This was, until recently, the cleanest three-way in electric cars. A BMW i4, a Tesla Model 3 and a Polestar 2 all sat within a few thousand pounds of each other, all did roughly the same job, and choosing between them came down to taste.
That comparison no longer exists, and anyone still writing it is working from old data. BMW has withdrawn every i4 except one: the M60 xDrive, from 71,525 pounds. The eDrive35, the eDrive40, the xDrive40 and the M50 have all gone, and European production of the car is reported to be ending.
So the honest version of this piece is not which of the three to pick. It is that the i4 has left the segment, and the real choice now is between a Tesla and a Polestar, with a BMW sitting 26,000 pounds above both of them. Here is what that actually means.
Tesla Model 3
Cheapest, and goes furthest
Polestar 2
The nicest one to sit in
BMW i4
Nearly gone
The Short Answer
The Tesla Model 3 on price and range. It is the cheapest way in by 7,220 pounds, it has the longest range of any car here at 466 miles, and it has the freshest and strongest crash test result. You give up an instrument display in front of the driver.
The Polestar 2 if you want the nicest thing to sit in and a proper dashboard. It is the only one of the three that tells you where it is built, and the only one where the heat pump costs extra.
The BMW i4 only if you want a 601hp M car. It is no longer a rival to these two on any measure except shape, and it is worth knowing production is reported to be ending around the first quarter of 2027.
What Happened to the i4
BMW UK's configurator lists exactly one i4. The all-models page lists the same one. Every other version has gone.
| Version | Status |
|---|---|
| i4 M60 xDrive | Orderable, from 71,525 pounds |
| i4 eDrive35 | Withdrawn |
| i4 eDrive40 | Withdrawn |
| i4 xDrive40 | Withdrawn |
| i4 M50 xDrive | Withdrawn, replaced by the M60 |
Its dropdown lists six i4 names and only the M60 carries any data. The i4 overview and technical data pages no longer serve i4 content at all, returning other models instead. We mention it because it is a trap: a manufacturer's compare or listing page is never proof that a version can be ordered, and we have been caught by exactly this on two other brands in the last week. Only the individual model page tells you the truth.
What is left is a genuinely rapid car: 442kW, 601hp, 795Nm and 3.7 seconds to 62mph, with 311 to 338 miles of range. It is just not competing with a 37,990 pound Tesla any more, and pretending otherwise would waste your time.
The Range That Still Has Choices
| Drive | Power | Range | From | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model 3 | Rear | 283bhp | 332 miles | 37,990 pounds |
| Model 3 Premium long range | Rear | 320bhp | 466 miles | 44,990 pounds |
| Model 3 Premium long range | All | 351bhp | 444 miles | 49,990 pounds |
| Model 3 Performance | All | 460bhp | 372 miles | 59,990 pounds |
| Polestar 2 standard range | Rear | 272hp | 344 miles | 45,210 pounds |
| Polestar 2 long range single | Rear | 299hp | 409 miles | 49,210 pounds |
| Polestar 2 long range dual | All | 421hp | 370 miles | 53,210 pounds |
| Polestar 2 dual with Performance pack | All | 476hp | 352 miles | 58,210 pounds |
Both single motor Polestars are now rear-wheel drive. That is a change worth knowing if you are reading an older review, because the single motor car used to be front-wheel drive and it drives quite differently now.
BMW publishes 0-62mph. Tesla and Polestar both publish 0-60mph. Those are not the same measurement, so a straight acceleration table across the three would be comparing two different tests. We have left the figures in the text rather than lining them up as though they were equivalent, and if you see a comparison elsewhere that does line them up, that is worth knowing about it.
Charging, Where Two of Them Tell You Nothing
| BMW i4 M60 | Polestar 2 | Tesla Model 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Usable battery | 81.1kWh | Not split out | Not published at all |
| Peak DC | 205kW | 180 or 205kW | 175 or 250kW |
| 10 to 80% | 30 minutes | 26 to 28 minutes | Not published |
| Onboard AC | 11kW | 11kW | 11kW |
Polestar publishes one unlabelled capacity figure, 70kWh on the standard range car and 82 on the long range, and does not say whether that is gross or usable. Tesla publishes nothing at all, and quotes miles added in fifteen minutes instead of a percentage window. So the only one of the three you can properly compare on charging speed is the BMW, and the Polestar is the only one that tells you it runs at 400 volts.
