BMW i4 THE BMW SET TO GIVE TESLA'S 3 A REAL GRILLING

SO YOU’RE not a great fan of the rodent fangs BMW grille. I’m not either, but today looks don’t matter. After all, we are not embarking on a showy catwalk exercise.

- GEORG KACHER

Instead, this is the very first opportunity to put the new i4 electric sedan to the real test on the company’s vast Maisach proving ground near Munich as well as on nearby C-roads which wriggle around endless corn fields and through tiny villages.

At a glance, one could mistake the i4 for a whisper-quiet 4 Series Gran Coupe. It even sports the typical exhaust cut-outs in the rear diffusor, but the actual tailpipes are of course conspicuous by their absence. Also gone is the familiar soundtrack: no diesel grumble, no petrol snarl, no appetite-whetting vibes of the old-fashioned kind. In their place, a new alien noise fills the cabin. Spheric, electronic, dense and richly textured, it reflects its composers’ acoustic translation of driver inputs like throttle action and the emotions this sets free. Alternatively, one can opt for absolute silence...