BMW previews electric M3 as it marks millionth car
Orange M3 marks remarkable milestone, but battery-powered model will be the real acid test
The ongoing success of BMW M won’t have passed you by. It seems like every year is a record year for sales for anything with the tricolour on it, every taste from manual M2 to X5M60e is catered for, and apparently the appetite for M Performance Parts cannot be sated. So expect more of those in due course.
The recent sales success, plus the sheer number of models that qualify for M status these days, means a significant milestone has been reached: BMW M has built its one-millionth car. It was an M3, which feels appropriate as perhaps the best known and most loved of all the M cars over the past 50 years, in Fire Orange III. Frank Weber, head of BMW Group Plant Munich, handed it over to M CEO Franciscus van Meel to work on his Drift Analyser score (maybe).
The G80 M3 isn’t long for this world, though, having been in production (and courting controversy) since the start of the decade. Which means a new one is due, and BMW has taken the 1,000,000 milestone to offer up the best look at the electric M3 yet. The teaser shows what might have been predicted: an i3 beefed up with big arches, some extra scoops and spoilers, plus just a bit of influence from the Le Mans concept (see the square driving lights). Underneath the livery is surely something very, very close to the finished article. BMW says the future of Plant Munich - its main factory that’s been making cars for more than a century - is electric.
Which is naturally going to cause some consternation, given BMW’s incredible combustion heritage. But then it’s taken to new tech pretty well over the years, from xDrive to autos and turbos to Tourings. Hybrid might not be there just yet, but you wouldn’t bet on it taking long.
For now, the classics. Because it’s not every day a division as important as BMW M reaches a million cars made. And while there are a few X6s and XMs obviously out there, there are plenty of undeniable icons as well. Cars like this glorious M635 CSI for example, set for auction on PH in the coming days; or, if a more modern 6 Series is to your taste, then V10 M6s are still around at £20,000.
This also buys a very nice DCT M5 of a bit later on, or or a V8 M3, or it’s almost M2 money… you get the idea. Plenty of the million M cars made still hold a lot of appeal, and plenty of those are for sale on PH. You might not be able to mark a million with an orange M3, but there are dozens more besides. Just be prepared for a few more EVs to join that mix imminently.
I'm willing to have a small wager that sales will crash.
TX.
This is quite an interesting/nerdy Instagram post on how they've got to the 1 million mark. Also shows how much the sales figures have grown in the past decade- they've sold 700k cars since 2008, when they marked their 300,000th car around 30 years on from the M1 going on sale!
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