BMW‘s first electric M3 will have an artificial sound and simulated gear changes to keep drivers involved, BMW M Chief Executive Officer Frank van Meel said in an interview.
“Can electric driving not only be quick and precise, but can it also be emotional? Yes,” van Meel told IMSA President John Doonan at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion in California in August. “So that’s why it will have a sound, and it will also have the possibility to shift between different stages.”
The US sports car racing series IMSA published the video on its YouTube channel on Monday.
Van Meel said BMW M would keep selling combustion models alongside electric ones. “We will offer both, by the way,” he said. “So, yeah, the problem of choosing will be up to the customer, not up to us.”
Sound and shifts
The simulated shifts would work much as they do on a track, van Meel said. “You push the brake, you shift down, you hear the revs, you know how much you’re on the gas,” he said. “So you know where the car is.”
He also pushed back on doubts about whether an electric M car can handle the track. “Like with every M3, you will be able to take the all-electric M3 also to the track,” van Meel said. “It will not break down.”
He compared the move to electric power with earlier changes to the M3, from four cylinders to six, then to a V8 and to a turbocharged six-cylinder. Each change drew criticism at first, he said, but “every time it drove like an M3 and it was better than its predecessor.”
The interview took place in front of the BMW M Concept Neue Klasse, which BMW unveiled during Monterey Car Week in August and which previews the electric M3. Van Meel said the concept’s hood vent cools the electric motors and provides downforce, much like the one on BMW’s M4 GT3 race car.
The concept also uses natural fiber instead of carbon fiber in some parts. It has “the same properties as carbon fiber in regards to weight and durability and strength” but cuts the carbon dioxide emissions from making it by 40%, van Meel said.
What is confirmed
BMW said on October 2 that its main plant in Munich will build the electric M3, which it described as the first high-performance model with BMW M Neue Klasse technology. The plant will produce only fully electric vehicles from 2027, and BMW is investing about 650 million euros ($725 million) in the conversion.
The announcement came as the Munich plant built BMW M’s millionth vehicle, an M3. BMW had already said in January that its first electric M3 would launch in 2027.
BMW has said the car will use four electric motors, one for each wheel, according to the BMW specialist site BMWBlog.
BMW has not published horsepower, torque, weight, acceleration or range figures for the car, and has announced neither a premiere date nor pricing.
BMW in the US
The M3 plans come as BMW’s electric sales in the US fall after the federal tax credit for EV buyers expired at the end of September 2025.
BMW of North America said on October 1 that its brand sales rose 3.4% to 100,210 vehicles in the third quarter. Sales of BMW’s electrified models, battery-electric and plug-in hybrid combined, fell 24.9%, which the company attributed to “current market conditions and a planned model changeover.” Plug-in hybrid sales rose 23.2%.
BMW did not give a separate figure for battery-electric sales. Its sales chart shows the iX SUV fell 96.1% to 121 units.
Gasoline models drove the growth. Sales of the 3 Series rose 46.4% to 11,256, the X3 rose 7% to 22,457 and the X5 rose 21.5% to 22,213, according to the chart.
Year to date, BMW brand sales rose 4.3% to 287,154. Sales at its MINI brand fell 10.2% to 6,531 in the quarter.
“We enter the fourth quarter in a strong position with good momentum,” said Sebastian Mackensen, President and Chief Executive Officer of BMW of North America. He said the response to the Neue Klasse “has been very encouraging.”
With “even more new models arriving in the months ahead,” Mackensen said, BMW is “confident we can carry this momentum through the end of the year and into 2027.”
Across BMW Group, combined BMW and MINI sales in the US rose 2.5% to 106,741 in the third quarter, the company said on October 13 when it reported global deliveries. Group deliveries worldwide fell 6.3% to 551,072, while battery-electric deliveries rose 7.2% to 110,257, helped by Europe.
“In difficult market conditions, we were able to hold our own in Europe and the US,” said Jochen Goller, the BMW AG Board of Management member responsible for customer, brands and sales.
New models for 2027
BMW unveiled the eighth-generation 3 Series and the fully electric i3 sedan, the second Neue Klasse model, at the end of September. Both will begin arriving at US dealerships early next year, BMW of North America said.
The redesigned X5 and 7 Series are already in US showrooms, and preorder deliveries of the new i7 began counting toward battery-electric sales in the third quarter, the company said.
The iX3 arrives
The first Neue Klasse model, the iX3 SUV, reached US showrooms in late September. Preorder deliveries began counting toward battery-electric sales in the third quarter, BMW said, without giving numbers.
The iX3 50 xDrive starts at $61,500 plus $1,350 for destination, with an EPA-rated range of up to 434 miles on optional 20-inch summer tires, or 383 miles on all-season tires.
All standard-wheelbase iX3s, including those sold in the US, come from BMW’s plant in Debrecen, Hungary, which moved to three shifts in September after the SUV drew 100,000 orders in Europe in its first year.
