All-electric BMW 3 Series leaked
Chinese patent office gives us our first glimpse of battery-electric sedan that could be called the BMW i3The Chinese patent office has accidentally previewed the battery-powered 2022 BMW 3 Series that's set to be launched next year.
Created to rival the current Tesla Model 3, it's rumoured the electric 3 Series could be launched globally using the BMW i3 moniker that's currently used for the German car-maker's battery-electric small hatch which will not be directly replaced.
The leak reportedly came after BMW submitted images to the Chinese patent office to trademark both its design and certain technological features.
Sharing plenty with the standard 3 Series, the i3 differs from its combustion sibling by featuring a blanked-off grille, a new front bumper and styling that reduces drag to maximise range.
At the rear of the car there's a diffuser and the deleted rear exhaust.
Along the side of the new i3, deeper side skirts have been introduced to fool the eye from detecting the taller sills needed to accommodate the underfloor battery pack.
A set of smoother, wind-cheating alloy rims have also been added.
Based on BMW's flexible CLAR architecture that also supports petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid models, it's almost a dead cert the i3 will share powertrains with the BMW i4 Gran Coupe.
That means the rear-wheel drive BMW i3 eDrive40 will use a 250kW/430Nm electric motor on the rear axle, feeding off an 80.7kWh lithium-ion battery.
That should ensure the i3 matches the i4's claimed 5.7sec 0-100km/h sprint and 590km WLTP-rated range, the latter aided by 116kW in regenerative braking.
Using a 200kW DC charger, the i4 eDrive40 can reach 80 per cent charge (from 10 per cent) in a claimed 31 minutes.
At the top of the tree, the performance-oriented i3 M50, meanwhile, should come with all-wheel drive thanks to dual electric motors (one on each axle). Combined, expect the most powerful i3 to produce 350kW and 730Nm (or up to 400kW/795Nm during overboost).
Against the clock, the i3 M50 should return a 0-100km/h time of less than 4.0 seconds and a top speed of 225km/h, plus a 500km-plus WLTP-verified range.
With the i4 Gran Coupe set to land in Australia in early 2022, it's feasible the i3 could rock up Down Under before the end of the next year.
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