BMW i3 Lease Deals

The BMW i3 Is a Completely Different Car Now

Worth saying before anything else, because the i3 name has a well established picture attached to it and it is now the wrong one. The i3 is no longer a small carbon fibre hatchback. BMW gave the name to an all new fully electric saloon, revealed in March 2026, and in BMW's own words it is the first fully electric BMW 3 Series. UK order books opened in June 2026 and BMW announced full UK pricing on 30 September 2026.

The numbers are the reason to care. Up to 566 miles of WLTP range, and 400kW rapid charging that BMW says takes it from 10 to 80 per cent in 21 minutes. Those are among the best figures of any electric car on sale at any price, in a premium saloon the size of a 3 Series.

Among other badges, the Tesla Model 3 and the Polestar 2 are the two most people put on the same shortlist. The original i3, the hatchback with the rear hinged doors, was built from 2013 to 2022 and is no longer sold new, so there is no risk of ordering the wrong one.

i3 40 xDrive or i3 50 xDrive?

There is no rear wheel drive i3. Both launch versions are xDrive, which catches people out given BMW's history, and it is worth knowing before you start comparing against rear drive rivals.

The 40 xDrive is the one we would take for most people. 441 miles is more than almost anyone needs, 5.4 seconds to 62mph is quick, and 300kW charging is still faster than the great majority of chargers you will find. The 50 xDrive earns its premium on two things: the extra 125 miles, and 400kW charging, which is the part that genuinely changes long journeys. An i3 M60 xDrive is confirmed to join the range in 2027, but BMW showed a prototype and has published no figures for it at all, so treat anything you read about the M60 as guesswork.

Charging the BMW i3

This is where the i3 is most clearly a generation ahead. It runs an 800 volt architecture, where most electric cars still use 400 volts, and that is what allows the 50 xDrive to accept 400kW on a DC rapid charger. BMW's own figures are 10 to 80 per cent in 21 minutes and up to 263 miles added in ten minutes. The 40 xDrive peaks at 300kW and adds up to 209 miles in the same ten.

Two practical notes. BMW's ten minute claim assumes a charger actually capable of delivering the car's maximum, and there are not many 400kW chargers in Britain yet, so in daily use you will often be limited by the charger rather than the car. That is not a criticism of the i3; it means the car will not be the bottleneck for the life of your lease.

On AC it takes 11kW as standard with 22kW optional, which is beyond what a domestic home charger supplies, so home charging is as fast as your supply allows. It also supports bidirectional charging, so it can power your house or your tools from the battery.

Does the i3 Replace the i4?

Probably, but we are going to answer this carefully because BMW has not said so outright. What exists is a quote from Bernd Körber, BMW's product boss, around the reveal: "In the first step, effectively, the i3 is more or less a successor to the i4." He added that it would be that successor "for the time being" and declined to say what follows.

Press reporting since has described the i4 as being phased out around the turn of 2027, but that is reporting rather than an announcement. The practical answer if you are choosing today is that both are available, and the i3 is the newer car with substantially more range and much faster charging. If you want a similar car as an SUV rather than a saloon, that is the iX3, which shares the same underpinnings.

Practicality

The boot is 420 litres, with a further 31 litres under the bonnet, so 451 litres in total. For a saloon of this size that is competitive rather than exceptional, and the front compartment is genuinely useful for charging cables, which keeps them out of the boot and out of the cabin. Trims are i3, i3 M Sport and i3 M Sport Pro, with a First Edition having launched the range. The car is built at BMW's Munich plant, with series production from August 2026, and it is the second model on BMW's Neue Klasse architecture after the iX3.

How Safe Is the BMW i3?

It is worth being honest about this: the i3 does not have a Euro NCAP rating. It has not been tested, and we would rather tell you so than let you assume otherwise.

There is context. The iX3, which shares the same Neue Klasse architecture, was tested in July 2026 and scored five stars. But Euro NCAP's rating documents for that result cover the iX3 alone and do not extend to the i3, so it is not the i3's rating and nobody should present it as one. If you come across a four star i3 rating in a search, that belongs to the 2013 hatchback. For most buyers this is an absence of information on a brand new model rather than a concern, and it will very likely be tested in due course, but if you need to see a current published rating before signing then the i3 cannot show you one today.

Leasing a BMW i3

Two numbers drive most of your monthly cost: the initial rental and your annual mileage. A larger initial rental brings the monthly figure down, and the mileage you choose sets the contract. Excess mileage is charged at the end of the agreement, so give us the honest number rather than the optimistic one.

As a fully electric car the i3 sits in the lowest Benefit in Kind band available, which is why a premium electric saloon like this is one of the strongest cases on any company car choice list, and why it suits a salary sacrifice scheme particularly well. Rates are set per tax year and rise on a published schedule, so ask us for the figure that applies to your delivery date rather than today's. We are a credit broker rather than a tax adviser, so your accountant should confirm your own position. Our salary sacrifice guide and our electric and hybrid leasing guides cover how it works.

Two things to watch when comparing quotes elsewhere. If you see the i3 quoted at 440 miles, that is the American EPA figure rather than UK WLTP; the UK numbers are 566 and 441. And BMW published provisional range figures of 563 and 567 miles in June before confirming 566 at the end of September, so a listing showing either is working from pre production data. Order books are open and BMW's own guidance for first UK deliveries is autumn 2026. Send anything that looks inconsistent over to us and we will tell you which specification it is describing.

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