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BMW has opened the US order books for its hotly anticipated new 3 Series sedan. Built on an all-new platform called Neue Klasse, it now offers a fully electric version for the first time, using BMW’s advanced sixth-generation electric powertrain we liked so much in the iX3. And for those not quite ready to make the switch from liquid hydrocarbons to pure electron power, there are also a pair of gasoline-powered variants. At launch, the only electric version will be the 2027 BMW i3 50 xDrive. It’s an all-wheel drive setup, with a combined 463 hp (345 kW) and 467 lb-ft (633 Nm). And while BMW is still putting the finishing touches on the car’s EPA certification ahead of its showroom arrival in Q1 next year, it expects 446 to 468 miles (718-753 km) of range on a single charge. Contributing to that very impressive range is the new cylindrical cell battery pack, which uses a cell-to-body approach that maximizes energy density, along with the aforementioned new sixth-gen motors. We’re not sure whether BMW is planning any single-motor, rear-wheel drive i3s for the US market, such as the i4 eDrive40 we liked so much. But later next year, we can expect the i3 M60 xDrive, and then the first completely electric BMW M3, which will increase the motor count to four—one for each wheel.
document fetched 2026-10-01 03:02 · canonical https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/bmw-opens-us-order-books-for-the-new-gas-and-electric-3-series