Home › Batteries › BMW iX & i4 (Gen5 eDrive)
BMW's fifth-generation eDrive battery system (iX, i4, i5, i7, iX3) uses prismatic NMC cells in a modular pack that BMW itself describes as designed for repair and second life. These packs are newer than the i3 generation and are only now starting to appear on the salvage market in volume.
Direct answer. A complete BMW Gen5 eDrive pack (iX, i4, i5, i7) can be reused as stationary home storage while keeping the original BMW battery management system in place. The BMS-EV controller reads the pack over CAN and re-encodes the telemetry into the protocol expected by the paired hybrid inverter. Pack nominal voltage differs by model — around 330 V for the iX xDrive40 and around 430 V for the i4 eDrive40 — so the inverter DC window must be matched to the specific pack, not to a generic "BMW Gen5" figure.
Verification status for this battery family: PROTOCOL VERIFIED. BMS-EV ships firmware profiles for the Gen5 eDrive platform based on the CAN protocol implementation in the open-source Battery-Emulator project plus BMS-EV's own bench validation before each unit ships. As of 2026-09-19 BMS-EV has no field-verified customer installation on this pack family that it is able to publish. Several specification fields below are marked NEEDS VERIFICATION where no public teardown confirms the value — do not treat those as settled engineering data.
| Vehicle | Model years | Battery (gross / usable) | Pack nominal voltage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMW iX3 (G08) | 2020+ | 80 kWh gross / 74 kWh usable | NEEDS VERIFICATION | batterydesign.net Gen5 |
| BMW i4 eDrive40 / M50 | 2021+ | 83.9 kWh gross / 80.7 kWh usable | ~430 V nominal (400 V empty – 477 V full) | BMW i4 specification |
| BMW iX xDrive40 | 2021+ | 76.6 kWh gross / 71.0 kWh usable | ~330 V nominal (400 V-class system) | EVKX iX xDrive40 |
| BMW iX xDrive50 | 2021+ | 111.5 kWh gross / 105.2 kWh usable | NEEDS VERIFICATION | BMW published specification |
| BMW i5 / i7 | 2022+ | 81.2–101.7 kWh depending on variant | NEEDS VERIFICATION | batterydesign.net Gen5 (vehicle list) |
BMS-EV catalogue entry for this family is listed as "BMW iX & i4-7 Platform (68/80.7 kWh)" — the two usable-capacity figures reflect the two pack sizes most commonly offered on the European salvage market at the time of writing.
On the BMW i3 every generation shares one 96s architecture and one ~355 V nominal figure, so a single inverter DC window covers all three pack sizes. That is not true across Gen5 eDrive. Published figures place the iX xDrive40 near 330 V nominal and the i4 eDrive40 near 430 V nominal with a 400–477 V operating band. An inverter sized against one of those packs may not cover the other.
Practical consequence: specify the exact vehicle, model year and pack capacity at ordering so BMS-EV can set the correct voltage window and current limits in firmware. Do not assume a "BMW Gen5" firmware profile is interchangeable across iX and i4.
Matching is driven by the specific pack's operating window. The table below shows which inverter families cover each published voltage band.
