The BMW i4’s production began in October of last year, when the first examples of the electric sedan came off the assembly lines in Munich. We were impressed by the car when we tried it some months ago, but we had no knowledge it did not meet the industry’s top safety standards. We were a little dismayed to see that the i4 received four out of five stars in the most recent round of European New Car Assessment Programme safety tests.
Following the frontal offset test, EuroNCAP has generally nice things to say about the i4’s passenger compartment. The dummy data demonstrate that both the driver’s and passenger’s knees and femurs are well protected. More importantly, the data show that the i4 offers comparable levels of protection to occupants of all sizes and sitting positions.
If you travel with your children, don’t worry – EuroNCAP says both the 6- and 10-year-old dummies qualified for maximum points in the frontal offset and side-impact barrier tests. As standard, the front passenger airbag can be disabled to allow for a child restraint to be mounted reward-facing.
However, the European safety organization was not happy with the i4’s safety and assistance systems. The electric sedan from Bavaria got only a 64-percent rating in Safety Assist and 71 percent in the Vulnerable Road Users categories. EuroNCAP says that the i4 uses similar sensors as the 3 Series the organization tested in 2019 and this probably explains why the EV “missed out on some critical crash avoidance points.”
EuroNCAP remained satisfied with the i4’s automatic emergency braking system which avoided or mitigated a collision in several test scenarios. The electric vehicle was tested in both rear- and all-wheel-drive versions (eDrive40 and M50), both earning the same overall four-star rating in LHD and RHD configurations.
EuroNCAP also tested the Alfa Romeo Tonale, Kia Sportage, Cupra Born, and the Mercedes T-Class, giving all of them the highest-possible five-star rating, The Toyota Aygo X, in turn, only got four out of five stars.
