BMW Builds Its One-Millionth M Car — and Confirms Where the Electric M3 Will Be Made
The milestone car is a Fire Orange M3, but the bigger news is where its electric successor will come from: Munich, a plant that goes EV-only in 2027.
BMW M has built its one-millionth car, and the milestone came with a more useful piece of news: the fully electric M3 will be built only at BMW's main plant in Munich. The milestone car is an M3 sedan in BMW Individual Fire Orange III, assembled at the same plant that has built the current M3 since 2020.
That puts the electric M3 in the same factory as the new i3, the battery-electric 3 Series that BMW revealed this week and that we lined up in our BMW 330 vs. M350 xDrive vs. i3 comparison. BMW says the M3 will be the second Neue Klasse model built in Munich after the i3, and the first high-performance car to use what it calls BMW M Neue Klasse technology.
An electric-only plant from 2027
Munich began series production of the i3 in August, and BMW says that from 2027 the plant will build nothing but fully electric vehicles. To get there, it added a new body shop, a new assembly area, and new logistics space on about a third of the site, while production carried on around the construction. BMW puts the cost of the conversion at around €650 million.
The company presents the electric M3 as a vote of confidence in the factory next to its headquarters, which has been building cars for more than a century. Plant head Peter Weber handed the milestone car to Franciscus van Meel, CEO of BMW M GmbH, who pointed out that it arrived 40 years after the first M3 went on sale.
What "one million" counts
BMW didn't say how it arrived at the figure, and the scale of its recent sales makes that worth noting. BMW M GmbH sold 213,457 vehicles in 2025 alone, but that total includes M Performance models such as its best-seller, the X3 M50. Full high-performance M cars made up almost 71,500 of those sales. The U.S. was the division's largest single market last year, at more than 72,000 vehicles.
For American buyers, the M3 is the car that matters most here. Last week, bmwusa.com listed the 2027 M3 sedan from $79,300 before a $1,350 destination charge, as we noted when BMW priced the 100 Jahre Nürburgring M3 and M4 editions. The electric i3 50 xDrive that shares the M3's future home starts at $61,500 plus destination, with 463 hp and an estimated 446 to 468 miles of range, according to BMW of North America. BMW says it will reach U.S. dealers early next year, with an i3 M60 xDrive due to premiere in 2027. Our 2027 BMW 3 Series guide covers the rest of the lineup.
What BMW hasn't said
The announcement leaves out almost everything a buyer would ask. There's no premiere date or production start for the electric M3, no output, motor count, battery size, or range figure, and no U.S. price or on-sale date. BMW also hasn't said whether a gasoline M3 will continue alongside the EV, or where it would be built once Munich stops making combustion cars. BMW released an image of a camouflaged, M3-badged prototype with the news, but no specifications.
The fate of the milestone car is also unknown; BMW hasn't said whether it will go to a customer or stay with the company. Once BMW commits to a U.S. timeline, the electric M3 will join our tracker of every new EV coming to America.
