2024 marked the 13th consecutive year of record-breaking sales for BMW M, with 206,582 vehicles delivered to customers. Through September this year, shipments are up 7.9%, suggesting the performance division is on track for yet another successful year. What makes these achievements even more impressive is that they’ve been reached without a fully electric M model in the lineup. Sure, there are several M Performance cars without combustion engines, but a true M in electric form has yet to arrive. Make no mistake: it’s coming.
The M3 “ZA0” will kick things off in 2027, and M boss Frank van Meel is making a bold promise: the electric sports sedan will “outperform” its gasoline counterpart. As a refresher, the future G84 will feature an inline-six, possibly mild-hybrid engine. It’s still too early for BMW to share technical details about the hot EV, but we’re told it will be the “only competitor that will outperform the [traditional] M3.”
During our conversation with the M CEO at the Japan Mobility Show, he explained why a full-fledged electric M until now:
“What you need to make a perfect M high-performance car pure electric is the right architecture for the overall car [the base, non-M model], which needs to be an all-electric platform. In the second place, you need to have the right architecture in regards to the components. You need to have batteries that have enough power density but also performance and you need electric motors that can work with that.
You need to have the right electronic architecture and software to control, let’s say four individual electric motors to get the perfect dynamics. Once you can do that, and you level the whole driving dynamics one notch up, then I think the customer will be tempted to go that way [buy an electric M].”
Although he mentioned the possibility of a quad-motor setup, he was referring to electric M cars in general. We believe the first electric M3 won’t use that configuration, at least not initially. Hotter versions of the “ZA0” might get four motors later. However, BMW could reserve such potent setups for larger, more expensive electric M models down the line.
The first M3 without a gas engine is expected to launch with RWD, meaning no motors on the front axle. As previously reported, output could reach around 800 horsepower or even more. That’s already an intimidating figure if the rear-wheel-drive-only rumors prove true.
Then again, BMW’s so-called “Heart of Joy” supercomputer is designed to seamlessly coordinate acceleration, braking, steering, and energy regeneration. The Vision Driving Dynamics (VDX) prototype used a quad-motor setup with over 1,300 hp. If the Heart of Joy could manage that much power, it should have no trouble handling “only” 800 hp.
The electric M3 will likely arrive well before the next-generation gas model. The “ZA0” is reportedly set to enter production in March 2027. The “G84” isn’t expected to reach the assembly line until July 2028.
