot the grand limousine is the one to pick it’s got a 105 mm longer wheelbase than the iphone and has 43 mm more rear leg room than a standard 3 series foreign event thanks to these frameless doors you find them on most bmw coupes but the real
Show stopper here is this new idrive 8 system it’s this huge monolithic curved display and while it is intimidating at first it’s you’ve got these vibrant graphics and these crisp colors it’s quite easy to get used to it’s got a phone like layout with these many icons and you also get physical redundancies here to sort of guide you through them so while there are
Many sub menus they are quite easy to get used to now the iphone’s battery is quite slim it’s only about 110 mm thick which means that that low committed driving position that you like in bmw sedans that has been carried over to an extent you still sit a bit higher up the floor is a bit higher and you still have that large steering wheel perfectly positioned in
Front of you now the disadvantage of carrying on from an ic architecture is that you don’t get those wide open storage spaces that you so expect in an ev so you still have this white center console you still have regular size dope octets and the floor is still quite high so space management isn’t quite what you would expect in an evening but since everything has
Been carried over from the ic engine bmws you get that same level that very high level of fit finish and quality so in that way the 70 lakhs that you spend on this feel well worth it the iphone is best used as a four-seater there’s more headroom than the sloping roofline suggests especially if you are of average height but the marginally higher floor does eat into
Under thigh support for rear passengers there’s also a large central tunnel that will make life difficult for the third passenger both spaces are useful for 70 liters especially with a large hatch and the folding second row but with the motor the rear there is no spare wheel a significant drawback considering our road conditions now another great trait of the
Iphone is its ride comfort even with these 19-inch m spot wheels the i4 will handle most of our road imperfections quite competently of course it’s got a typically stiff ev suspension so there is some pitching at bobbing especially at low speeds but that fades away as speeds build and then the iphone just seems to glide over quite confidently pretty much everything
That you can throw at it as long as they’re not too large speed breakers or portals because it only has 125 mm of ground clearance and of course not that much suspension travels so you have to be careful over those but other than that it’s a calming comforting experience pretty much however you drive it and then when you want to get feisty behind the wheel the
Iphone still delivers of course it can’t quite hide its two-ton curb weight it’s an ev with a large battery pack but throw it into a corner and you realize that that poise and balance that you expect in a bmw sedan in the way it feels so confident that’s still present and there is some sensation to it as well and like many other evs so you’ll find that the iphone
Will sort of twitch and squirm underneath you but it will still stay true to its line so that’s quite exciting but hold on a second because for a few lakhs more than the iphone about four or five lakhs you can get yourself into one of these the 530i m sport which is a proper old-school bmw to start with it’s a bigger car than the iphone and the 3 series you will
Look at the 530 for the sheer driving pleasure it offers to start with the two liter petrol is fizzy it’s vibrant it’s got great alert power delivery and then with the adaptive chassis that this has the adaptive damper the car just stays poised and glides over the road whether you’re you know going across a set of bends or you’re just on a nice highway cruise it
Just feels composed and rock steady all the time either way the bmw i4 should interest you even if you aren’t an especially enthusiastic driver it’s wltp range is 590 kilometers and in the real world the iphone does better than most tvs we’ve driven so far in getting close to these numbers we managed a city range figure of 495 kilometers which is largely down
To the quite effective b mode the system recoups a significant amount of energy and the power unit 2 seems efficient in general the addition of a heat pump also adds to this impressive range figure equally impressive is the iphone’s efficiency on the highway we managed 472 kilometers of highway range it’s only a slight tip probably down to the commendable 0.24
Coefficient of drag a useful addition is the charging features integrated into the idrive system it allows you to control not just pre-conditioning and such charging the schedules but will even let you control the current level and the cooling fans surprisingly we think the bmw i4 is one of the better value bmws you can buy right now yes it could do with better
Practicality and maybe some more creature comforts but for just under rupees 74 lakh on-road mumbai you get an ev with genuine long distance ability that doesn’t seem to come at the cost of driving character it bodes well for the future yes we actually have reached that point in time but if you have 70 to 80 lakhs to spare then you can
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What's New About BMW Electric Cars? : First Drive Review Of BMW i4 | Overdrive | CNBC-TV18 By CNBC-TV18
