BMW's top executives have driven a near-production prototype of the electric M3 at the company's Miramas proving ground in France, a key milestone for a car that will become the first fully electric model from BMW M. The seventh episode of BMW M's Electrified series shows Chief Development Officer Joachim Post and his division heads putting the car, internally known as ZA0, through its paces at the test facility BMW has used for four decades.
The verdict from the board was positive. BMW M CEO Frank van Meel summarized his drive with a simple «How cool is that?» and said the only reminder of the electric powertrain is how much faster the car carries speed through corners. Post said the M3 kept finding more grip just when he thought he had reached the limit, describing the car as the answer to years of internal debate over how an electric M car should behave.
The Miramas test follows an extensive development program. Before the board drove the car, every department involved gathered at the Sachsenring for a final round of fine-tuning, where racing driver and M development engineer Jörg Weidinger drove it for the first time. Prototypes had already been tested on frozen lakes above the Arctic Circle, in BMW's wind tunnel at speeds up to 300 km/h (186 mph), and for roughly 8,000 km (4,971 miles) on the Nordschleife. Miramas, with up to 65 km (40 miles) of track and capacity for as many as 4,000 prototypes a year, is where BMW's toughest tests take place and where board drives determine each project's next step.
BMW has confirmed the electric M3 will use four electric motors, one per wheel, arranged in two drive units with a gearbox for each wheel. The company calls them the most powerful drive units M has ever used. The front axle can fully decouple to allow rear-wheel drive, and the battery offers more than 100 kWh of usable energy using a performance-focused version of BMW's Gen6 cylindrical cells, with the housing serving as a structural part of the car.
The car rides on BMW's Neue Klasse 800-volt architecture, which supports faster charging than the regular Gen6 pack. The regular iX3 already charges at up to 400 kW. A «Heart of Joy» dynamics computer controls torque at each wheel and manages simulated gearshifts and an M-specific soundscape.
BMW has not published horsepower, torque, weight or acceleration figures. Output remains the big unknown, though expectations point to a range of 800 to 900 horsepower, which would make it the most powerful production M car ever, ahead of the 738-hp XM Label Red. BMW has not announced a premiere date or pricing.
Production of the first fully electric M3 is set to begin at Plant Munich in 2027, with the car dropping the «i» prefix and carrying the M3 name alone. A gasoline-powered M3 with an inline-six engine follows in 2028, meaning the badge will not go fully electric. The board's drive at Miramas suggests the electric M3 is nearing the end of a development process that BMW M says has spanned more than eight years.