[Hans]

We all know by now that the i4 eDrive40 will give you up to 590 km's of range. If you are lucky.
And we also know that the die hard race drivers aiming for an M50 will have to settle for only 510 km's.

But how realistic is it really?

What happens if you don't like driving around like your grandma, but feel like you can improve on Max Verstappen's driving style any time? Or what will happen if you have to deal with the icy winters of Canada or Norway? Or if you are one of the lucky guys living in Greece and driving around with the A/C on full power 9 out of 10 days?

Actually BMW is lying to us all. The i4's maximum range is nowhere near 590 km's.
What if I told you it is more?

On a fully charged battery the i4 may actually take you as far as 655 km's. And whatever you do to it, it will never do any worse than 300 km's until it drops dead.

All range numbers in kilometers, all temperatures in degrees Celsius.

 

[Hans]

The official driving range of the eDrive40 is 590 km's. BMW actually tells us that you will reach such a range with an "efficient to moderate" driving style, at 10 degrees Celsius. As batteries will be more effective at higher temperatures there seems to be room for improvement. And an "efficient to moderate driving style" still doesn't sound like my grandma.

The M50 is a different story. Yes, it will do the promised 510 km's. But for that you will need an efficient driving style, nothing moderate about that. And you need a nice temperature of 20 degrees. So there seems to be less opportunity to improve on BMW's lies about the M50, right?

From this we can also conclude that the eDrive40 is a much faster car than the M50. In order to realise the promised range the eDrive40 can be driven at efficient to moderate speed whereas the M50 driver will have to bite his or her tongue and stay in efficient mode all the time.
If he or she does not obey the eDrive40 will for sure overtake the moment the M50 is parked at yet another charging station.

 

[Hans]

I worry about the battery's performance in winter conditions. Over here we have known extremities up to minus 10 degrees Celsius. On this site we have been receiving information from expert Canadians who expect range to drop with 50% during winter time. Will it actually be that bad?

Well this is what BMW has to say about it:

Both the eDrive40 and the M50 perform less at lower temperatures. But it is not as bad as we were expecting...

The eDrive40 loses 40 km's of range when temperature drops from plus 35 to minus 10 degrees. A loss of 7,1%. Not bad!

The M50 performs similarly. A decrease in range of 35 km's or 6,9%.
Both were measured at moderate driving speeds with the A/C turned off.

 

[Hans]

So now, let's make it really interesting.

We already learned that we should not worry too much about lower temperatures. But what about energy consuming accessories like heating, lights, media, kids in the back charging ipads etcetera. For now let's take the airconditioning as an example. Let's turn it on or off.

What would that do with the graph that we looked at earlier. Well, it would do this ....

This is scary! What do we see?

1. At an average temperature of 15 degrees, the eDrive40's range drops with 25 km's. Not too bad. Exactly the same decrease in range for the M50. At this temperature the A/C does not need to work very hard, so there is limited impact on the range.
2. As expected there is more impact at higher temperatures. At 35 degrees the eDrive40 loses 100 km's of range, and the M50 loses 80 km's. So do not touch that A/C button unless you really need to. I guess this is the reason the climate menu is well hidden somewhere in those menus.
3. More surprisingly there is an equally big drop in range when using the airco in cold circumstances. A drop of 105 km's for the eDrive40 and 85 km's for the M50, both at minus 10 degrees. So my advise, do not use the airco at lower temperatures but ventilate.
4. Last but not least, we learn that the M50's range is less impacted by airco use than the eDrive40's. Any ideas what could cause this?

My advise: take the optional sunroof and use the A/C when absolutely needed only.

 

[Hans]

And now about the monkey behind the wheel.
And his driving style ....

It pays to drive smoothly and efficiently at low to moderate speeds. A lot!

When maintaining an efficient driving style both the eDrive40 and M50 can do much better than the official estimates. Especially at higher temperature a plus of 65 and 70 km's respectively.

Notice that speeding up to a moderate driving style does not impact the range too much. The eDrive40 will fall only 35 km's below it's estimated range at 20 degrees, The M50 will do only 15 kilometers less. Very good.

It starts to really go wrong the moment we let our sporty ambitions loose. See the yellow and light blue lines that are really much lower in the range graph. No problem if you know you will be able to charge in time. But please notice that with a sporty driving style the M50 will lose only 145 km's compared to it's official estimate (at 20 degrees) versus a massive loss of 185 km's for the eDrive40. And while driving sporty the range of the eDrive40 is only 40 to 45 km's better than the M50's, a much smaller gap than at efficient or moderate speeds. So this is where we see the true nature of the M-version. It is very efficient at driving really fast

 

[Hans]

So in case you are wondering if I made all this up. I didn't. BMW is my source and they have a good reputation for reliable range estimates (iX3).

If you want to play around with the numbers yourself you can do so at https://www.bmw.de/de/neufahrzeuge/bmw-i/i4/2021/bmw-i4-ueberblick.html. Have fun! And keep us posted on your analysis.

 

[DannoBills]

I am confused. Here is Canada, they are advertising 475kms tops for the i4. You telling me we may get more range??? If so, sweet!!!
PS. Talking to other EV owners, range can drop by about 30% range in very cold weather (-30 degree celcius).

