GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: BMW teases Concept i4

BMW’s teaser liquid-metal sculpture of its Concept i4 cynically (or tastefully, depending on your view) avoids showing the electric car’s controversial Beaver Teeth grille.

The Concept i4 teaser, which will be shown as a full concept on March 3 at the Geneva show, is claimed to be “dynamic, clean and elegant” by BMW Group design honcho Adrian van Hooydonk. And it might well be, especially when you can’t see its grille.

It’s the latest in a series of teasers from BMW to soften people up to the blow of the confronting full height kidney grille, but that shouldn’t detract from the promised EV qualities of next year’s i4 four-door coupe.

It should be a match for the M440i from the mainstream of BMW’s production, with hints of 390kW of power from its pair of electric motors.

Its electricity will be supplied by a 550kg lithium-ion battery pack, capable of storing 80kWh of power, which BMW claims should give the i4 production car a real-world 600km of WLTP-measured range.

BMW was also an early contributor to the Ionity fast-charging network in Europe, and the battery chemistry of the i4 will be able to swallow 100km of range in only six minutes, or 80 percent of its maximum range in 35 minutes.

The third full i car from BMW after the i3 and the i8, it arrives in replacement of the stillborn i5 and will run more conventional materials in its construction than any i car before it.

BMW is promising 0-100km/h times of around four seconds, with a 200km/h-plus top speed.

It will be built in BMW’s Munich HQ flagship factory, both to keep its technology close to its engineers and to keep its home unions satisfied that they won’t be frozen out of any wholesale market shift to electric cars.