Four months ago BMW gave nothing but a vague promise: the anniversary M3 would arrive in China sometime "in the second half of 2026." The waiting is over — there's a date now. The BMW M3 40 Jahre goes on sale August 21 at the Chengdu Auto Show. Back in April, the company already confirmed the numbers: 40 cars for China, split into 20 sedans and 20 Touring wagons.
And here's what matters: this isn't a new M3 variant. It's a collector's take on the already-familiar 530-horsepower M xDrive. The sedan tops out at 290 km/h, the Touring at 280 km/h. BMW is also promising the M Driver's Package and unique trim details for both anniversary versions.
The price is the real mystery here. For reference, the regular BMW M3 currently starts at 863,900 yuan in China — about $128,000. The BMW M3 Touring starts at 943,900 yuan, roughly $140,000. But those are prices for the standard production models, not the anniversary edition. What the collector's premium will actually cost is anyone's guess.
So August 21 won't just be a routine sales launch. Once the price list goes public, we'll finally know how much of a premium BMW is putting on anniversary status and a run of just 20 units per body style. At that volume, a difference of even a few tens of thousands of yuan probably won't move demand much. But it will reveal exactly how much value BMW places on the idea of collectibility itself with the M3 40 Jahre.
The previous chapter of this story was already known after the Beijing Auto Show: BMW confirmed both versions back then and only pointed to sales "in the second half of the year." Now that vague window has turned into an exact date — August 21, 2026.
