The M3 you can't hear is here, and it already drifts like the real thing
A near-silent M3 prototype tore into the Nürburgring, went sideways and may pack over 1000 hp — for roughly the price of the petrol car.
BMW is already lining up a successor to the M3 — and for the first time in history, the legendary sedan will have a twin that runs almost in silence. Alongside the new petrol version stands an electric alternative. Some call it the BMW i3 M, others the iM3. A prototype recently hit the Nürburgring, and the first few metres said it all: this is no ordinary “straight-line toy”.
The test sedan didn't just accelerate — it bit into the apexes, threaded the corner sequences and, at one point, broke into a controlled slide. For a heavy battery car, that counts for a lot. BMW M is trying to preserve not the dry numbers but the living character people buy an M3 for. Power is pretty. But on track you see instantly whether a car can change direction and take the punishment lap after lap.
The electric M3 is set to crown the future i3 range on the Neue Klasse architecture. You'll struggle to tell it apart from the new petrol M3 — yet underneath, by early accounts, the two share almost nothing. The combustion version keeps the twin-turbo inline-six, and its output is expected to land somewhere around 550 hp.
The EV plays a very different game. Insiders once spoke of four motors — one per wheel — and a combined output of around 1000 hp. Now come hints that even this figure may not be the ceiling. If the rumours hold up, the iM3 won't merely replace the M3 in the electric era — it will stare down the mightiest sport sedans of the new age. But here's the real twist: according to one recent report, the electric M3 may cost about the same as the petrol one.
And that's where the choice turns genuinely painful — not only for brand loyalists, but for everyone who still wrote EVs off as an expensive toy. The full premiere is expected toward the end of 2026 or in early 2027. The current M3 is bowing out loudly. But the next chapter looks louder still — even if the car itself will move in near silence.