A camouflaged BMW i3 Touring prototype has been caught on video hammering through high-speed laps at the Nürburgring. It’s the clearest look yet at what will become the first fully electric 3 Series wagon when it launches next year.
The prototype, wearing BMW’s M Sport Package, looks nearly production-ready under its black-and-white wrap. Engineers are clearly in the late stages of chassis tuning, dialing in suspension, steering, and high-speed stability before the NA1 rolls off the Munich assembly line. Production reportedly starts next summer.
BMW has been building toward this moment in stages. The original i3 was a quirky city hatchback that debuted in 2013 and eventually faded away. Then came a long-wheelbase electric 3 Series sedan built exclusively for China.
Earlier this year, the Neue Klasse i3 sedan finally arrived as a proper global product. The Touring is the next logical step. For wagon loyalists who’ve watched BMW pile SUV after SUV onto dealer lots, it feels overdue.
From the B-pillars forward, the i3 Touring appears identical to the sedan, carrying over the Neue Klasse face with its slimmed-down kidney grille and distinctive lighting signature. Behind the B-pillars is where it gets interesting. The extended roofline and redesigned tailgate create the cargo volume that defines the Touring formula.
Slim taillights seem to migrate straight from the sedan, though the camouflage still obscures finer details. The M Sport Package on this prototype hints at where the lineup is headed. BMW already showed the i3 M60 sedan, so an M Performance version of the Touring is practically guaranteed.
A full M3 Touring running on electrons could follow later this decade under the rumored ZA1 codename. And BMW isn’t done with combustion, either. A gas-powered 3 Series Touring under the G51 designation reportedly remains in the pipeline, along with whispers of yet another inline-six M3 Touring, potentially badged G88.
That car wouldn’t surface before 2029, since the combustion G84 M3 sedan isn’t expected until 2028. The company is running parallel development tracks for electric and combustion variants of its core sedan and wagon, hedging its bets in a market where the EV transition timeline keeps shifting.
A world premiere for the i3 Touring is expected in spring 2027, assuming BMW’s production schedule holds. The car slots into a product blitz that includes roughly 40 new or updated models by end of next year as Munich accelerates its Neue Klasse rollout. That offensive stretches from a compact i1 hatchback aimed at European buyers in 2028 to a potential i4 Convertible already spotted testing, plus a large SUV that would sit above the X7.
That’s a staggering amount of product coming in a compressed window, the kind of launch cadence that strains engineering resources and supply chains even at a company with BMW’s depth. Getting the i3 Touring right matters enormously. The 3 Series wagon has always been the enthusiast’s choice within the lineup, the car people actually want to drive rather than simply commute in.
Translating that character into an EV while keeping the practicality that defines the body style is the test Munich has set for itself. The Nürburgring laps suggest they’re taking that test seriously. Whether the finished product lives up to decades of Touring heritage is a question that won’t be answered until paying customers get behind the wheel.
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