Tomorrow's BMW 3 Series Will Make Today's M3 Sweat
An electric incarnation of the next BMW M3 was recently seen lapping Germany's Nürburgring, replete with the next-gen styling that was previewed by concepts like the i Vision Dee and Vision Neue Klasse. Now, it's the turn of the hottest non-M 3er to get a workout around the Green Hell, and it's going to bring with it more than just a fresh face as it chases after AMG C43s and Audi S5s. According to our spies - and common sense - BMW will be pushing the highly capable B58 turbocharged straight-six engine further with the next M340i, which, like other recent non-M updates, will include a new name: M350. Say goodbye to the 'i' suffix - it was confusing buyers who thought these cars might be electric, but that's inevitable when your naming strategy is confined to 10 digits and 26 letters, most of which are unused...
The latest version of the M340i currently generates a peak of 386 horsepower - up from the previous limit of 382 hp, but as the JDM-spec Toyota GR Supra Final Edition proves, BMW's six-cylinder can handle much more. In that application, it delivers up to 429 hp, but our spies say to expect only around 400 in the M350. With a production commencement date expected to be around November next year, and any future M3 likely to deliver close to 600 hp, BMW could either choose to launch the M350 with as much as Toyota has extracted, or it could play the game the same way as it has with this G20 generation: start small and deliver more later. With emissions legislation varying on either side of the Atlantic and across the U.S., saving some performance could be prudent - even though hybridization is inevitable.
For the 3 Series, the reconstructive surgery at the front will make the biggest impact, with the iconic kidney grille design being reinvented once more to shroud the headlights. It's bold, but elegant, and at the rear, we expect BMW to go with a classic rectangular light bar, which hasn't been so simple since the E30. And in the middle, a Hofmeister kink of sorts will continue at the C-pillar. Inside, BMW Panoramic Vision will take the tech up a notch and the physical switchgear down one or two, but the engineers won't let us close enough to see the cabin yet, so we'll have to wait a little while to see just how much changes, from the dashboard to the seats.
Ever since the Chris Bangle 'flame surfacing' era, BMW has leaned further and further into grabbing attention by mixing traditional styling tropes with, shall we say, 'adventurous' modernism. Yet, no matter how far BMW pushes into the unknown, after a few years or less, the styling tends to grow on the average person - at least when it comes to sedans. For this new era, BMW will advance the design even more intentionally than the jump from the F- to G-Series; the company's presentations on styling have always made the point that the Neue Klasse vehicles being introduced from the second half of the decade will look like they "skipped a generation." But this time, we doubt there will be as much controversy.
Not only do the concepts mentioned at the outset look well-proportioned, but despite what BMW says, the most recent M5 has already begun to take on the straight, sharp lines of those design studies, while taller vehicles like the X1 and X3 have similarly begun to look like the Vision Neue Klasse X SUV concept, helping all who see them mentally bridge the gap between current and future cars. That means the acclimatization period for future designs won't be long. And neither will the wait; with production supposedly commencing late 2026, prototypes will shed more camouflage through the year as production lighting and wheels are fitted, and we should start seeing teaser campaigns late this year or early next.
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