BMW revealed a new concept car at the recent Le Mans 24-Hour Race – the M concept – that jazzes up the recently launched i3 to preview the new electric M3. And we’ve been to see it at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. 

The performance saloon is based on the German carmaker’s Neue Klasse philosophy (New Class), which is trying to do what the Neue Klasse cars of the 1960s did in reviving BMW’s fortunes. 

We’ve seen the iX3, i3 and iX5 so far – BMW’s core range of cars, and well suited to the mix of high-tech interior experience and an engineering platform that’s been designed to maximise range and efficiency. But how will BMW’s M performance division cope with this new way of doing things? Here’s everything we know so far about the new electric BMW M3.  

What is the BMW M Concept?

Ssh, don’t tell anyone, but this is a thinly disguised preview of the upcoming electric M3 – it’s more muscular in appearance than the standard i3 and you can see the M division starting to play around with some new design cues. 

The flared wheel arches, ‘trimaran’ bumper, yellow lights and aero focused additions like the cooling vent in the bonnet and the side mirrors are the sorts of distinctive touches we can expect to see on the new M3. This concept has after all been billed as a ‘design study’ by BMW. 

What sort of power will the electric M3 have?

Now we’re talking – BMW has only hinted at what’s underneath the rippling bodywork of the M concept, but there will be loads of power at any rate. 

Rumours suggest the electric M3 could produce up to 1,000hp, and the concept car is equipped with four electric motors (not in-wheel motors, but certainly one each), BMW’s latest 800V tech, a battery that’s “over 100kWh” and a ‘BMW M eDrive’ system that’s been specially developed by the performance division’s engineers. 

Will it still drive like an M car? 

This is perhaps the most important part of the whole shebang for the engineers who work at the M division development HQ north of Munich in a little town called Garching (on Daimler street, ironically). 

The software and hardware have been given a good going over by the performance experts, using all of the tricks at their disposal. 

Using four electric motors allows you to dish out the power very precisely, and the ‘Heart of Joy’ computer system that’s central to BMW’s Neue Klasse efficiency and performance has also been put to work wringing every last drop of performance out of the car. 

The super fast computer system controls all the important stuff – power delivery, regen, stability control, traction and torque vectoring. And BMW says that its computer can react far more quickly than a standard stability control set-up, so that’s good. 

What can we learn from the inside of the M concept?

Maximum information, minimum distraction says BMW – the interior clutter has been cleared out and the car has been designed to help the driver focus on driving. There’s still a massive touchscreen of course, you can’t be without your tunes. 

The seats in the concept have been covered in a tasty looking red and blue Merino leather combo which could make it through to the production car as an option. The race car-style harnesses probably won’t, though – they’d add half an hour every time you went to the shops. 

So ditch the internal bracing, add a few cubbies and a proper set of seatbelts and we're almost there. 

Will the electric M3 replace the petrol version? 

No, BMW is pursuing a ‘having its cake and eating all of it’ strategy with its latest batch of cars. Even the new X5 has been launched with petrol, diesel and even hydrogen options on top of the electric version. 

The new M3 will start off with an electric version, but then a petrol-engined car will follow the year after. It won’t be all smooth sailing for combustion purists, though, because even that car is expected to be all-wheel drive and have an automatic transmission. 

What about the battery, range and charging?

We’re shooting in the dark now in terms of confirmed information about the new M3 – we know that it’s got the 800V Gen6 tech that BMW has deployed across its latest EVs, so it’ll probably have the same 400kW charging from the standard i3. 

BMW has also said that the concept car has a battery pack that’s bigger than 100kWh – will the i3’s 108kWh pack do, or will BMW try and shove something bigger in?

Certainly the i3’s 562 miles of WLTP range would seem rather difficult to achieve, but anything around the 400-mile mark would be impressive. 

What BMW has confirmed

So, let us recap – we know roughly what the new electric BMW M3 will look like thanks to the M concept, we know that it will be based on the i3 and use the same Gen6 eDrive technology, but that it has been given a thorough working over by the M division engineers. 

We know that it will have four e-motors, working together to provide the sort of dynamic and engaging drive we expect from an M car, and a battery bigger than 100kWh. 

What we expect

The new M3 is expected to go on sale in early 2027, so we should see the production version before the end of the year. A petrol version (boo, hiss, etc) will follow in 2028. 

Power could be in the region of 1,000hp, which will certainly give the car some eye-catching performance figures. Just as eye-catching will be the price, which is expected to sail past £100,000.