Driving fun is not something most people typically associate with electric cars. But the march of progress continues, and that no longer seems to hold true.

Here we are at a time when BMW M’s best-selling model for two years in a row is an EV. And it’s this: the BMW i4 M50.

Here are the headline specs: It’s got a total of 544hp and 795Nm from dual electric motors mounted front and rear. All-wheel drive puts the power to the ground and thrusts the i4 M50 from zero to 100km/h in a claimed 3.9 seconds.

However, real-life tests have proven that it reaches 100km/h from a standstill in closer to 3.3 seconds. Top speed is electronically limited to 225km/h.

BMW claims the 83.90kWh battery combined with the more range-friendly 19-inch Style 861M wheels is good for 521km of range, but we’ve found that if driven the way it was intended to be driven, 350km is a more realistic expectation.

The shortest range we managed was 320km, but to be fair, that happened after we had spent all morning making a 991 Porsche GT3RS chase our tail around.

Of course, acceleration is the prime trick up the i4 M50’s sleeve.

Punching the go pedal pushes you so far back into the seat giving you an idea of what it must be like to be sucked into a black hole. Using all of 795Nm in a snap makes the car squat back so much that the steering starts to lighten.

And with as much as 258hp and 430Nm going through the front axle, you will have to wrestle the steering wheel to keep the car in line. It doesn’t help that the electronic power steering rack on the i4 M50 leaves much to be desired in terms of feedback and feel.

BMW’s adaptive M suspension makes an appearance here, and is, as always, superb. Being the brand’s sportier option, it’s never pillowy soft, but it can be comfortable (in Comfort mode) when you need it to be. Individual drive modes allow you to fine-tune the driving experience to your liking.

The i4’s Gran Coupe body style incorporates the sweeping lines of a three-door fastback with the practicality of two additional doors. There are some compromises, though.

One being the shortened front doors that make ingress and egress slightly cumbersome. But hey, no one can argue about how good it looks. The rear hatch also provides tons of practicality to the cargo area.

The interior is lifted straight out of the regular 3- and 4-Series variants, which means there’s no learning curve when interacting with the vehicle.

Quality and design are no question, of course, but the i4 also inherits the spaciousness—or the lack thereof—of the 3er. Plus, with the thicker sports seats and the transmission tunnel that BMW didn’t bother to delete, rear legroom is left in even shorter supply.

As with all new BMW models, the i4 M50 comes with BMW ConnectedDrive to allow your mobile phone to connect to the vehicle.

It seemed like a gimmick when we first tried it on BMW’s petrol and diesel models, but proved to be a necessity on this car.

In addition to being able to lock, unlock, and pre-cool the vehicle via the mobile app, it also allows you to monitor charging progress remotely. And that feature comes in handy when you leave the car to entertain yourself while it charges.

But there is one important detail to note here: BMW M GmbH now includes both full-fledged M cars and M Performance models in its sales reports. And the discerning buyer will quickly deduce that the i4 M50 falls into the latter category.

And this is an important distinction because—despite all the M badges, the sporty M Aerodynamic Package, the Shadowline trim, the M doorsills, the sportier M font on the gauge cluster, and the M steering wheel—we would be setting the i4 M50 up to fail if we were to think of it as an all-electric M4 Coupe.

Bimmer suckers will surely be quick to point out that the i4 M50 bears a WBY VIN instead of BMW M’s famed WBS VIN, therefore affirming its place as a lesser M car. Read the spec sheet and it becomes obvious even without esoteric knowledge of VINs.

BMW likes to use buzzwords like “M-specific” when talking about cars like the M4, and you see none of that on the i4 M50’s spec sheet.

Spend any time in an M car and you will know that it’s just not the same. It doesn’t have that rowdy, tail-happy demeanor that a car like the M2 does.

While the i4 handles well, it lacks those hold-on-for-dear-life moments that BMW M cars seem to be so good at.

That being said, the i4 M50 may not be a hardcore M model, but it does something M cars don’t always do. And that is to provide approachable, easy-to-wield fun. Mash the right pedal and it just goes. No fiddling with gears, no thinking, no hesitation.

It’s a performance bargain, too. M3 and M4 Competitions are north of P10,000,000, but you can have something practically just as fast for a fraction of the cost. If you’re dead set on a bonkers, lightning-fast EV with sporty looks to match, then you can’t go wrong with the i4 M50.