BMW is improving the fastest BMW i4 you can currently buy (the M50) by putting a motor on each corner of the car. In anticipation for what BMW is producing at M, the German car maker has released a video showing what we might expect:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=cle-dgG2CBw&feature=emb_title
Beneath the mules sheet metal is an all-wheel drive xDrive system with an electric motor on each wheel. BMW says this "opens up completely new possibilities for infinitely variable, extremely precise and at the same time very fast distribution of drive torque". In other words, you can expect the new car's chassis to be extremely dynamic and highly adjustable.
Dirk Häcker, Head of Development at BMW's M division says, "Electrification opens up completely new degrees of freedom. We can already see that we can exploit this potential to the maximum, so that our high-performance sports cars will continue to offer the M-typical and incomparable combination of dynamics, agility and precision in the locally emission-free future."
The current i4 M50 uses a 80.7kWh battery pack but we could potentially see this new car use the 105.6 kWh battery found in larger BMW EVs such as the i7 and iX, which would help counter the extra electrical consumption of the motors. BMW does say all four motors will be able to recoup energy from braking, sending electric back to the battery. However, it'll likely struggle to match M50's maximum range of 512km.
The i7 and i4 both use variants of the CLAR modular platform where the iX has received its own bespoke architecture. It's unclear which the new car will be based on.
Having said that, we expect an improvement on the M50's performance, undercutting its 0-100km/h time of 3.9 seconds.