BMW i3 review

Impressive, as you’d expect. Only the i3 50 xDrive has been available to us to test so far, and a fabulous manifesto for BMW’s mastery of electrification it is too.

There’s a motor on each axle, although it’s the rear one that does most of the heavy lifting. It’s an electrically excited synchronous motor, so the magnetic field in the rotor is more flexible which means higher torque and a more consistent power delivery, and reduced losses. The motor at the front is an asynchronous one, which is smaller and lighter. BMW says the Gen 6 battery tech reduces energy losses overall by 40 per cent, costs by 20 per cent and weight by 10 per cent.

That clever Heart of Joy processor governs all the car’s dynamics: the dual motors, traction control, ESP, steering, and the brakes. It operates so quickly that the correct amount of torque is fed to the right wheel for the conditions before you’re aware of what’s going on. If it sounds like the ultimate driving machine has gone Orwellian and ceded authority to an invisible higher authority, well, maybe.

But in the real world, on the right road, it’s unarguable. Sophisticated multi-link suspension all-round and clever anti-roll bars maintain order, and while the ride on bigger wheels isn’t quite as polished, it does feel much tighter than the sometimes overly soft Mercedes C-Class Electric.

Room for adjustment?

Personal, Sport, Efficient or Silent drive modes are available. We couldn’t help deferring to Efficient, despite the i3’s more than capable chassis. We’d need a longer run on UK roads to determine exactly how efficient Efficient is, but we know from time in the iX3 that BMW’s claims are usually on the money.

The M60 xDrive will gain paddleshifters and a gearbox simulation similar but not identical to Porsche’s excellent E-Shift system. BMW calls it M Dynamic Performance Control. We’re looking forward to trying that; the 463bhp i3 50 xDrive could use a little extra level of interaction, particularly given its steering is also a little light in anything other than Sport mode. Actually, while we're on that subject, there's also no physical button to change drive modes on the fly. Shame.

What about the braking?

It’s mostly done by regeneration. In fact, if you have the navigation on it’ll know where to brake, so you’re barely thinking about it. BMW’s also come up with something called Soft Stop, a kind of in-built chauffeur. The friction brakes only really come into play if you’re on an absolute mission or doing an emergency stop. Hopefully the latter is not a consequence of the former.

Anything else?

If the i3 feels kinda big for a supposedly compact sports saloon, that’s because it is. The i3 50 xDrive also weighs 2,280kg, which isn’t overly hefty for an EV with a 100kWh+ battery but it’s still no featherweight.

Should you drive one back-to-back with the new M350 xDrive petrol car, you’ll notice that it doesn’t dive in and out of corners with the same alacrity, or change direction as seamlessly. Better to back off a bit and lean into the serenity it delivers instead. This is a truly lovely car to operate at seven-tenths.