► BMW M goes electric
► EV sports car being tested
► We take a ride in a seriously quick prototype
BMW has revealed new pictures of its high-performance electric BMW prototype and this time it’s dropped the camo. The new pictures shown in the run-up to Auto Shanghai display a prototype of the forthcoming, Neue Klasse-based super saloon without the usual dazzle-camo for a new perspective on the car. Of course we’ll get us best look when it’s fully revealed, which could be late 2026.
The car pictured features the same mini-sharknose as the standard i3 we’ve seen testing, but larger bumpers, wheels and wheelarches betray its increased performance. Keep reading for everything we know about the car – including our first passenger ride.
What do we know?
CAR understands the new M3 will be available with both ICE and EV powertrains, but we’ve already got details on the latter – despite its reveal being a year or so out. That’s because a recent YouTube series from BMW called ‘Electrified’ has confirmed key details about the car.
BMW’s M boss Frank Van Meel says exactly what you’d expect to begin with, stating; ‘it’s not about transforming, it’s about embracing new technology and to find out how to push to the limits of what is technically possible.’
The video then moves on to BMW’s Heart of Joy, a singular ECU that centralises all aspects of the car’s behaviour into one. First revealed alongside the Neue Klasse concept, it’s a black box that BMW believes will put it well ahead of the competition in driving pleasure.
However, the video’s most important soundbite comes from Carsten Wolf, head of Integration Vehicle Characteristics at BMW M, who says: ‘We will see the technical concepts that we are developing here, four electric motors, in all BMW M High Performance vehicles sometime in the future.’
‘What we are developing here is basically the powertrain and driving dynamics modular system that is crucial for the future of M GmbH’
How will it drive?
Our ride in the high-performance prototype was brief and we’re not going to claim it as ‘a world-first ride in the new electric M3’ because, simply put, it’s not. What it is, however, is a test-bed for hardware and technology that stands a good chance of making it onto future BMW production cars. And since this particular prototype is a four-door electric saloon with – what felt like – an awful lot of power, you can see why it piqued our interest.
And what’s quickly apparent – as we speed off in a flurry of high-pitch whine and tyre smoke from all four wheels – is just how well the car handles its mass. As you’d imagine, BMW won’t tell us much about the specs on this prototype, but given we’re four up, with laptops and data logging equipment, plus what must be four electric motors and the impeller system, it’s staying eerily flat and composed through a series of difficult off-camber corners. And there’s good reason for this…
The Vision Driving Experience is currently being used as a test bed for futuristic technologies – some of which will make its way into the next M3. However, some of it won’t. This car, for example, is running five impellers that suck the car into the ground and create around a tonne of downforce without any additional drag. They can also manipulate the focus of said downforce incredibly quicker and totally independent to the speed of the car.
Sadly, they won’t make production (we like to think of the phrase ‘never say never’ but BMW is rather adamant), however one thing that will is the Heart of Joy central computer system that will unify the car’s electronic systems to reduce delay in inputs and response.
How does that work? Well, traditionally when you press the accelerator and turn the steering wheel, the signals are sent through two separate units. In the grand scheme of things, any potential delay in said two signals talking to each other is tiny, but equally it’s the kind of thing that will have a knock-on effect when you’re driving.
As such, the Heart of Joy brings everything into one system. Brakes, accelerator, steering – all the main inputs (and more) – go into one software stack and are processed simultaneously with the corresponding output signal now much quicker. In fact, BMW reckons that the Heart of Joy allows for communication ten times faster than its recent cars.
For years now, we’ve heard that electric cars will deliver a driving experience that simply cannot be replicated in ICE models. And for years we’ve scoffed. However, this may just be the first real evidence of this bold claim coming to fruition. Power can be shuffled from wheel to wheel far more quickly, the car can respond to your braking and decide whether the discs and pads or regen will be used. It’s all supposed to be super responsive and incredibly intuitive.
How much of that can we confirm from our passenger ride? Not a huge amount, given we’re not at the wheel, but what is clear is how devastatingly effective this tech is at making a fast saloon car.
It feels like rotation, both into and out of a corner, is available on demand and there’s none of the inertia you’d expect from a car that must be running at over two tonnes. Crucially, all four of us in the car – including Jens – are laughing as we round the final few corners of our run, EV motors screaming, opposite-lock aplenty and the cabin filled with tyre smoke channelled through an open window. It’s not an M3 as we know it – officially it’s not an M3 at all – but there’s plenty of reasons to be excited.