BMW.SG | BMW Singapore Owners Community The Ultimate BMW Community – Established Since 2001
The electric BMW M3 will wear the badge the faithful were hoping for. Forget the rumoured iM3 label. When the battery-powered super saloon breaks cover next year, it will simply be called M3. BMW M has finally silenced months of speculation, and purists can breathe out.
The word comes straight from the top. Speaking at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, BMW M boss Frank van Meel batted away the iM3 talk without hesitation. An M3 has always been an M3, he argued, whether it ran a four-cylinder, a straight-six or a V8. Electric power, in his eyes, changes nothing about the name on the bootlid.
Crucially, the EV is not shoving the combustion car aside. BMW is already cooking up another petrol M3 with an inline-six, though that model is not due until 2028. That leaves a window in which the electric version could be the only M3 you can buy. The current G80 bows out next year, with the G84 following later.
Van Meel also confirmed the next 3 Series will get the M Performance treatment once again with a combustion engine. That points to the 2027 M350 xDrive, which briefly surfaced on BMW’s US website. A sportier electric i3 looks likely too, probably badged i3 M60 xDrive and slotting neatly between the i3 50 xDrive and the full-fat electric M3.
The quad-motor saloon has enormous shoes to fill, given the M3 name stretches back four decades to the E30 homologation hero. Winning over die-hard enthusiasts will not be simple. But with the six-cylinder car set to soldier on for petrol loyalists, and hopefully a manual gearbox alongside it, BMW gets to have things both ways.