 

[Hans]

I am confused. Here is Canada, they are advertising 475kms tops for the i4. You telling me we may get more range??? If so, sweet!!!
PS. Talking to other EV owners, range can drop by about 30% range in very cold weather (-30 degree celcius).

Danno, it will be interesting to see how these numbers will prove to be realistic in real life.
I am not sure about the supposed range of 475 km's for Canadian i4's. Where did you get that information?

PS. BMW does not give any estimates at minus 30 degrees. But if minus 10 results in a loss of 7%, 30% loss at minus 30 degrees seems to be in line.

 

[DannoBills]

Danno, it will be interesting to see how these numbers will prove to be realistic in real life.
I am not sure about the supposed range of 475 km's for Canadian i4's. Where did you get that information?

PS. BMW does not give any estimates at minus 30 degrees. But if minus 10 results in a loss of 7%, 30% loss at minus 30 degrees seems to be in line.

Hi Hans, the info is directly on the BMW Canada website. See link: BMW i4 (G26): prices, models, range, charging & design | BMW.ca

I really hope this is a conservative number, that would be such a bonus!!

 

[Hans]

I really hope this is a conservative number, that would be such a bonus!!

That is weird. I see similar numbers on the US website. I can’t imagine that the i4’s for US and Canada would be technically very different. Could it have to do with local legislation which would force BMW to give a very conservative estimate?

See below a printscreen from bmw.de. Official range 590 km for the eDrive40 and 510 km for the M50. As far as I know valid all over Europe.

I was able to test drive an iX3 during a weekend, which has an official range of 460 km here in Europe. And while I was really testing the vehicle (economy was not top of mind), 400 to 420 km’s seemed very realistic. A loss of 40 to 60 km while driving “moderate to sporty” therefore, which seems to be in line with my conclusions on the i4 above.

My guess is that you Canadians are in for a very nice surprise 👍

 

[Hans]

 

[DannoBills]

Interesting info Hans! I did notice a disclaimer at the bottom of the Canadian site that says it is estimate only. If my M50 gets even close to 500 kms I will be ecstatic!!! 😍🤩🤩

 

[Hans]

Interesting info Hans! I did notice a disclaimer at the bottom of the Canadian site that says it is estimate only. If my M50 gets even close to 500 kms I will be ecstatic!!! 😍🤩🤩

You will have to drive it like my grandma, don't forget! 😁👍🏻

 

[Hans]

One more analysis to wrap it up:

This graph shows range at 25 degrees at different driving styles and A/C turned on or off. Noticable is that:

• An M50 with airco turned off has a better range than an eDrive40 with airco turned on.
• Leaving the airco turned off has a much bigger impact when driving more economically.
• Driving an eDrive40 economically brings you almost twice as far as an M50 being driven as it should

And finally:

• eDrive40, airco off, range loss sporty drive versus economic drive, minus 37,7%
• eDrive40, airco on, range loss sporty drive versus economic drive, minus 31,5%
• eDrive40, range loss sporty / airco on versus economic / airco off, minus 43,1%
• M50, airco off, range loss sporty drive versus economic drive, minus 36,5%
• M50, airco on, range loss sporty drive versus economic drive, minus 30,6%
• M50, range loss sporty / airco on versus economic / airco off, minus 40,9%

So it really pays off to be very careful with the gas pedal (sorry). Just perhaps you should only use the sporty qualities of your i4 when there is a Model 3 next to you at the trafic light. Have fun!

Looking forward to testing and validating all this for real.

 

[Lord]

Great thread Hans!

To tell you the truth I'm more concerned about the Mediterranean summers where the temperature this year hit 45°C.
In these diagrams they don't distinguish between A/C Heat vs Cold.
I think room A/C use more power for cooling (obviously it depends the actual conditions) so probably is the same for this case.
In a hot summer the range will drop dramatically.

 

[Hans]

To tell you the truth I'm more concerned about the Mediterranean summers where the temperature this year hit 45°C.

I have added a trend line, just to reassure you a bit 🌞

 

[Rincewind]

Having driven a Model 3 Performance for 20 months, through two winters in the UK, my estimate for range loss when the temp drops below about 5 degrees C is 25-30% (the BMW battery pack looks to be prone to range loss at lower temperatures). I drive the car as I want to i.e. not particularly economically, unless I'm on a long journey when I'm more careful. I usually hover around 240-250 miles for a full battery, which, although I'd like it to me more, has never caused any issues on a trip. Just plan your stops around your own comfort limits. At my age it's more about miles per bladder...

 

[lnaukkar]

Range loss is not just about temperature either. In Finland winter means rain, snow and slush. So it’s also increased rolling resistance together with all the energy lost in heating the car and battery.

 

[Rincewind]

Pre hearing before departure can mitigate some of this, but heat pumps undo some of it when they scavenge heat from the battery - at least that’s what the Tesla one does

 

[Paul]

Our summers in Toronto can be brutally hot and winters very, very cold. In fact, I've often told non-Canadians that Toronto has two seasons - summer and winter. So I'll be very interested in seeing what the real life performance of the i4 will be like in this kind of environment.

P.S. Have there been any announcements or hints as to when we will see the EDrive 35?