Last month, BMW M CEO Frank van Meel shared a post on Instagram showing the BMW M Hybrid V8 Le Mans racecar, with its reflection depicted as a road-going car, potentially the electric M3. Recently, the BMW M YouTube channel has also been building hype for an all-electric M car with a series of videos showing off the technology coming to the first-ever electric M3, and now it seems that BMW is about to reveal an electric M of some sort at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with images obtained by Autoblog.nl showing a display box at the Circuit de la Sarthe containing a new “world premiere.” The vehicle hidden therein has the same silhouette as the electric M development car BMW has been showcasing on YouTube, and it has the same yellow DRLs seen in van Meel’s post last month. But it’s unlikely to be the electric M3.
BMW M’s Mystery Model Is Wilder Than the i3
While the lighting signature and general shape of the mystery vehicle call to mind the i3 sedan, the fenders bulge further out, and the wing mirrors sit on thin stalks that have a motorsport feel. We can also see additional lighting units on each side of the lower front fascia, creating a more aggressive presence than an i3. It’s certainly more extreme than an M Performance model would traditionally be (an i3 M60 will sit above the 50 xDrive), but it’s unlikely that BMW is about to reveal the electric M3 production car because that has been earmarked for 2027. Then again, this shadowy teaser closely resembles the leaked image of the electric M3 seen in March, just with different mirrors. BMW Blog presents a plausible theory: BMW M is about to show a motorsport-inspired electric concept car. That could explain Frank van Meel’s post – showing the M Hybrid V8 endurance racer together with an i3-based vehicle may be his way of hinting that BMW is about to reveal an electric BMW race car concept built on i3 architecture. The only hole in this theory is that the post van Meel shared included the following tagline: “Born on the racetrack. Made for the streets.” That suggests this mystery vehicle is a road car.
What to Expect from the Electric M3
We’ll have our answers soon enough, as the 94th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans starts tomorrow, 10 June, and concludes on the 14th, and Autoblog will be present to see what BMW has in store. While we wait for more information, here’s a quick recap of what we do know so far. The electric M3 (potentially called the iM3) will have a quad-motor powertrain enabling torque vectoring, with around 800 horsepower expected. More power is possible (BMW has said that up to 1,341 hp can be extracted from the powertrain), but that will likely be reserved for things like the electric M5. We also know that BMW intends to sell the EV at roughly the same price as the combustion M3.
Related: BMW Alpina Is Going Electric, But Gas Engines Are Staying
Every time BMW has shown its quad-motor M development vehicle so far, it has been clad in camouflage, and this display at the 24 Hours of Le Mans may be the first time we get a clear look at how the automaker plans to add M-specific styling to future road cars, electric or otherwise. We’ll bring you more info as it becomes available through this week.
