The EU is paying for 100 nearly-M3 BMWs so Poland's police can catch speeders
Poland's traffic police are getting a fleet quick enough to embarrass most sports cars, and Brussels is footing most of the bill
If you plan to speed on a Polish motorway, here is some free advice: do not. The country's traffic police are taking delivery of 100 BMW M340i xDrive saloons, one of the fastest police fleets in Europe, and the striking part is who is paying for it. The European Union is covering the lion's share of a 12.7 million euro bill, in the name of road safety.
100 BMW M340is, and they are seriously fast
These are no ordinary patrol cars. The M340i xDrive uses a 3.0-litre turbocharged straight-six with mild-hybrid assistance, producing 392 hp and around 550 Nm, enough to fire it from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.3 seconds and on to an electronically limited 250 km/h. In other words, this is very nearly a full-blown M3, wearing police livery. Delivery is well under way, with 44 already handed over and the remaining 56 heading to traffic units across the country, including regional garrisons such as Lublin, where the first six were split between the city, Chelm and Zamosc.
Who pays, and why the EU
The money is the real story. The whole project is worth about 12.7 million euros, of which the cars themselves account for roughly 7.5 million, or around 75,000 euros each. The European Union is contributing 10.3 million euros through its FEnIKS programme, with Poland putting in the remaining 2.4 million. Crucially, this is not just a pile of fast BMWs: alongside the 100 marked patrol cars come 100 LTI 20/20 TruCam II laser speed guns with built-in HD cameras, extra measuring equipment and advanced driver training for more than 400 officers, all funded as a coordinated road-safety investment rather than a car giveaway.
Fast cars to catch fast cars
The logic is simple enough. You cannot realistically police a 250 km/h motorway from behind the wheel of a wheezing diesel estate, and a fleet of genuinely quick, well-equipped patrol cars both catches offenders and deters them long before anyone is pulled over. Poland has struggled with high road-death figures, which is exactly why the EU is willing to fund hardware like this. It fits a wider European pattern, from France's gendarmerie running fast pursuit cars to continent-wide speeding crackdowns.
AutoNext Take
There is an easy joke here about the EU spending millions on 400 hp BMWs in the name of saving lives, and yes, the optics are a little funny. But the thinking is sound. A visible fleet of fast, capable police cars changes how people drive long before a single ticket is written, and pairing the cars with 100 new speed guns and proper training turns a headline-grabbing purchase into a real enforcement programme.
For enthusiasts there is a guilty pleasure in all of this too, because the M340i is a genuinely brilliant car, and a fleet of them in police colours is undeniably cool. Poland gets safer roads, its officers get one of the best company cars in Europe, and somewhere a speeder is about to have a very bad day watching an M340i fill their mirrors. Everyone wins here, except the one person who rather deserves to lose.
