The BMW i4 will not see a 2027 model year in the United States. Production for the American market wraps up late this year, ending a run that began with the 2022 model and lasted barely four calendar years on dealer lots.
That is a short life by any measure, especially for a car that actually did what BMW promised it would do.
The i4 Gran Coupe arrived in 2022 built on the same CLAR platform as the gas-powered 4 Series Gran Coupe. BMW caught flak for not developing a dedicated EV architecture, but the decision turned out to be the car’s greatest asset. It drove like a BMW because it essentially was one. Same bones, different powertrain.
Three variants remain on sale for 2026. The eDrive40 starts under $60,000 and delivers up to 333 miles of EPA range. The xDrive40 adds all-wheel drive. The M60 puts out 593 horsepower and hits 60 mph in a claimed 3.6 seconds. None of that sounds like a car being put out to pasture.
The roots go back to the 2017 i Vision Dynamics concept, which previewed an electric four-door slotted between the quirky i3 hatchback and the exotic i8. The 2020 Concept i4 made the production intent obvious, oversized kidney grille and all. When the real thing finally arrived, it validated a simple thesis: you could electrify a proper sport sedan without ruining it.
Early drives of the original i4 M50 revealed sharp steering, confident turn-in, and genuine chassis balance despite the weight penalty that plagues every battery-electric car. Straight-line speed was never the differentiator. Every EV is fast in a straight line. The corners are where the i4 separated itself from the Teslas of the world, and that gap mattered to the kind of buyer who cross-shops a 3 Series.
It also worked as a daily driver. The fastback hatch swallowed groceries and luggage. The cabin was familiar to anyone who had owned a recent BMW. There was no radical reimagining of the interior, no alienating minimalism. For a longtime BMW customer skeptical of going electric, the i4 was the gentlest possible on-ramp.
Its replacement, in spirit if not in name, will be the Neue Klasse i3 Sedan. BMW product boss Bernd Körber has said as much. The new i3 sits on a purpose-built EV platform and occupies roughly the same market position, which leaves no room for a closely related four-door wearing the i4 badge.
The i4 name itself may survive. Reports point to Neue Klasse-based i4 Coupe and Convertible models arriving around 2028. But those would be fundamentally different cars, built on different architecture, wearing different sheet metal, serving a different customer. The connection would be alphabetical, not spiritual.
BMW’s early electrification strategy was often criticized as half-hearted. Sharing platforms with combustion models looked like hedging rather than commitment. But the i4 proved that pragmatism could produce a genuinely enjoyable electric car. It didn’t need a skateboard platform or a futuristic interior to earn its place.
The exact date U.S. dealers will receive their last i4 allocations has not been announced, but late 2026 is the reported cutoff. Once it is gone, the Neue Klasse era takes over completely, and the brief window when BMW sold an electric sport sedan that felt almost indistinguishable from its gasoline sibling closes for good.
Whether that turns out to be a loss depends entirely on how the i3 Sedan drives.
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