You can walk into one of their showrooms and purchase a 3 series petrol from as little as £36,600. In comparison, the entry level i4, which incidently is mainly powered by CATL batteries, starts from £50,000. That is a difference of £14k or alot of petrol for the average punter. Even charging at home the average person won’t make that difference up.
The comparable petrol version to the i4 starts at 44k – not quite sure why you went with a petrol 3 series instead of a petrol 4 series, but it quite obviously is kind of a.. worthless argument. Even comparing the i4 with a base petrol 4 series would be odd considering the severe difference in power.
To state the obvious, yeah. A model higher in the range is going to be steeper by default.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.