2026 electric BMW 3 Series previewed ahead of launch
The next generation of BMW's executive car will offer up to 500 miles of electric range – but there'll be traditional petrol power too...
On sale 2026 | Price from £45,000 (est)
‘Three is a magic number’ isn’t just a song by Bob Doroughy – it also sums up the hope for the all-new BMW 3 Series. You see, although the 3 Series has been around for a long time, and has come to exemplify the executive car class in a way that few rivals can, it’s about to go through the biggest change in its 50-year history…by going fully electric.
Due to be revealed at the start of next year ahead of sales beginning next Summer, the new 3 Series will be the saloon sister to the new BMW iX3 – itself the first of a new wave of cars from BMW, utilising new battery technology, a new interior layout and a new computerised brain designed to make it more agile and smarter than anything that’s come before. And the new 3 Series will need to be smart indeed, because it will count the tech-heavy Mercedes CLA and the big-selling Tesla Model 3 among its key rivals – the Model 3, remember, is our reigning Executive Car of the Year.
The new 3 Series will take design inspiration from 2023’s Vision Neue Klasse concept car, with an upright stance and a relatively short bonnet and boot lid, but it will still identifiably be an executive saloon.
Electric versions of the 3 Series are likely to be badged as the i3, and in base 50 xDrive from will get 464bhp and 479lb/ft of torque from two electric motors sending drive to all four wheels. Power will be drawn from a large 108.7kWh (usable capacity) battery, and while we don’t yet know how far that’ll take you between charges, in the iX3 this setup offers a headline-grabbing range of 500 miles – a figure that’s only likely to increase for the 3 Series.
Such a number would potentially give the 3 Series the longest range of any electric car on sale – and could allow you to, for example, travel from London to Edinburgh on a single charge and still have range to spare. For context, Long Range versions of the Model 3 can officially take you 436 miles between charges, while the Mercedes CLA in 250+ form can manage up to 484 miles.
When you do need to recharge, the 3 Series’ 800-volt architecture allows for a maximum charging speed of 400kW, meaning a 10-80% top-up could take as little as 21 minutes if you can find a suitably powerful charging point.
The 3 Series’ field of rivals will grow before long, with electric versions of the Audi A4 and Mercedes C-Class due within the next few years. That means all three of the traditional executive car options will have gone electric.
Of course, this is excellent news for company car drivers, who can take advantage of low Benefit-in-Kind tax savings. The current rates for electric cars is just 3%, and while that’s due to rise to 4% in 2026-2027 and 5% in 2027-2028, it’s still a lot less than you’d pay for a plug-in hybrid or combustion-engined car.
For buyers who want to keep combustion power – at least until the sale of new cars powered solely by petrol and diesel is banned from 2035 – there will also be a heavily reworked version of today’s 3 Series on offer. That car will get the new model’s design features inside and out, and some of its technology, but will sit on older underpinnings. The line-up is likely to include an upgraded version of today’s 330e plug-in hybrid.
The hot BMW M3 will also be going electric in 2028, but before then today’s 3.0-litre six-cylinder petrol-engined model will remain on sale alongside the new electric car. A new BMW 3 Series Touring estate will also arrive soon after launch, offering both electric and combustion power.
Key to making sure that the new 3 Series will feel exciting to drive is BMW’s so-called ‘Heart of Joy’ – a new centralised computer system which replaces many of the older control units on current cars with a single, smarter one.
This allows new BMWs to process information around ten times faster than they can today, bringing faster responses and, officials say, deeper levels of customisation and a more efficient drive. In short, despite weighing much more than today’s 3 Series, the aim is to make the new car the most enjoyable option in the class.
Inside, you’ll find the same setup as in the new BMW iX3, featuring the latest version of BMW’s iDrive infotainment system. This is now presented on a slim display which spans almost the full width of the car, and which features customisable widgets, allowing you to prioritise which information you get shown according to which driving mode you’re in. Switching to sportier modes, for example, swaps out efficiency information for an accelerometer.
The new iDrive system is augmented by an optional head-up display, which can put the most pressing information directly into your eyesline, and a traditional infotainment touchscreen which is angled slightly towards the driver. It’s designed so that you can reach every part of the screen without having to move your arm too much.
We’ve already tried the new setup, and were impressed both at the speed with which the system responds to your inputs, and the graphics it offers.
Elsewhere, the new 3 Series is expected to offer improvements to both passenger and boot space compared with today’s car. The current 3 Series offers more room all-round than today’s C-Class. The same is true of the boot, but it can still swallow a set of golf clubs.
While no prices have yet been announced for the new 3 Series, we’d expect them to start from around £50,000, placing the car roughly in line with the new CLA, but making it more expensive than Long Range versions of the Model 3.
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