Fans of BMW M, take care of your eyes.BMW says that the electric i4 M50 was the best-selling M car in 2023. I’m sorry to say that. More people are picking electric sedans over M3s, which is just one of many things that will make brand fans scratch their heads. There is some good news, though. First, let’s look at how BMW shows and counts sales in the M Division. BMW has been bragging about how many M cars it has sold in recent years, pointing to strong year-over-year growth. That’s only because BMW now makes M Performance cars that aren’t really M, like the M340i and the i4 M50, which is the company’s newest bestseller. People who have driven an M Performance car will tell you that these are not the same as regular BMWs that have been “tuned” by the M Division. Also, we need to find out how many i4 M50s or other M vehicles were sold because BMW doesn’t share individual sales data. We only know that the electric M Performance car sold more than both the new BMW M2 and the old BMW M3. But this isn’t completely new; the i4 M50 sold more than any other M car in 2022 as well. I’m wondering if BMW makes the i4 M50 one of its M models so that it will be better when it sells more than the M3. This shouldn’t be taken as i4 M50 abuse, though. You wouldn’t expect an M car to be as agile and responsive, but this one is fast, fun to drive, and comfortable enough to live in full-time. It only goes 269 miles on a single charge, which isn’t as long as some of its rivals, but it’s about the same as Tesla and Polestar’s entry-level cars. Because of this, BMW fans shouldn’t be upset that the i4 M50 is selling well, even if they don’t like how the company groups it with real M cars. It’s not a bad car, the i4 M50. If anything, it should help BMW M’s unavoidable move toward electric cars. People will definitely be ready to pay more for the all-electric BMW M3 when it comes out because they think it will perform better than the best-selling i4. BMW’s claim that the i4 M50 is the best-selling M vehicle is silly since it’s not even a M vehicle. However, the fact that people are buying it is a good sign.
