We said that there was a rumour that BMW was going to open orders for the new i3 early, and by Jove BMW has only gone and opened orders for the new i3 early. Who would have thought, eh?

The German carmaker has been inundated with excited requests for the Neue Klasse electric 3-Series and has decided to launch with a First Edition model it can run off the production lines when they get going later this year. 

The i3 50 xDrive First Edition will be your first opportunity to get behind the wheel of a new i3, and it’s going on sale for £57,905. You can order it already from your friendly local BMW dealership. 

The First Edition comes with a whopping 563 miles of WLTP range, gets 22kW AC charging as standard and also comes with a light up BMW grille, Harman Kardon sound system, three-zone climate control and a 3D head-up display. 

The 108.7kWh usable battery features 800V tech, which means not only that it has a stonking range, but also that you can juice it back up at an eye watering 400kW. If you can find a suitably powerful charger you can put 263 miles back into the car in just 10 minutes. 

Jochen Goller is BMW’s sales boss and sits on the board – he said the new car is extremely significant for the company because it’s going on sale in an extremely competitive part of the market. “The new BMW i3 is a groundbreaking car for us. We can already tell from the high level of interest in this model that it will be very well received by our customers.”

Other cars from the i3 range won’t go on sale until the autumn, at which point the entry price for an i3 50 xDrive will be £53,005. Much like with the iX3 SUV a lower powered, lesser batteried rear-wheel drive option will go on sale at a later date once enough people have bought the expensive version.