i4 Gran Coupe

Make
BMW
Segment
Sedan

German luxury brand BMW will put off showing its brand new 4-Series car model for the time being, instead choosing to use this year's Geneva Motor Show for the debut of its next big step in the world of battery-electric vehicles: the BMW i4.

That's according to BMW Blog, who says that the i4 concept will be more-or-less production-ready - no crazy, impractical interior trimmed in unobtainium, or wildly improbable exterior styling. The car will be just the third dedicated electric model from BMW's electric "i" sub-brand, after the i3 battery-electric hatchback and i8 plug-in-hybrid sportscar.

BMW i has already made public the i4 sedan's stats, and they paint a pretty alluring picture. According to the German automaker, the i4 will pack a 523-horsepower punch, good for a 0-to-60-mph sprint in just over 4 seconds. Juice will come from an 80-kWh lithium-ion battery pack that by itself weighs roughly 1,200 pounds, lending the car an estimated driving range of about 600 km - about 373 miles.

Granted, that figure seems most likely to have come from Europe's more lenient WLTP test cycle. The US Environmental Protection Agency is a bit more pessimistic with its ratings, so expect an EPA-estimated range closer to 320 miles.

With no pricing info available, it's impossible to say how directly the 2022 BMW i4 will compete with the Tesla Model 3. However, the 75-kWh, RWD version of that car has an advertised 0-to-60 time of 5 seconds dead, courtesy of a single motor putting out 340 peak horsepower, and an estimated 600 km (373 miles) of range on the WLTP test cycle. The Performance model, with its dual-motor AWD and 580 peak horsepower (combined), manages the 0-to-60 sprint in a scant 3.2 seconds.

We guess BMW will have to take a look at introducing an all-wheel-drive i4 M to blow the doors off of that model.