BMW i4 review

Oof, prices have taken a hike recently. And not for the first time. The most basic i4 is now the eDrive35 at £51k, while the eDrive40 with its extra range and power is eight grand more. Want the M Sport pack? That’s another £1,500.

Fancy going the whole hog and M60ing your life away? We wouldn’t bother, but if you’re not to be dissuaded by us, how about by its gargantuan price tag? £72k, if you please. Though an Audi e-tron GT starts at almost £20k more and is slower and less powerful...

Help me spec mine.

Right, you want the eDrive40 - the best balance between price and ability - but that comes on 17s as standard. The optional 19s are pricey but look suitably futuristic, and the chassis is sophisticated enough to cope with them.

We’re not massively keen on the leather, so save yourself money there. Then there are various packs, most of which give you stuff you want next to stuff you don’t want. Most of the options are selectable individually if you venture a bit deeper into the configurator.

What’s it going to cost on lease?

These things are ever variable, and liable to huge swings up and down depending on interest rates (snore) and which dealers have a few piled up to get rid of. A well-specced i4 eDrive40 is likely to be around £700 per month on a four-year, 10,000 mile per year deal.

As we write (early 2026), an M60 adds little more than £50p/m to this; if bragging rights or showmanship are your thing, the premium is less than ten per cent. And hey, the outgoing M50 has been M Division's bestseller several years running. People like it.

Yeah, a petrol 4 Series Gran Coupe is going to be cheaper to buy/lease and perhaps more fun to run. But if you can charge at home, the i4 will start to claw cost back reasonably quickly.

And don’t charge away from home if you can avoid it; the EV cost argument soon falls flat on its face. Though BMW might cut you a deal on reduced rapid DC charger rates for those moments on a long motorway slog where you simply have to top up.