This isn’t the first BMW i3, which was a funky electric city car a little too futuristic for its own good. It’s not even the second BMW i3, which is a current-gen 3 Series with some batteries shoehorned into it and only sold in China.
It is the most important BMW i3, though, because it’s the second member of BMW’s family of ‘Neue Klasse’ EVs, and the one that takes a Beemer mainstay – the compact executive saloon – into this all-important new era for the brand.
Snuck onto the stage One-More-Thing-style at the end of the new iX3’s debut in Munich, this is our first look at the car in near-production guise after it was previewed by the Vision Neue Klasse concept a couple of years ago.
Happily, it looks like the concept’s pleasingly boxy styling is going to carry over pretty much wholesale to the production version, with a more toned-down interpretation of the show car’s wide kidney grilles also seemingly hiding under that camo wrap.
BMW Vision Neue Klasse concept
When it arrives next year, it’ll sit on the same EV-dedicated platform as the new iX3, and should get a similar range of powertrains, including the sole one announced for the iX3 so far – a 463bhp dual-motor setup. With a lower, likely slipperier and inevitably lighter saloon body above it, that could lead to an even more impressive range than the iX3’s already mighty 500-mile official figure.
Oh yes, and there’s the small matter of the next i3 serving as the basis of the first all-electric full-fat M car, which is set to get a brand new quad-motor powertrain with up to 1000bhp. And before you get too angry, this electric 3 Series-sized saloon isn’t replacing the combustion 3 Series, nor will the M3 be shuffled off this mortal coil to make way for the electric M car. Instead, both will be sold alongside next-generation versions of their combustion equivalents. That should keep everyone happy, eh?
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