Every 3 Series Touring since the E46 in 1999 has let you pop the rear glass without lifting the tailgate. None of the i3 Touring prototypes lapping the Nürburgring this autumn shows the handle or button that makes it work.
Asked about it, Neue Klasse boss Mike Reichelt smiled, nodded and told Auto Express, “We will see.”
That shrug sums up BMW’s first electric 3 Series wagon. The parts BMW has already proven are locked in. The parts that made the Touring a Touring are still up for negotiation.
According to BMWBLOG’s sources, production of the i3 Touring, coded NA1, starts in Munich in July 2027. That is nearly a year after the i3 sedan began rolling down the same line. A spring 2027 reveal is expected first.
Europe gets i3 30, i3 40 xDrive and i3 50 xDrive versions at launch, with an i3 M60 Touring to follow. The United States gets none of them.
Everything forward of the B-pillar is lifted straight from the sedan, with the same Neue Klasse lighting, kidney treatment and slim taillights. The October prototypes even wore the sedan’s M Sport package, camouflaged only at the nose and tail.
The hardware carries over too, outputs unchanged. The i3 40 xDrive runs an 82.8-kWh battery, 369 hp and up to 710 km (441 miles) WLTP. The i3 50 xDrive steps up to 108.7 kWh, 463 hp, 400-kW peak charging and as much as 912 km (567 miles).
Both versions charge from 10 to 80 percent in roughly 21 minutes. Expect the wagon’s longer roof and extra weight to shave something off those range figures, though BMW hasn’t published Touring numbers.
The real questions sit at the back, where wagons earn their keep. The roofline on prototypes slopes toward the taillights rather than ending square, and the tail looks longer and more raked than BMW’s own teaser suggested.
It looks good. A forward-leaning tail also tends to eat into the top of the cargo bay.
BMW hasn’t released a cargo figure. The current G21 Touring holds 500 liters with the seats up and 1,510 folded.
The i5 Touring matched its gas twin exactly, at 570 and 1,700 liters. The i3 sedan went the other way, offering 420 liters, less than the combustion 3 Series sedan.
Then there is the glass. The G61 5 Series Touring already lost its opening rear window, and BMW blamed aerodynamics.
The feature nearly died once before. In 2019, product manager Stephan Horn admitted BMW had to fight to keep it on the G21, warning that “we need customers to know about it, or it will die.”
Pricing should land slightly above the German sedan’s €59,900 start for the 40 xDrive, while the 50 xDrive sedan sits at €65,900. San Luis Potosà in Mexico is expected to build the Touring alongside Munich, a day’s drive from markets that won’t be allowed to buy it.
The American logic is old. Wagons have never sold in volume there, the M5 Touring excepted, and a cooling EV market makes an electric one a tougher pitch still. A US-bound 3 Series wagon will likely need a six-cylinder, either an unconfirmed G51 M350 Touring with the B58 or the next M3 Touring, which isn’t due before 2029.
That G51 is reportedly coming from Dingolfing in 2028 on the CLAR platform, with gas and plug-in hybrid power. It should look almost identical to the i3 Touring while sharing very little beneath the skin.
A full electric M3 Touring, possibly coded ZA1, is expected later this decade. Until then, American buyers who want a Neue Klasse with a big cargo hold will be pointed toward an iX3.
And Europeans will wait to learn whether they can still open the back window.
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