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BMW i4 Concept EV Is A 530BHP Sports Saloon With 270-Mile Range

The award for the most pointlessly large grille in the world goes to the, you guessed it, BMW i4 Concept! This fully-electric i car from the German brand acts as a preview to what the i4 will officially be on its release in 2021. And despite it not needing air for any form of combustion, it has the largest grille we’ve ever seen on a BMW of this size.

I must admit, even BMW isn’t calling this a grille. Instead, they’re calling it an “intelligence panel”, thanks to its housing of several sensors for what we expect is some form of autonomous driving. I dread to think how much it would be to repair if it got dinged in a car park. And no, this isn’t just for the concept, BMW has confirmed that we should expect something very similar on the production model.

Overall, the car looks fit for the road, with maybe only a few tweaks to the more angular parts of the aero kit such as the diffuser and maybe the wing mirror. The interior is looking very concept car-like, so will more than likely be adapted for the production model, although BMW says the cockpit will be driver-focussed. The curved, low-glare screen of the dash will also be carried forward to the production car.

Accessible through this display are three different “Experience Modes”, which reflect the future of the BMW operating system that will be used from next year onwards. The three modes are Core, Sport, and Efficient, which are mostly self-explanatory. Core gives you the main information and allows you to swipe and arrange widgets as you want. Sport pulls these widgets closer together and allows for information such as lap timers to be seen, and Efficient gives you a reading of how efficient the car is being with all other unimportant information being deleted from view.

Sporty? Yes, this car’s pretty fast. With just a single motor producing 530 bhp, it can reach 62mph in just 4.0 seconds. But when it’s being driven carefully, its 80 kWh battery allows for an estimated EPA range of 270 miles. We’re unsure as to how this will change in the production version, but BMW likes to think it will remain largely the same – although more range would be nice.

The production car will be seen next year, so we’ll look forward to seeing how it’s adapted for the road.

Alex Harrington

Alex started racing at a young age so certainly knows his way around a car and a track. He can just about put a sentence together too, which helps. He has a great interest in the latest models, but would throw all of his money at a rusty old French classic and a 300ZX. Contact: [email protected]

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