This Is What BMW’s First Electric M3 Sounds Like

BMW has provided the world with its first opportunity to hear the long-awaited all-electric M3 that’s currently in development. The new model will be sold alongside the combustion-powered M3 and be based on the automaker’s Neue Klasse platform.

This clip forms part of BMW M’s ongoing series detailing the development of its first EV. The CEO of M, Franciscus van Meel, says the current BMW M3 EV prototype was spawned from a 1,000 hp electric M2-based model that BMW first began experimenting with. He says that the prototype M2 EV was fun to drive in a straight-line, but lacked the controllability an M car needs. That’s where this i4-based prototype comes in.

Read: 2027 BMW M3 EV Begins Testing, Could Pack Over 700 HP

The video shows the prototype being tested on frozen lacks to fine-tune its driving dynamics. The most intriguing part comes in the final few seconds when the car is taken to a test site, and the driver pins the throttle, giving us a first taste of its sound. The electric M3 sounds very different from any other high-performance EV so far.

When cruising, it almost sounds like a normal ICE, and as the driver accelerates, it becomes much louder and starts to sing. It’s hard to describe the sound, but it’s a bit like a cross between a combustion engine, a jet, and an electric motor. We’re not the biggest fans of some of the synthetic sounds produced by certain EVs in the market, but BMW’s solution seems a little more authentic and should give the M3 EV some added personality.

Technical details about the production model remain limited, but it will likely feature four electric motors, providing it with advanced torque vectoring technology. It’s also possible BMW may have dialed back power from the 1,000 horses of early prototypes to around the 700 hp mark. If that’s the case, then the car would still have a healthy power advantage over the current flagship M3 CS with 543 hp.

Baldauf