BMW i4 M50 RANGE TEST AND FAST CHARGING TEST

I will first test the range at lower speeds in the city. I want to know what the maximum range of this car could be. At the beginning of this part of the test, the battery is at 100%. The temperature was between 11.5 and 18.5 degrees. I did a test drive of 104 km, first in Brussels. Then I left the city and drove on small town roads. It was in an urban area, sometimes a little more rural, but with plenty of opportunities for continuous driving, usually between 50-70 km/h.

Let’s take a look at my results. After a test drive totaling 104 km, I drained the battery to 78%. The average consumption ended up at 16.5 kWh and the estimated range is 489 km.

I will now test the range at higher average highway speeds. I want to know what the minimum range of this car could be. At the beginning of this part of the test, the battery is at 76%. I base my estimated range on average consumption and net battery capacity. I did the test in March and it was between 18 and 20.5 degrees.

For this test, I drove from Brussels towards Marche-en-Famenne, for a total ride of 102 km. The battery dropped to 53% and the estimated range based on consumption of 18.3 kWh was 441 km.

Now let’s do a charging test at a fast charger. The BMW i4 M50 is equipped with a combined charging system. With this system, the BMW i4 M50 can be charged with either AC or DC. For this test, I am going to charge the car at a DC Fast Charger. The BMW i4 M50 can fast charge at up to 200 kW. BMW says it takes 31 minutes to charge from 10% to 80% at a rate of 200 kW.

At the beginning of the test, the battery is only 11%. It’s 12 degrees outside. The car indicated that it would take about 57 minutes to fully charge the battery. I’m going to do a 30-minute charging test. After 10 minutes, I was charging at 125.4 kW. The battery increased to 43% and we gained about 167 km on the range indicator. After 20 minutes, I noticed that we were charging at 91.4 Kw. I gained another 103 km of range and the battery is now at 64%. After 30 minutes, the battery is at 79%. The charging speed is still at 58.2 kw. So we went from 11% to 79% in 30 minutes, and we gained 343 km of range.

I haven’t done an AC charging test with this car, but let’s look at some theoretical information. The charging speed of the on-board charger is 11 kw. According to BMW, charging from 0% to 100% takes 8.25h.

In conclusion, the range of the BMW i4 M50 is somewhere between 441 km and 489 km, based on similar driving conditions and measured in fairly mild temperatures between 11.5 and 20.5 degrees. I suspect that in much higher temperatures you will probably get more range and in winter at much lower temperatures you will get lower range.

Have a look at my daytime POV test drive and my night drive with the BMW i4 M50.