BMW i4 eDrive40 M Sport - long-term review

I’ve got the editor-in-chief’s i4 for the foreseeable, and so who better to brief me on what to expect from life with this electric Beemer than the boss himself? Actually not Jack, it turns out. On my first day he’s hunkered down in a studio shooting the magazine’s Awards cover, then he’s straight on a plane to the USA to drive the Tesla Cybertruck, and, and, and… And at the time of writing this report I’ve yet to meet the man in charge of the Top Gear multiverse.

Meaning I turned to the next best thing, a man called Ross. Ross doesn’t work for Top Gear, or employ me, but he is the father of my daughter’s best friend – and a BMW i4 owner. Better yet, he’s the owner of an i4 eDrive40 M Sport, in Brooklyn Grey. Snap!

He previously had a Tesla Model 3, too, but then things just get weird as it turns out his dad also has an i4 eDrive40. In Brooklyn Grey. Not that Ross or his dad knew what each other had ordered.

Bizarre coincidences aside, what does he think of the BMW? “It’s a different car to my Model 3,” Ross explains. “They’re chalk and cheese – you don’t feel like you’re in a tin can as the quality is much better. I prefer the hatchback to the boot on the Tesla too, as you can stand your kids up in it to get them dressed, but then the BMW’s back seats are more cramped and it still has a transmission tunnel hump in the floor.”

Charging? “Not quite as good as the Model 3,” he says with a knowing smile, having covered 50,000 miles in his Tesla with their Supercharger network as a comfort blanket. He now works closer to home and wouldn’t feel as confident in the BMW, mainly because of the public charging network.

Level on points so far, what about the infotainment tech? “Tesla reinvented the whole user interface, and BMW have stuck rigidly with what people know. I preferred the technology in the Tesla, but in the BMW you’re not always having to look to the left-hand side as there’s a screen behind the steering wheel.”

No clear winner yet then, so if Ross had to go again, Tesla or BMW? “I’d probably go for something different,” he declares, leaving my hopes for a verdict in tatters. He had fun in the Tesla, loved its long-distance ability, but wanted more, and while the i4 is his fourth BMW, after a succession of 3 Series saloons and Tourings, he wants his next EV to stand out from what’s come before.

So where does that leave me? With my own mind up to make, and quick, as the BMW i4 departs the Top Gear Garage soon. Much work to be done…

Words: Ben Pulman