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The 3 Series would be the first vehicle to use the New Klasse platform when it debuts in 2025. BMW has yet to specify what body style it will use. Chairman Oliver Zipse said the first NE-based products will be a 3 Series sedan and an SUV in a press release for the company’s H1 2022 earnings. The platform will account for more than half of the company’s sales by the end of the decade.
This is a massive deal since “Neue Klasse defines what BMW Group stands for.” The German luxury brand says it will focus on sustainability and circular economy, that leverages new technologies and industrial techniques. Debrecen, Hungary, and Munich, Germany, will begin production of a NE-based product in 2025.
Preliminary names for the electric BMW 3 Series and X3 are likely to be either i3 or iX3. Abandoning ICE now would be premature, as BMW has stated multiple times. Not all markets worldwide will have the infrastructure to switch exclusively to EVs in the coming years. This is why the next-generation 3 Series is expected in 2027. It already has a codename: G50 for the sedan and G51 for the waggon. A new generation of X3s powered by conventional engines should also be possible. Customers can select from several drivetrains to live up to BMW’s “Power of Choice” mantra. All-electric models will ride on Neue Klasse, while conventionally powered models will continue to be built on a version of the CLAR platform.
Finally, BMW continues to sell an i3 despite the quirky electric hatchback’s recent discontinuation of manufacture. The name has been recycled for a Chinese-built and -sold electrified long-wheelbase 3 Series Sedan. Only one country produces the iX3, an electric crossover, but unlike the i3, the iX3 is exported.
