With the i3 long gone and BMW deciding not to bring the iX1 and iX2 to the United States, the BMW i4 is the company’s entry-level EV in North America. Math starts at $52,200 for the i4 eDrive35 but you can’t take advantage of the $7,500 federal tax credit if you plan to buy the car outright. A lease is a smarter deal since you can benefit from the significant incentive.
That brings us to a new report from Cars Direct about a good lease deal for the base BMW i4. It’s available with a 36-month plan with $499 monthly payments and $4,599 due at signing. Effectively, you’ll be paying $627 per month. Once the lease is over, you can buy the car outright for $29,454 before fees and taxes. If you lease it first and buy it later, you’ll pay just about the same money compared to purchasing it outright from the beginning. That makes choosing the lease deal a no-brainer since you won’t have to fork out $52,00 in one lump sump.
The 2024 BMW i4 eDrive35 has a lower effective monthly cost than the 430i, even though the gasoline model is roughly $4,000 cheaper to buy. The 430i will set you back $679 a month for 36 months and $4,659 when you sign the deal, bringing the grand total to $808 a month or $181 more than the electric model.
The BMW i4 is cheaper to lease thanks to the Commercial Clean Vehicle Credit passed to the lessee. Of course, the fully electric 4er will also be more affordable to run than the gas model. We checked BMW USA’s website and discovered the lease deal expires on April 30.
We’ll have to wait several years for another true entry-level BMW EV since a spiritual successor to the i3 is unlikely to come out before 2027 or 2028. It could be called the i1 (codenamed “NB0”) and sit on the Neue Klasse platform but it’s too soon to say whether a small EV is planned for the US market. A better bet would be to wait for the new electric MINI 3-Door and Aceman since the start of production in Oxford, UK in 2026 could mean a US visa. The Chinese-built electric hatch and crossover are not coming here.
Source: Cars Direct
