Electric BMW i4 will get up to 523bhp and 370-mile range - but won't arrive until 2021

Electric BMW i4 will get up to 526bhp

BMW has revealed some of the specs for the electric BMW i4, BMW’s first electric saloon, promising 523bhp and 370-mile range. But not until 2021.

The headlines for the new electric BMW i4, revealed officially by BMW, look very appealing, although you’ll be waiting until 2021 if you want to get behind the wheel of BMW’s first electric saloon.

But when the new i4 does arrive in BMW’s showrooms it will be inspired by the BMW i Vision Dynamics we saw a couple of years ago and boast specs which will rival Tesla’s Model 3 and Model S.

The shouty bits are that the i4 will come with BMW’s fifth-generation eDrive system, just like the upcoming electric iX3 which arrives next year, an 80kWh battery pack, 370-mile range, 523bhp and 0-62mph in around 4.0 seconds.

It will also charge at rates of up to 150kW, which means it will be able to grab an 80 per cent charge in a bit over half an hour. Which you can live with, although 350kW would have been better.

But promising though the i4 is, it’s in the queue behind the BMW iX3 and the iNext in the race to get BMW EVs to market, with the iX3 scheduled for a 2020 launch and the iNext for a 2021 launch. Only then will the i4 arrive.

In reality, the electric i4 specs BMW is teasing us with will be for the range-topping model – think ‘M’ i4 – and there will inevitably be i4 models will smaller battery packs and less power to build a range of electric 4 Series cars.

And with two years to go before the i4 launches, expect more dribbles of information from BMW at regular intervals.