BMW has returned to the overheating problem of its i4 M50 electric car. We take this opportunity to take stock of the competition: the Tesla Model 3 Performance and Porsche Taycan and their overheating problem in extreme use.
Article updated on August 25: BMW France has provided us with some details. The offending i4 M50 is currently being analyzed by BMW Norway. In any case, electric BMWs, and in particular the i4, are designed to protect the battery in case of high temperatures. However, it is likely that the German firm will offer a software update to improve cooling, if possible. Another solution would be to authorize a higher temperature of the battery, at the risk of degrading very quickly, even too quickly, the latter. The last solution could go through a hardware modification, but would not be deployable on models already produced.
The German manufacturer also told us that an individual, driving an i4 eDrive 40 would have suffered a similar inconvenience during the heat wave. Finally, journalists trying out the i4 M50 on the circuit would also have had the right to a temporary drop in performance.
The BMW i4 is not alone in this case. Indeed, we remember the “extreme” test of our colleagues from Argus with the Porsche Taycan on the Nürburgring circuit during which the German sports car had suffered big performance losses because of a journey to get there of 500 km punctuated by fast charges. The Tesla Model 3 Performance did barely better on the same exercise, with less reduction in performance.
For these last two cars, it is an extreme use: a long trip followed by a session on a very demanding circuit. For BMW, it is a question of a “simple” road trip of 1,000 km without exceeding 130 km/h on the motorway. We therefore hope that this behavior is abnormal and will be fixed.
Original article from August 23 : The first electric BMW M, the i4 M50, is subject to abnormal behavior over long distances. Indeed, its maximum power is halved and the charging time on the fast terminal is lengthened.
Long journeys in electric cars are not always easy and the experience varies greatly depending on the model as we recently analyzed on a Paris – Marseille. We studied long journeys with the 340 hp BMW i4 eDrive 40, which theoretically does quite well against the competition.
But that was without counting on practice, with a 1,000 km trip made through Norway, on the highway, by the famous YouTuber Bjørn. In his latest video, the Norwegian tests the BMW i4 in the 544 hp M50 version and not everything goes as planned…
Indeed, two major problems appeared during the Norwegian’s road trip. During the latter, the YouTuber made several fast charging stops: four in total. After his first stop, which allowed him to exceed 200 kW of charging power, the driver had the bad surprise, on leaving, of having extremely low engine power despite a nearly full battery. Thus, when accelerating, the BMW no longer offered the initial 544 hp, but less than half. Too bad for a car called M50 in reference to the high-performance Motorsport division of the German manufacturer.
A lower charging speed too
The second problem, the cause of which seems to be similar to the first, is the recharge speed. If it did reach the maximum power of 200 kW, it quickly plummeted to reach 64 kW at 46% load instead of the 125 kW planned in theory. In question : poor heat management within the battery which prevents it from being recharged and discharged quickly. After 25 minutes of freeway driving, full power to the car returned. During the second charging stop, the car did not even exceed 200 kW of charging to stop at a maximum of 150 kW.
Towards a rapidgate for the BMW i4 M50?
It would therefore seem that the BMW i4, and in particular the M50 version, suffers from a problem in managing the temperature of the battery. We hope that this can be regulated by software, but nothing is less certain. We have contacted BMW France to find out more and will update this news as soon as we have an answer.
Despite its degraded charging power, the BMW i4 M50 does quite well, completing the 1,000 km journey in 9:40 a.m. (taking into account charging stops) compared to 9:20 a.m. for its little sister the BMW i4 eDrive 40 and 9:15 a.m. for the Tesla Model 3 Performance.
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