CarBuzz has discovered a trademark application for the iM3 that the Bavarian automaker has filed with the EU and German patent authorities. The index may receive a powerful electric car, which will be the first battery model developed by BMW M. Journalists suggest that the power of the iM3 power plant will be expressed in a four-digit number – its output will exceed 1000 horsepower.
The use of a familiar designation, according to CarBuzz, is not only due to the fact that BMW wants to maintain the continuity of the M3 and iM3. The two models will be sold in parallel, at least for some time, with the electric car offered in countries with strict environmental standards, while the gasoline car will continue to be sold in places where emissions restrictions are less severe.
The electric super sedan will not go on sale anytime soon; it will have to wait until at least 2027. But it is already known that the iM3 will be based on the new Neue Klasse architecture.
CarBuzz
The Neue Klasse’s base configuration is an electric rear-wheel drive platform (all-wheel drive is also an option) that can be scaled to fit both compact and full-size models. The batteries will use new cells: not only will their format change (cylindrical instead of prismatic), but also their chemical composition. As a result, battery production costs will be reduced by approximately half.
It is also expected that electric cars on the Neue Klasse platform, including the iM3, will receive lithium-ion batteries of the next, sixth generation, which will increase the mileage of the longest-range version by 30 percent in the WLTP cycle.
According to the automaker’s plans, the transition to a new “trolley” will make it possible to increase the share of electric cars in the model line to 50 percent by 2030.
Charged: in every sense. New powerful electric cars
