Article Summary
- BMW has stated earlier this year the i3 Sedan is effectively replacing the i4 Gran Coupe, with the G26 expected to end production around early 2027.
- The Gran Coupe was a stopgap body style; the new NA0 i3 Sedan already has the tapered roofline that made the Gran Coupe necessary in the first place.
- The i4 badge survives on two-door cars instead — an i4 Coupe (NA2) and i4 Convertible (NA3) are both coming around 2028.
BMW is not expected to bring back the i4 Gran Coupe. The current G26 generation is on its way out, likely sometime around late 2026-early 2027, and this time nothing shaped quite like it is lined up to take its place. The G26 i4 Gran Coupe was an interesting model from the start. BMW needed something to throw at the Tesla Model 3, and the i3 hatchback wasn’t it. So the easiest fix was to take the 4 Series Gran Coupe’s body, drop in a battery and motors, and call it a day. It worked better than the description suggests. The i4 has been one of BMW’s stronger-selling EVs on both sides of the Atlantic for four years running and the best selling M product.
But it was always a car built to plug a hole, not to be the answer forever. That hole is closing with the i3 Sedan (NA0), a Neue Klasse product designed from scratch as a four-door EV, and it already wears the low, tapered roofline that used to be the Gran Coupe’s entire reason for existing. Once BMW builds a car for that job on purpose, there isn’t much of an argument left for keeping the older car.
BMW Already Said This Out Loud
BMW broke the news back in March day during a Q&A session following the NA0’s debut. In a press interview, the firm’s product boss, Bernd Körber, revealed that the i3 will take over. “In the first step, effectively, the i3 is more or less a successor to the i4. But then you will see not something I can talk about today. Then you will see the portfolio unfold over the next years in terms of electric. So more to come. But the i3 will more or less be this kind of successor for the time being.”
Nobody at BMW has put a firm date on the G26’s last day, but we’re hearing potentially late 2026 for the U.S. market and Q1 2027 in Europe.
The i4 Name Isn’t Finished
There’s a bigger pattern here than one discontinued model. For most of the last decade, BMW answered every gap in the lineup by adding another body style to the same platform. The G20-era range alone ran a 3 Series Sedan, a 3 Series Touring, a 3 Series Gran Turismo, and a 4 Series Gran Coupe, four ways to buy roughly the same car with a different roofline glued on. The Gran Turismo was the odd one and was quietly put down after one generation because it split the difference between hatchback and sedan without being convincingly either. The Gran Coupe survived longer and it’s considered a successful model. Neue Klasse reads like BMW is not going to chase every single niche segment. So they are saving the coupe and convertible body styles for customers who actually want a two-door, and keeping the i3 sedan as the four-door EV option.
Losing the Gran Coupe doesn’t retire the badge. BMW is allegedly working an i4 Coupe under the NA2 codename, with an i4 Convertible (NA3) behind it, both on the Neue Klasse platform and both expected around 2028, roughly a year after the Gran Coupe checks out. The Convertible is the more interesting story of the two. With the Z4 gone and the 8 Series Convertible on its way out, the NA3 might be on track to be the only drop-top BMW sells for a while, electric or otherwise.
