What’s Up With The BMW i4 M50 Safety Car’s Rear Wheel To Well Gap?

When BMW unveiled the i4 M50 Safety Car in August, we all admired its attention-grabbing livery and its performance-oriented design. In these live pictures from IAA Munich, though, its wheel to well distance looks kind of weird.

Particularly from the high rear-three-quarter angle, the electric performance car’s proportions remind me of that special-edition Hilux from Thailand. Or, maybe a better way of putting it is that it looks like a reverse Carolina squat.

Either way, it looks like BMW has jacked up the back end of this car. And the same can be seen in press photos, albeit some carefully placed shadows and angles do a great deal to hide it.

Whether the jacked-up rear-end suits it or not, the i4 M50 is the first all-electric M car and this is BMW’s first all-electric safety car. Thanks to its two electric motors, it produces 536 hp (400 kW / 544 PS) and up to 795 Nm (586 lb-ft) of torque for a few seconds at a time when Sport mode is selected.

That’s enough to get it to 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 3.9 seconds and its 83.9 kWh battery is enough to cover 510 km (317 miles) on the WLTP test cycle.

This car in particular was designed for duties in the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup, which is a MotoGP-associated racing series in which Energica motorcycles compete. Along with the decals and the fluorescent green graphics, it gets a light bar on the roof as well as additional lights inside the big kidney grilles.

The standard i4 M50 – which, for the record, doesn’t appear to share this car’s stance, is set to hit European showrooms in November.