Electric BMW M3 will be the best yet

BMW M CEO, Frank Van Meel, says an all-electric BMW M3 would be the best ever, but his language around a purely battery-powered version of the lauded German sports sedan still contains “if” rather than “when”.

During a recent visit to Australia for the launch of the BMW XM, M2 and M3 Touring, carsales quizzed the M boss on how future electric products will appeal to enthusiasts if they are devoid of the attractions typically found in BMW high-performance models such as revs, noise and gears?

“If we could do an M model as a purely electric one it’s clear that it has to be better than the current one and it should drive like an M so from that standpoint I would say there’s no need to be afraid of the future even if we would have an electrified drivetrain,” said Van Meel.

There are two interesting things to note in Van Meel’s answer: the use of “if” M does a purely electric model and the words “electrified drivetrain” rather than “electric”.

Emissions regulations will force BMW M’s hand to a large extent, but a slide presented to media earlier in 2023 showed the company doesn’t expect pure-electric models to out-sell pure-ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles until 2028 and that ICE and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) models will still make up a reasonable percentage of sales in 2030.

These figures also take into account ‘M Performance’ models, which receive attention from the high-performance division but don’t feature the same level of modification as ‘M High Performance’ models likes the M2, M3 and M5.

This suggests that while the vast majority of the M offering will be pure electric – cars like the i4 M50 (BMW M’s best-selling model in 2022), iX and i5 M60 – others will live on with internal combustion power.

BMW M’s first plug-in hybrid model is the XM SUV, with the new M5 expected to follow by using the 550kW/1000Nm drivetrain from the XM Label Red, teaming a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 with plenty of electrical assistance.

On the surface it appears that the next-generation M3 and M4, tentatively expected around 2027, will follow suit – and they very well might – with Van Meel confirming the current M2 is the last “purely combustion-engine” M-car ever.

However, the addition of a 48-volt mild-hybrid system technically makes a car electrified so the possibility remains that future heartland products like the M2, M3 and M4 will remain powered virtually exclusively by fuel for another decade or so.

Then again, BMW currently has an i4 M50-based prototype with quad electric motors and BMW’s board member for development, Dr Frank Weber, told carsales previously that “[The M3] can also be the dual-motor architecture and this can be a four-motor architecture with four 250kW motors for up to one megawatt (1000kW).”

Whatever the outcome, Van Meel promises future M products will eclipse their successors.

“If you look at the history of M it was never about the drivetrain, it was about motorsport and emotion,” he said.

“If you look at the M3 it started out with a four-cylinder naturally-aspirated, six-cylinder naturally-aspirated, V8 high-revving naturally-aspirated and then a six-cylinder inline turbocharged engine.

“Each and every time it was a huge outcry in the community that ‘you can’t do that, you change the whole concept of the car, it’s not an M3 anymore’ and each and every time when you drove the car you found out it’s better than its own predecessor.

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