BMW is building two sedans that look nearly identical and calling them both the 3 Series. One runs on gasoline. The other runs on electrons.
They don’t share a platform, they don’t share a factory, and they don’t even share the same basic proportions. But stand them next to each other, and good luck telling them apart.
The combustion-powered 3 Series, codenamed G50, rides on the familiar CLAR architecture that has underpinned BMW’s core lineup for years. The electric i3, internally designated NA0, sits on the all-new Neue Klasse platform, purpose-built for battery-electric vehicles. One comes out of Dingolfing, the other out of Munich.
BMW design chief Adrian van Hooydonk has said customers will be “hard-pressed” to distinguish between them. That’s by design. Where Mercedes chose to visually separate its EV lineup from its combustion cars, BMW went the opposite direction, wrapping fundamentally different machines in a shared visual language.
The tells are subtle but real. The i3’s nose is shorter because there’s no inline-six to accommodate, just a 31-liter front trunk where a B58 engine would otherwise sit. The G50 carries more sheet metal ahead of the front axle because it has to.
BMW confirmed earlier this week that the M350 xDrive will pack the most potent version of that turbocharged straight-six ever fitted to a non-M car. You don’t package that kind of hardware in a stubby EV nose.
Inside, the gap widens further. The Neue Klasse platform delivers a completely flat rear floor, a benefit of ditching the transmission tunnel and exhaust routing that combustion cars demand. The G50 still lives with those compromises, and no amount of interior design trickery can fully erase the mechanical realities underneath.
Both cabins will get the Neue Klasse-style dashboard, including iDrive X and BMW’s Panoramic Vision head-up display system. Prototype sightings have confirmed the interiors track closely, reinforcing the twin-car illusion from the driver’s seat.
This is a sharp departure from how BMW handled the previous i3 Sedan. That car, codenamed G28, was a long-wheelbase 3 Series built in China with an electrified CLAR underbody. The new i3 is a clean-sheet EV that happens to wear the same suit as its gas-burning sibling.
Wagon variants are expected to follow the same playbook. The electric i3 Touring, codenamed NA1, has already been confirmed. A combustion 3 Series Touring, potentially badged G51, hasn’t been officially announced, but BMW hasn’t killed the idea either.
The strategy is a bet that buyers care more about the 3 Series identity than what powers it. Rather than fragmenting the brand into separate combustion and electric sub-brands, BMW is keeping its most recognizable nameplate intact across both drivetrains. Whether that creates clarity or confusion in showrooms is something Munich will find out soon enough.
BMW says the camouflage comes off the new 3 Series before the end of September. At that point, both sedans will be fully revealed and the public can try what van Hooydonk suggested they’d struggle with: telling the two apart.
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