The new BMW 3 Series goes electric without ditching the petrol six
BMW has made the 3 Series electric, and refused to kill the petrol engine to do it
The eighth-generation BMW 3 Series is here, and it is the most consequential version in the car's fifty-year history. For the first time the 3 Series can be bought as a fully electric car, the new BMW i3, built on BMW's Neue Klasse platform. What makes the launch interesting is what BMW has not done. The petrol engines stay, now with 48V mild-hybrid assistance, and a plug-in hybrid joins the range within the year. One 3 Series, several ways to power it.
There is a neat symmetry to it. The very first 3 Series rolled out of BMW's Munich home plant in 1975, and the electric i3 is now built on that same site, which switches entirely to Neue Klasse EV production next year.
The electric i3 is the star, and the range figure is a real one
The i3 uses BMW's sixth-generation eDrive with 800V electronics and two motors for standard all-wheel drive. The i3 50 xDrive leads with 469 hp and 645 Nm, 0 to 100 km/h in 4.7 seconds, and a 108.7 kWh battery that BMW rates at up to 912 km on the WLTP cycle. Charging is just as bold, at up to 400 kW DC, enough to add around 423 km in ten minutes, and the car charges both ways for powering equipment or a home. Below it, the i3 40 xDrive offers 374 hp and up to 710 km from an 82.8 kWh pack. A hotter i3 50 xDrive First Edition opens the order books, and an M Performance i3 M60 xDrive follows in 2027.
That 912 km number is the one to sit with. Range anxiety has been the standard objection to an electric saloon at this price, and a 3 Series that can plausibly cross most of a country on one charge takes a lot of the heat out of that argument.
Petrol is not going quietly
The combustion flagship is the M350 xDrive, and it is the entry point to the BMW M world. Its 3.0-litre TwinPower Turbo straight-six runs a 48V mild-hybrid system for a combined 443 hp and 580 Nm, 0 to 100 km/h in 4.1 seconds, and a governed 250 km/h. BMW has also handed it a new Drift Moment mode that sends drive to the rear wheels alone for deliberate slides, a trick previously reserved for full M cars. Under it sit the four-cylinder 320 with 211 hp and the 318 with 156 hp, both mild hybrids, with the plug-in hybrid to follow.
A cabin built around one big idea
Inside, the 3 Series adopts BMW's Panoramic iDrive. Instead of a dial behind the wheel, driving information is projected across the base of the windscreen by BMW Panoramic Vision, backed by an optional 3D head-up display, a 17.9-inch central touchscreen angled at the driver, and a redesigned steering wheel with a central upper spoke. It runs BMW Operating System X, built on Android open source, with Amazon's Alexa+ large-language-model assistant and Prime Video on board. The car has grown a little in every direction, with a longer wheelbase and wider tracks than the outgoing model, and the boot holds 450 litres in petrol form or 420 litres plus a 31-litre front compartment in the i3.
The badge is the twist. The i3 name last belonged to the stubby carbon-fibre city car BMW sold until a few years ago, and it now sits on a full-size electric saloon instead. It is the same three letters attached to a completely different idea.
Made across Bavaria and Austria
Production splits by drivetrain. The electric i3 is built at BMW's Munich plant, the petrol cars come from Dingolfing, the engines and electric-drive components are made at Steyr in Austria, and the batteries come from BMW's new plant at Irlbach-Straßkirchen in Bavaria. Series production begins in November 2026.
AutoNext Take
BMW's bet is that you should not have to pick your 3 Series by ideology. The same car arrives as a 469 hp electric i3 with 912 km of range, a 443 hp mild-hybrid straight-six, or, soon, a plug-in hybrid, and the buyer chooses which future to back rather than the factory choosing for them. With rivals betting whole model lines on one drivetrain, that flexibility looks like the smarter reading of a market that has not actually made up its mind.
The reused i3 badge is a smaller risk than it first looks. The original carbon-fibre i3 has already slipped from most people's minds, and a quick, long-range saloon selling in real numbers will redefine those three letters far faster than a discontinued city car can hold on to them. Give it a year on the road and i3 will simply mean the electric 3 Series.
