{"id":400092,"date":"2025-09-05T13:34:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T13:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/400092\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T13:34:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T13:34:11","slug":"bmw-shows-new-i3-for-the-first-time-and-confirms-2026-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/400092\/","title":{"rendered":"BMW shows new i3 for the first time \u2013 and confirms 2026 launch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BMW has shown the new electric\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.autocar.co.uk\/car-reviews\/bmw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BMW<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.autocar.co.uk\/car-review\/bmw\/3-series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">3 Series<\/a>\u00a0for the first time\u00a0and confirmed it will arrive next year badged i3.<\/p>\n<p>Revealed in camouflaged form\u00a0at the launch of the new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autocar.co.uk\/car-news\/new-cars\/new-bmw-ix3-revealed-uks-longest-range-ev\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">iX3 electric SUV<\/a> on Friday, the car has evolved from the striking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.autocar.co.uk\/car-news\/new-cars\/bmw-neue-klasse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Vision Neue Klasse concept<\/a> that was revealed in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The saloon will become the\u00a0second model in the company&#8217;s Neue Klasse range.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This will be the first time BMW offers a 3 Series-sized model with an electric powertrain in Europe. When it arrives next year, it will be the smallest EV the brand offers.<\/p>\n<p>It inherits its name from the seminal\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.autocar.co.uk\/car-review\/bmw\/i3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BMW i3<\/a>\u00a0electric hatchback, which went out of production in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the iX3 launch, BMW chairman Oliver Zipse said: \u201cThis is the new i3 that will arrive next year and be all electric. It\u2019s the first model variant of the new 3 Series generation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou will recognise classic proportions of a typical sporty BMW.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the past 50 years across multiple model generations, no other model has been as tied to the BMW brand as the 3 Series. It represents sheer driving pleasure at its finest.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The iX3 and i3 are powerful symbols of the broad spectrum the Neue Klasse models will cover.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When the new iX3 and i3 arrive next year, they will\u00a0spearhead\u00a0a huge product offensive from BMW. <\/p>\n<p>Zipse said that, starting next year, the brand will launch a new version of each model, adding: \u201cWe will launch 40 new and\u00a0updated models by 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shown for the first time under camouflage, the i3 appeared in production form. The car has been spotted testing on public roads over the past year (below).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"lazyload\" height=\"506\" width=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4-electric_bmw_3_series-ac.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BMW has shown the new electric\u00a0BMW\u00a03 Series\u00a0for the first time\u00a0and confirmed it will arrive next year badged i3.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-400092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115151953557154021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}