New BMW M3: why the next one arrives as both a 1,000bhp EV and a petrol straight-six

BMW has confirmed the next M3 will come in electric and petrol versions. It looks like a simple product decision, but it says far more about an industry still unsure what a performance car should be in the electric age. For years the industry told a tidy story about all this.

Electrification would arrive, petrol engines would fade into history, and badges like BMW’s M division would translate themselves into a new language of software and battery power. That confidence has not disappeared, but it has become a good deal more qualified, and the decision to build two M3s sits right in the middle of the doubt. The electric BMW M3: quad motors and around 1,000bhp The electric car, coded ZA0 internally and widely expected to wear an iM3 badge, is the more radical of the two.

It uses four electric motors, one per wheel, built on BMW’s Neue Klasse architecture with an 800-volt system and a battery of more than 100kWh. Outright power is not in question. Estimates put it somewhere between 800 and 1,000bhp, which would make it comfortably the most powerful M3 ever built.

What matters more than the headline figure is how that power is handled. The four-motor layout lets BMW control torque at each wheel independently, and the front axle can be decoupled entirely, so the car can still behave like the rear-driven M3 enthusiasts know. BMW has even engineered simulated gear changes and a synthesised engine note, a clear signal that it wants the electric M3 to feel involving rather than merely quick.

Will there still be a petrol BMW M3? Yes. Alongside the electric car, BMW will build a petrol-powered M3, known internally as G84 and expected to use an updated turbocharged straight-six, most likely with some hybrid assistance.

It is often framed as the conservative option, but that misses the point. BMW is less interested in preserving the past than in reflecting a present that is still uneven. The M3 has always occupied a particular space.

It is a usable performance car, driven daily,