BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe axed in Australia

The popularity of the BMW i4 EV has claimed an in-house victim, the BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe.

BMW Australia has dropped all three petrol versions of the four-door coupe from its line-up, leaving the three identically-bodied i4 EVs on-sale.

Amongst those three i4s, the eDrive35 is by far the most popular because its price positioning gains access to the Fringe Benefits Tax exemption for novated leaseholders.

The i4 eDrive35 is one of six EVs BMW has positioned under the FBT limit that, as of the end of October, have contributed 25 per cent of a record 29 per cent share of sales for EVs locally.

In 2023, EVs accounted for 11.4 per cent of BMW Australia sales.

The three petrol-powered 4 Series Gran Coupes that have disappeared from the range are the 420i which was dropped at the end of 2023, the 430i and flagship six-cylinder M440i for which local production ended in mid-2024.

The 4 Series Coupe and Cabrio two-doors continue on.

The 4 Series Gran Coupe first landed in Australia in 2014. Spun off from the 3 Series sedan, it offered a lower, sleeker look combined with the practicality of a liftback body.

The second-generation landed in Australia in 2022.

“4 Series is the i4 essentially, the i4 Gran Coupe,” confirmed BMW Australia product and market planning chief Brendan Michel.

“We have discontinued the ICE versions of the 4 Series Gran Coupe, we are focusing on BEV.

“We rationalised. We had too many 4 Series Gran Coupes. With the BEVs we had six of them.

“We dropped one of them earlier on and then middle of this year we dropped the rest of the ICE.”

As yet there’s no indication BMW will cull more ICE powertrains to make way for BEVs in its local line-up, but it has made clear it will add more BEVs.

The global vision shared locally is to have a 50:50 split between electric vehicles and ICE powertrains with either mild hybrid or plug-in hybrid assistance by 2030.

BMW currently offers petrol and BEV powertrains across the X1/iX1, X2/iX2, X3/iX3, 5 Series/i5 and 7 Series/i7 line-ups.

Sub-FBT threshold versions of the iX1, iX2 and iX3 as well as i4 are currently offered.

“EV is a very important thing in our portfolio,” Michel said. “But in saying that we know ICE is still going to play a big part throughout the second half of this decade and even into the next decade.

“With this new NVES (New Vehicle Efficiency Standard) we need to look a little closer at all our long-range planning to see where all this lands.

“What’s going to be our mix of BEVs? What’s going to be mild hybrids? What’s going to be plug-in hybrids?

“But we’ll take that as it comes.