The BMW Series 3 is not yet ready to say goodbye to internal combustion.

The new generation of the BMW Series 3 won’t be all electric. Internal combustion engines will remain, and we already know about some of them.

As a clear sign of the uncertainty in the automotive industry, the new generation of the BMW Series 3 will take two very different paths. On one side is the already introduced BMW i3, developed from the ground up as an electric vehicle, and on the other, a Series 3 with an internal combustion engine.

The visual design will be very similar, and they’ll even share some technologies, but beneath the surface they’ll be two very different cars.

While the new BMW i3 is built on the Neue Klasse platform — introduced with the iX3 — and boasts one of the highest ranges in its class, the future internal combustion engine Series 3 will be a heavily revised version of the current model available on the market.

The exterior will change significantly to align with the brand’s new design language, and the interior will be dominated by the new BMW Panoramic iDrive. Yet beneath it all, the conventional gasoline-powered Series 3 will continue to be based on the CLAR platform and equipped with gasoline, diesel, and plug-in hybrid engines.

What do we already know?

There are still a few months before we see the new Series 3, but details about what might be under the hood are already emerging.

Although full electrification will be handled by its “sibling” i3, that doesn’t mean the Series 3 won’t benefit from electric technologies. According to BMW, four-cylinder and six-cylinder engines will be supported by a 48 V mild-hybrid system, but that’s not all.

As is the case currently, the Series 3 will continue to be available with plug-in hybrid powertrains. This confirmation came from Sergio Solero, president and CEO of BMW in Italy.

In remarks to the BMWBlog portal, Solero stated that the German sedan will continue to combine a combustion engine with an electric motor and a battery pack. An option for those not yet ready to embrace full electrification.

BMW has not yet revealed the technical specifications, but it is unlikely to deviate much from what we find in the current 330e, which combines a B48 engine — a four-cylinder, 2.0-liter turbocharged gasoline engine — with an electric motor integrated into the eight-speed automatic transmission, powered by a 19.5 kWh battery.

In practice, this results in a total combined power of 292 horsepower and 420 Nm of torque, along with an announced electric range of up to 101 km (WLTP). In the new model, this figure could be higher, allowing the new Series 3 to travel more kilometers without using any fuel.

In addition to these options, diesel engines are also likely to remain available. If confirmed, we may find the same four-cylinder and six-cylinder engines, which in the current generation are already equipped with a mild-hybrid system and produce between 150 horsepower and 340 horsepower.

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A pure internal combustion engine M3 will still be a reality

While Affalterbach and Ingolstadt’s competitors have made electrification the norm, the future M3 will be an exception — more or less... Let’s see: for the first time in this model’s history, there will be a fully electric M3. But that will be the top-tier version of the BMW i3.

On the side of the conventional Series 3, we will continue to have an internal combustion engine M3. And no, its engine is not expected to follow the example of the Mercedes-AMG C63 S E-Performance by cutting the displacement and number of cylinders in half, nor will it adopt the approach of the new Audi RS 5 by pairing it with a heavy plug-in hybrid system.

In place of that, the future gasoline-powered M3 is expected to continue using the well-known 3.0-liter, six-cylinder in-line twin-turbo engine, supplemented only by a simple 48 V mild-hybrid system. And we’ve already been able to hear it:

When will it arrive?

There is no confirmed date yet for the unveiling of the new generation of the BMW Series 3. However, everything suggests that production will begin before the end of the year, which likely means its release is imminent.