People often assume there is a meaningful difference here, and on these three there is not. None is capped at 7.4kW and none offers 22kW, so a three-phase supply at work makes no difference between them. Worth saying plainly, because it is the kind of thing a spec comparison invents a distinction out of.
Boot Space, Where the Numbers Lie
| Body | Seats up | Seats folded | Front boot | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMW i4 M60 | Fastback, tailgate | 470 litres | 1,290 litres | None |
| Polestar 2 | Fastback, tailgate | 407 litres | 1,097 litres | 41 litres |
| Tesla Model 3 | Saloon, boot lid | 594 litres | 977 litres | 88 litres |
The Model 3 has the biggest seats-up figure and the smallest seats-folded figure, and it is the only saloon here. That means a separate boot lid rather than a tailgate, a narrow letterbox aperture and a high lip to lift things over. So on paper it wins and in a car park it loses, depending entirely on what you are putting in it. A suitcase, fine. A bike or a flatpack, much harder than in either of the other two. This is the clearest example on the page of why a litres figure without a body style is misleading.
On towing, all three can do it, and the published braked figures are 1,600kg for the i4, up to 1,500kg for the Polestar and 1,000kg for the Model 3. Worth flagging that the Model 3 Performance is reported at 500kg, which is markedly lower than the rest of its own range and comes from a single source, so confirm it if you tow.
Inside
| BMW i4 M60 | Polestar 2 | Tesla Model 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Driver's display | Yes, 12.3 inch | Yes, 12.3 inch | None |
| Central screen | 14.9 inch | 11.2 inch | 15.4 inch |
| Head-up display | Optional | Not offered | Not offered |
| Heat pump | Standard | Optional, in a pack | Standard |
The instrument display row is the most useful honest difference in this whole comparison. Two of the three put your speed in front of you. The Tesla puts it on a screen to your right, with no option to change that and no head-up display to compensate. People either adapt within a week or never stop noticing, and the only way to find out which you are is to sit in one.
The heat pump row is the other one worth money. It is standard on the BMW and the Tesla and it sits inside an optional climate pack on the Polestar, which makes the Polestar the only one of the three where you pay extra for meaningfully better winter range.
Safety, and Why the Star Count Is the Wrong Thing to Read
| Stars | Published | Tested version | |
|---|---|---|---|
| BMW i4 | 4 | July 2022 | eDrive40, which is withdrawn |
| Polestar 2 | 5 | March 2021 | Long range dual motor, before the rear-drive change |
| Tesla Model 3 | 5 | May 2025 | Premium rear-wheel drive |
| BMW i4 | Polestar 2 | Tesla Model 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adult occupant | 87% | 92% | 90% |
| Child occupant | 87% | 89% | 93% |
| Vulnerable road users | 71% | 80% | 89% |
| Safety assist | 64% | 86% | 87% |
The i4 has four stars rather than five, and the weakest score of the three on every single sub-measure. It was also tested as an eDrive40, which you cannot buy, and Euro NCAP's datasheet explicitly records the M50 as not tested. So the rating does not describe the only i4 on sale.
A Euro NCAP rating is valid for six years from the year of test, after which it lapses and newly built cars count as unrated. The Polestar 2's rating was published in March 2021, so it expires at the end of 2027, which is the soonest of the three, and it predates the switch of the single motor car to rear-wheel drive. The i4's runs to the end of 2028. The Model 3's, published in May 2025, runs to 2031 and is the only one measured on a car you can currently order. One gap on the Tesla though: the newer cheaper Model 3 is not listed among the variants that rating covers, so treat that as untested rather than passed.
None of Them Gets the Grant, and One Misses by Almost Nothing
| Cheapest version | Grant | |
|---|---|---|
| Tesla Model 3 | 37,990 pounds | Misses by 990 pounds |
| Polestar 2 | 45,210 pounds | 8,210 pounds over the cap |
| BMW i4 | 71,525 pounds | 34,525 pounds over the cap |
The Electric Car Grant caps the list price at 37,000 pounds. The cheapest Model 3 is 37,990, so it is 990 pounds away from 3,750 pounds off. None of the three appears on any published eligible list.
Since all three fail on price alone, where they are built does not affect the grant. It is still a fair question, and only one of them answers it: Polestar states officially that the Polestar 2 is built at Luqiao in China. BMW does not state where the i4 is built on any of its UK pages, and Tesla does not state where UK Model 3s come from. We would rather tell you that than repeat an assumption.
