BMW just buried the i4 M60 and handed you a coupe-SUV as a parting gift. The new iX4 M60, revealed alongside the broader Neue Klasse rollout, packs 603 horsepower, 645 lb-ft of torque, and a WLTP range of 483 miles. It hits 62 mph in 3.9 seconds.

On paper, it is everything the departed i4 M60 was, except taller, heavier, and wrapped in that polarizing sloped-roof crossover silhouette that keeps spreading across every luxury brand’s lineup like a rash.

The iX4 M60 is, mechanically, a near-clone of the iX3 M60. Dual motors, one per axle, all-wheel drive, 108.7 kWh of usable battery capacity, 400-kW DC fast charging. BMW says you can add 224 miles of range in ten minutes under ideal conditions.

The only real differentiator is the body. The iX4’s fastback roofline shaves the drag coefficient from 0.24 to 0.23, which buys you an extra 15 miles of WLTP range over the boxier iX3 M60.

Fifteen miles. That’s the tangible payoff for giving up rear headroom and cargo space.

The M Performance hardware is identical across both models: adaptive M suspension, variable sport steering, M Sport brakes, electronically controlled M Sport differential. There’s a Boost Mode button on the steering wheel, M-specific drive modes, and the full catalog of cosmetic touches. Yellow accent lights, illuminated kidney grille elements with M-colored detailing, an illuminated M logo, mirror caps with the tricolor stripe, 21-inch wheels standard, optional 22s.

The rear gets a black diffuser and an M60 badge for anyone behind you who needs to know what just pulled away.

BMW has been clear: there will be no next-generation i4 Gran Coupe. The new i3 sedan replaces it. If you want an electric BMW with a liftgate in this segment, your options are the iX4 or, eventually, the i3 Touring wagon expected next year.

Both will almost certainly get M Performance variants. Sources near Munich are already pointing to an electric M3 Touring, designated ZA1, as part of a broader M electrification push.

So the strategy is plain. BMW is consolidating its electric portfolio around the Neue Klasse platform and its modular architecture. One powertrain, multiple body styles, minimal engineering overhead.

The iX4 exists because the platform makes it cheap to build, and the coupe-SUV segment keeps growing regardless of how many automotive journalists complain about it. Customers buy them. That settles the argument.

European orders open in January 2027, with U.S. availability expected several months later. EPA range figures have not been released, but expect a cut of at least 10 percent from the WLTP numbers, which would put the iX4 M60 somewhere around 430 miles on the U.S. cycle. Still substantial for a performance-oriented electric crossover.

The real tension here is not between the iX3 and iX4. It is between what BMW used to offer, a proper low-slung four-door with M Performance credentials, and what it is offering now. The i4 M60 was a car. The iX4 M60 is a crossover that wishes it were a car, wearing a roofline designed in a wind tunnel to prove it deserves to exist.

BMW will sell plenty of them. The numbers are too strong to ignore. But every iX4 M60 that rolls off the line is a quiet reminder that the sedan, once the core of BMW’s identity, keeps losing ground to vehicles that split the difference between everything and end up being not quite anything.

The i3 Touring and an electric M3 wagon could change that calculus. For now, the iX4 M60 is what BMW is offering, and the company is betting you will not miss what came before.