| Inverter family | Battery DC window | iX xDrive40 (~330 V nom.) | i4 eDrive40 (400–477 V) | Protocol |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOFAR HYD 5–20KTL-3PH | 180–800 V | Yes | Yes | BYD Battery-Box HVS |
| Deye SUN 5–25K SG01HP3-EU | 160–700 V | Yes | Yes | Pylontech HV |
| Deye SUN 29.9–50K SG01HP3 | 160–800 V | Yes | Yes | Pylontech HV |
| GoodWe ET / ETC | 200–800 V (ET) / 200–865 V (ETC G2) | Yes | Yes | BYD Battery-Box |
| GoodWe EH (single-phase) | 85–460 V | Yes | Partial — upper band exceeds 460 V near full charge | BYD Battery-Box |
| SolaX X3 Hybrid G4 / X3-Ultra | 120–800 V | Yes | Yes | SolaX native / Pylontech |
| SolaX X1 Hybrid G4 | 80–480 V | Yes | Yes | SolaX native / Pylontech |
| SMA Sunny Tripower Smart Energy | 100–500 V | Yes | Partial — 477 V full-charge leaves little margin | SMA native / BYD HVS |
| Sungrow SH5.0–10RT | 150–600 V | Yes | Yes | Sungrow SBR native |
| Fronius Symo GEN24 Plus | up to 700 V (Modbus RTU RS485, not CAN) | Yes | Yes | BYD HVS/M emulation over Modbus |
| Solis S6-EH1P / S6-EH3P | 120–500 V | Yes | Partial — verify against the specific pack's full-charge voltage | Pylontech / BYD / Force H2 |
| FoxESS H1 / H3 | 80–500 V | Yes | Partial — verify full-charge voltage | Pylontech HV |
The full permutation list for this battery family is in the Compatibility Matrix and in the machine-readable compatibility.csv (filter battery_pack = BMW iX & i4-7 Platform (68/80.7 kWh)).
| Parameter | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| iX xDrive40 nominal voltage | ~330 V (400 V-class system) | EVKX BMW iX xDrive40 |
| iX xDrive40 capacity | 76.6 kWh gross / 71.0 kWh usable | EVKX, evspecifications.com |
| i4 nominal voltage and operating band | ~430 V nominal, 400 V (empty) – 477 V (full) | BMW i4 published specification |
| i4 capacity | 83.9 kWh gross / 80.7 kWh usable | BMW published specification |
| i4 module layout (372 cells) | 4 × 72-cell + 3 × 12-cell modules — NEEDS VERIFICATION | Published i4 specification summaries; not confirmed by a teardown |
| Gen5 cell format and suppliers | Prismatic, Samsung SDI and CATL | batterydesign.net BMW Gen5 |
| Gen5 pack energy density (iX3 80 kWh) | 155 Wh/kg gravimetric | batterydesign.net BMW Gen5 |
| CAN protocol implementation | BMW iX / i4-i7 target | dalathegreat/Battery-Emulator |
| SOFAR HYD battery window | 180–800 V DC absolute | SOFAR HYD 5-20KTL-3PH datasheet V5.2 (2024) |
| Deye SG01HP3 battery window | 160–700 V (5–25 K) / 160–800 V (29.9–50 K) | Deye datasheet 2023-07-24; Deye approved battery list DY-HV(160-800)-028 |
Sources verified 2026-09-19. Fields marked NEEDS VERIFICATION have no public teardown confirming the value at the time of writing.
Architecturally yes — the pack keeps its original BMS and the BMS-EV controller translates its CAN telemetry for the inverter. Electrically no: the i3 is a single ~355 V architecture across all three generations, while Gen5 packs differ by model (around 330 V on the iX xDrive40, around 430 V nominal on the i4). Inverter selection has to follow the specific pack.
BMW designed the Gen5 pack with module-level replaceability in mind, which helps if a module is damaged. For whole-pack second-life use the practical difference is smaller, because in both cases the pack stays sealed and the original BMS stays in place. The i3 has far better public documentation and a much larger salvage supply.
The i4's 400–477 V operating band rules out inverters that cap at 460 or 500 V near full charge. SOFAR HYD (180–800 V), Deye SG01HP3 (160–700 V or 160–800 V), GoodWe ET (200–800 V), SolaX X3 (120–800 V) and Sungrow SH-RT (150–600 V) all cover it with margin. Confirm the actual full-charge voltage of your specific pack before finalising.
Because no public teardown confirms them yet. Gen5 packs are newer than the packs with heavy community coverage (i3, Leaf, Model 3), so several architecture details circulate in specification summaries without an independent source. Rather than restate an unverified figure as settled data, this page marks it and states what would confirm it.
BMS-EV ships firmware for this family and bench-tests each unit against the ordered battery and inverter pair before dispatch. As of 2026-09-19 there is no customer installation on this family that BMS-EV is able to publish as a field-verified reference. Verification status for this family is therefore PROTOCOL VERIFIED, not FIELD VERIFIED. See the verification levels definitions.