The BMW M division’s first ever fully-electric car is here in Singapore, but does the i4 M50 retain the essence that makes it a true M car?

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Text: Ben Chia and Leow Ju-Len
Photos: Leow Ju-Len and Lionel Kong

SINGAPORE

The BMW i4 M50 is one of those cars that’s all about numbers, so here are the key ones: the price in Singapore is S$412,888 including all rebates and the Certificate Of Entitlement, the range is a claimed 510 kilometres on a single charge, and with 544 horsepower and 795 Newton-metres under the bonnet (and the boot), the i4 M50 accelerates to 100km/h in just 3.9 seconds.

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Beyond numbers, there’s plenty of nuance, though. With a combustion car if you wanted more performance you would add cylinders and maybe tack on a turbo. In the electric era you add motors, so the i4 M50 has a twin motor setup, with one for each axle giving it all-wheel drive. In contrast, the eDrive40 version that we drove earlier has a single motor for the rear wheels.

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That 544 hp figure for the i4 M50 needs some unpacking, though. It’s actually only doled out in 10-second bursts when you double tap the drive mode selector and put the i4 M50 in Sport Boost mode, which also turns up the synthesised whirr blasting through the speakers to accompany the acceleration.

It makes the i4 M50 pretty vocal, but if anything it needs to be louder, because I guarantee the first time you launch the car you’ll say a few words you don’t want your children to hear. Many electric cars feel urgent, and the i4 M50’s flood of instant torque makes it seriously rapid, but it’s unusually muscular at the top end. The acceleration keeps going and going, long past the point you expect it to taper off, by which time your licence is in serious peril. 

The thing is though, it’s not difficult to make an electric car go fast. Tesla manages it with a family-sized SUV, and even a relatively mainstream EV like the BYD Atto 3 can offer fairly brisk acceleration pace. The key is whether a legacy carmaker like BMW can retain the essence of the brand, and differentiate themselves from the newer upstarts in this electric era.

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In some ways, the i4 M50 fulfils that brief. Blistering speed aside, the i4 boasts the kind of handling chops that would please any BMW enthusiast. The car feels remarkably fluid and composed through the bends, and while the phrase ‘cornering on rails’ seems like an overdone cliche, the i4 does have an uncanny ability to stick to the road really rather well.

No surprise then, given that the M50 does get some added chassis enhancements over the regular i4, including bits like M adaptive suspension, variable sport steering, special anti-roll bars, and strut tower brace on the front. Part of it could also boil down to the extra stability offered by the dual-motor, all-wheel-drive setup, which gives the car some very self-assured road holding manners. 

At the same time however, as Ju-Len notes, the extra motor can seem a bit overpowering, and the M50 has a tendency to torque steer if you are too enthusiastic with the power. It just loses that little bit of balance that the eDrive40 offers, which is mildly disappointing for what is supposed to be a flagship M-badged car, but ultimately you’ll just have to decide for yourself which you’d prefer by driving both cars back to back.

The M50’s range of 510km is more than the 424km of the eDrive40, ostensibly due to the larger battery, but if you’re going to use the Sport Boost mode judiciously, you will have to cater for some allowance in range reduction. That said, the car’s efficiency figures of 19.8kWh/100km can be easily matched or bettered, and we got down to as low as 16kWh/100km during our three day test drive, so a theoretical range in excess of at least 400km is eminently achievable.

Externally, the i4 M50 does looks fairly nondescript, with a slightly different front bumper treatment with blacked-out aerodynamic elements, a sporty body kit, a small rear spoiler, 19-inch wheels and M badging littered around the car the only real visual identifiers to mark the car out from its lesser brethren. 

Inside, the car is nearly identical to the eDrive40, with the exception of a unique M sports steering wheel, as well as the usual M badges everywhere. This means you get the large 14.9-inch curved infotainment touchscreen that combines with the 12.3-inch driver display to look like one continuous large screen. It also comes with BMW’s latest OS 8 operating system, which looks great but does require a bit of time to get to grips with given its sheer complexity.

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The rest of the i4 M50 is as per usual, with a pretty generous 470 litre boot, expandable to 1,290 litres if the rear seats are folded down. It’s a little less accommodating for rear passengers though, with headroom being compromised by the swooping roofline, and legroom rather limited. It’s broadly acceptable for regular-sized adults on short journeys, but you probably wouldn’t want to be there for long.

As the flagship variant, the i4 M50 does come fairly well-equipped, with the car coming with BMW’s Driving Assistant package, which incorporates functions like lane departure warning, lane change warning, and collision prevention warning, among others, as standard. There is also a S$29,000 Launch Edition package that offers a model-specific Frozen Portimao Blue paintwork, carbon fibre trims inside and outside, a full-length glass sunroof, and unique 20-inch wheels.

The idea of an electric M car can be hard to wrap one’s head around, but it does bear remembering that the i40 M50 is not a full-fledged M machine, but rather one from the slightly lower tier M Performance department. While on paper, the figures are more than a match for, say, a Tesla Model 3 Performance, an M car should be so much more than numbers. We look forward to the day when the M division gets its hands on producing a real, proper M electric car, but until then, we’ll just have to make do with the i4 M50 as a ‘warm’ solution.

BMW i4 M50

Drivetrain type	Full electric
Electric Motor / layout	Dual / All-Wheel-Drive
Motor power / torque	544hp / 795Nm
Battery type /net capacity	Lithium ion / 81.5kWh
Normal Charge Type / Time	11kW AC wallbox / 8.25 hours
Max Fast Charge Type / Time	205kW DC / 31 mins 10 to 80 percent
Electric Range	510km (claimed)
0-100km/h	3.9 seconds
Top Speed	225km/h (limited)
Efficiency	19.8 kWh/100km
VES Band	A2 / -S$15,000
Agent	Performance Munich Autos
Price	S$412,888 including VES, EEAI rebates and COE
Availability	Now
Verdict:	First electric car from the M division is fast and good to drive, but lacks that sparkle that makes it a real M car

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