With BMW’s Neue Klasse chassis looms on the horizon, its current lineup is about to undergo some big changes. For instance, one car that’s quite the fan favorite among BMW enthusiasts—the BMW X3 M—is about to meet its four-wheeled maker. After this generation of X3 M, the M Division’s most fun SUV is rumored to be killed off to make way for high-performance electric cars. The first of BMW’s Neue Klasse electric cars will be the next-generation of iX3. It will be sold alongside the next generation of BMW X3 (G45 code), though both cars will have different chassis. So BMW will continue to offer the X3 with a gasoline, diesel or plug-in hybrid drivetrain as well.
BMW iX3 M Likely To Arrive
The rumormill churns out that along with the iX3 will be a performance version, BMW will build in the future a M version of it – iX3 M (the name is likely a placeholder for now and might still be called simply the X3 M). There’s no word on power or performance, but it’s likely to have more power than the current X3 M, just with an electric powertrain. Since BMW wants to start pushing high-performance electric vehicles, it likely doesn’t want to distract from that with an internal combustion version. So rather than have a gas-powered X3 M fight for sales with an electric iX3 M, BMW might feel it’s best to just sell the latter. But these are our assumptions since BMW has been quiet on this topic.
Launch Date
When will this happen? Nothing is official just yet, as this is just what we’re hearing from the rumor mill. However, don’t expect an iX3 M before 2026-2027. That’s about the right timeline for an M version of the iX3. The Neue Klasse chassis is right around the corner, and will debut after 2025, with cars potentially being sold as 2026 model years. If that’s the case, any future M versions should be a year or two afterward, as per usual.
If the gas-powered BMW X3 M is truly dead after this generation, that means the last ever gas-powered M car will be the next-gen BMW M5, which will be a plug-in hybrid with a V8 and an electric motor. An electric BMW 3 Series, likely dubbed i3, is going to debut either alongside the iX3 or shorty after and it will also get an M variant a year or two after that. So it’s possible that in a few years’ time, we’ll have both an electric BMW iX3 M and an electric BMW i3 M – or maybe simply called the M3.
Of course, as always, this is just a rumor until BMW confirms it, but the writing is on the wall for all future M cars going all-electric.
