2024 marked the 13th consecutive year of record sales for BMW M: 206,582 vehicles were delivered to customers. Through September of this year, deliveries were up 7.9%, suggesting the performance division is on track for another successful year. What makes these achievements even more impressive is the fact that they were achieved without an all-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 be released. Make no mistake: it’s coming.
The M3 “ZA0” will start in 2027, and M boss Frank van Meel makes a bold promise: the electric sports sedan will “outperform” its gasoline counterpart. As a reminder, the future G84 will have an inline-six engine, possibly a mild hybrid. It’s too early for BMW to reveal technical details about the hot electric vehicle, but we’re told it will be the “only competitor to top this.” [traditional] M3.”
During our conversation with the M CEO at the Japan Mobility Show, he explained why there was a full electric M until now:
“What you need to make a perfect M high-performance car purely electric is the right architecture for the entire car [the base, non-M model]which has to be a fully electric platform. Secondly, you need the right architecture in terms of components. You need batteries with sufficient power density, but also power, and you need electric motors that can work with them.
You need the right electronic architecture and software to control, say, four individual electric motors to achieve the perfect dynamics. If you can do that and take the overall driving dynamics up a notch, then I think the customer will be tempted to go that route [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 this configuration, at least not initially. Hotter versions of the “ZA0” could get four engines later. However, BMW could later reserve such powerful setups for larger, more expensive electric M models.
The first M3 without a petrol engine is expected to come onto the market with RWD, i.e. without motors on the front axle. As previously reported, power could reach around 800 horsepower or even more. That’s already an intimidating number if the rear-wheel drive-only rumors prove true.
On the other hand, BMW’s so-called “Heart of Joy” supercomputer is designed to seamlessly coordinate acceleration, braking, steering and energy recovery. The Vision Driving Dynamics (VDX) prototype used a quad-motor setup with over 1,300 horsepower. If the Heart of Joy could handle that much power, it should be able to easily handle “only” 800 hp.
The electric M3 will likely arrive long before the next-generation gasoline model. According to reports, the “ZA0” is scheduled to go into production in March 2027. The “G84” is not expected to roll off the assembly line until July 2028.
