Electric BMW M3 Will Outmuscle The Petrol Car It Sits Beside

The electric BMW M3 arrives next year, and it means business. BMW M has confirmed the battery-powered super saloon will hit harder than the petrol car it lines up beside. Both machines will wear the same M3 badge. Yet the newcomer promises an entirely fresh recipe.

M division boss Frank van Meel let the figures do the talking. The current range-topper, the petrol M3 CS, musters 543bhp. The electric M3 will comfortably clear that mark. Van Meel stopped short of a firm number. He did, however, rule out any chase for four-figure outputs.

The hardware could easily deliver more. Van Meel admitted the quad-motor layout is capable of a full megawatt, echoing the wild 1,341bhp Vision Driving Experience concept. But he argued such muscle is pointless on the road. Force a megawatt through the car, he explained, and heat quickly overwhelms the cooling. Performance then wilts. So expect a total below 900bhp, with a hotter CS derivative likely to follow.

Beneath the bodywork sits a bespoke lithium-ion pack holding more than 100kWh of usable energy. Four motors drive all four wheels. Cleverly, the front axle can be decoupled for pure rear-wheel drive, sharpening the handling and trimming consumption when the full house is not required.

Traditionalists need not panic. Van Meel confirmed the straight-six petrol M3 will live on with a next-generation model, unlikely to appear before 2028. Its S58 engine has already gained pre-chamber ignition to satisfy Euro 7. That secures the future of the M2 and M4 as well. Two very different M3s, then, sharing one famous name.