The honest drawback of each, in one line. The i4 has left the price bracket and its only Euro NCAP rating is on a car you cannot buy. The Polestar charges extra for the heat pump and its five star rating expires at the end of next year. The Model 3 has no instrument display at all, and its cheapest version is capped at 175kW charging where the rest of the range gets 250.
Not sure which of these actually works out cheapest for you?
The list price is not the monthly cost, and funders price these three very differently. Tell us your mileage and term and we will compare them properly across funders.
Talk to LetsLeaseFrequently Asked Questions
Not on price. BMW UK now sells exactly one i4, the M60 xDrive, from 71,525 pounds, and the eDrive35, eDrive40, xDrive40 and M50 have all been withdrawn. That puts it around 26,000 pounds above the cheapest Polestar 2 and nearly 34,000 above the cheapest Model 3. It is a fast M car rather than a direct competitor now, and European production of it is reported to be ending around early 2027.
The Tesla Model 3, at 37,990 pounds, which is 7,220 less than the cheapest Polestar 2 and 33,535 less than the only i4 you can order. Worth saying that list price is not monthly cost, and funders price these three quite differently, so the cheapest to buy is not automatically the cheapest to lease.
The Tesla Model 3 Premium long range rear-wheel drive, at 466 miles, which is the longest of any car in this comparison. The best Polestar 2 manages 409 miles and the i4 M60 gets 311 to 338. All three are WLTP figures so they are measured the same way, which makes that a fair comparison.
Rear, on both single motor versions, and this is a change worth knowing about. The single motor Polestar 2 used to be front-wheel drive and is now rear-wheel drive, so an older review describes a car that drives differently from the one you would order. The two dual motor versions are all-wheel drive.
None of them, in either band. The grant caps the list price at 37,000 pounds. The Model 3 is the near miss at 37,990, so it is 990 pounds away from 3,750 pounds off. The Polestar 2 is 8,210 over the cap and is also built in China, and the i4 is 34,525 over. None appears on any published list of eligible cars.
It depends what you mean, and the numbers invert. The Model 3 has the biggest figure with the seats up at 594 litres, and the smallest with them folded at 977. The i4 is the other way round, 470 litres seats up and 1,290 folded. The catch is that the Model 3 is a saloon with a separate boot lid, a narrow opening and a high lip, while the other two are fastbacks with tailgates. So a suitcase is easy in the Tesla and a bike is much harder.
No. The BMW and the Polestar both have a 12.3 inch display in front of the driver. The Tesla has none at all, and no head-up display either, so your speed is read off the central screen to your right. There is no option to change it. Some people adapt within a week and some never settle, so it is worth sitting in one before you sign.
The Tesla Model 3 and the Polestar 2 both have five stars and the BMW i4 has four. The more useful question is how old each rating is and what was tested. The Model 3's is from May 2025 and was measured on a version you can order. The Polestar's is from March 2021, expires at the end of 2027 and predates its switch to rear-wheel drive. The i4's is from 2022, was measured on an eDrive40 you can no longer buy, and is the weakest of the three on every sub-score.
On the Polestar 2, yes. It sits inside an optional climate pack rather than being standard on any version, which makes the Polestar the only one of the three where you pay extra for it. It is standard on the BMW and on the Tesla. A heat pump makes a real difference to winter range, so it is worth factoring in rather than treating as a nice-to-have.
All three can. The published braked figures are 1,600kg for the i4, up to 1,500kg for the Polestar 2 and 1,000kg for the Model 3. One to confirm: the Model 3 Performance is reported at 500kg, which is much lower than the rest of its own range and comes from a single source, so if you tow and you want the Performance, get the figure confirmed before you order.
The i4 peaks at 205kW and does 10 to 80 percent in 30 minutes. The Polestar 2 peaks at 180 or 205kW depending on battery and does it in 26 to 28 minutes. Tesla publishes no percentage-based charging time at all, quoting miles added in fifteen minutes instead, so it cannot be compared directly. All three take 11kW on alternating current, so there is no difference between them on a home or workplace charger.
LetsLease is a credit broker rather than the lender. We arrange the agreement and place it with a funder such as Lex Autolease, Novuna, Ayvens or Santander, and that funder owns the vehicle and holds the agreement with you. Because we work across several funders rather than one, we can compare how each prices the same car.