The long-mooted electric BMW M3, arriving in 2027, will use "crazy" chassis control software in a bid to offer dynamic performance "far above" that of today's hot BMWs.

Confirmed by BMW development boss Frank Weber at a recent event, the electric M3 will be based on the firm's Neue Klasse (NK) platform – as previewed by a radical concept of the same name at the recent Munich motor show – and will arrive shortly after the next-generation, electric BMW 3 Series.

"The next M3 will be battery-electric - full battery-electric," Weber told reporters, but clarified that "there will be a coexistence" with the current petrol M3 for a period, "which is necessary". The S58 six-cylinder engine used by today's M3 is scheduled to remain in production beyond 2030.

Giving clues as to what to expect from an electric M3, Weber explained that BMW's new 'Heart of Joy' control unit – a fundamental component of Neue Klasse-based machines – will be instrumental in providing a distinct driving character for electric BMW performance cars - and helping to mitigate any loss of character from the absence of a powerful petrol engine.

"This is a controller that has taken the last 20 or 30 years of our experience into a control unit. Everything that is driving-performance related, chassis-control related, propulsion- [and] powertrain-related is now in one integrated control unit," he said.

"It’s almost the history of how you control a vehicle that is in that thing. We do it ourselves – we don’t buy it. The software is proprietary. This is why we talk about it. We say, see, this will enable driving-dynamics functions that you will love. Some of you have an interest in ‘the ultimate driving machine’ - you will see functions in [the Heart of Joy] that are crazy."

The Heart of Joy – a successor to the 'Hand of God' control unit that BMW first used in the i8 hybrid sports car – has been developed to support quad-motor drivetrains, with variable amounts of power delivered to each wheel as required. Weber said the unit can deploy up to one megawatt (1341bhp) of total power, but stopped short of revealing a target for the electric M3.

BMW previously revealed it was testing a quad-motor drivetrain in a bespoke prototype based on both the BMW i4 and M4, as part of a development programme for the first electric M cars. 

Weber said: "We want to come with something where we show that NK is already very ambitious, but this [performance model] is doing something far above what people are used to today. This will come not too far away from the initial launch of the NK as a product line, and we’ve said we want to have it early and close to the SOP [start of production] of the core model, because people want to have what M can do next also in the battery-electric world.

"We see this clearly from consumers. Some come to me and say ‘no, the M guys don’t want this’. I say no, be careful, because we do a lot of customer studies here. M customers want, simply, the best and highest performance you can get. 

"And the moment you get into a car that is one megawatt in performance and you can control every individual wheel, I can guarantee you there might be something wrong with the engine sound if they still miss this, but not in how the car behaves. It’s incredible."

Weber's sentiments echo those of BMW M boss Frank van Meel, who told Autocar last year that, when revealing any electric performance car, he wants customers to say: "This is crazy, I didn't see that coming."

“The story of the M3 is everlasting,” said van Meel. “Every time we change the story of the engine, from four-cylinder to six-cylinder to eight-cylinder to six-cylinder and a turbocharger, the story continues.

“Maybe it will go electric – but if it does, it will always be an M3. Whatever the powertrain, you should always be able to drive our cars and know they are M cars. We have stood the test of time for 50 years and will continue to do so.”

His comments suggest BMW bosses are not concerned about the appeal of its high-performance products waning as they go electric, Neither, it seems, are its customers. “We’ve just been talking to customers and the feedback is that 90-95% don’t care what direction we take on powertrain. They just want an M car. Yes, some say that if we don’t do V8s, they’re out but that’s okay: I respect that,” said van Meel.

Intriguingly, BMW sales boss Pieter Nota, speaking to Autocar at the Munich motor show recently, hinted that electric M cars may not use the same names as today's petrol equivalents: "With Neue Klasse, we set benchmarks and we will certainly also have high-performance versions of those cars which we now call an M3 or M4. M is also going electric, which we see with the success of the i4 M50 and the i7 M70. So M remains at the core of the brands into the electric future. These M products have a great halo effect for the brand, which is aspirational."

Although the M-fettled versions of BMW's current EVs – the BMW i4 M50 and BMW i7 M70 – have power outputs that are on a par with those of today’s BMW M4 and BMW X5 M, for example, they are positioned more as the electric equivalents of M Sport cars like the M440i.

But a dedicated M EV would be a much more focused proposition, Autocar understands. Van Meel suggested the priorities will be minimising weight – a common preoccupation of electric sports car engineers – and maintaining the dynamic flair for which M cars are known.

“We just need to keep investing in lightweight technology. We already do a lot of carbon,” he said, on the subject of EVs being inherently heavier than combustion equivalents. “But electric cars do have some advantages. You can take some of the sound insulation out, for instance, and having the weight of the battery so low is interesting for engineers.” 

Some of these techniques are being refined on production cars already. “The body control of the XM is amazing because the centre of gravity is so low,” said van Meel. “That allows you to soften the springs and dampers and still have no roll.” 

Enticingly, he also spoke of the real-world applicability of technology developed through BMW’s newly expanded racing efforts.

Like the XM and upcoming M5, the firm’s new LMDh racer features a hybridised V8 – and while the powertrains are not identical, van Meel suggested development of the race car will inform future M road cars: “You can see that long-distance racing goes hand in hand with drivetrain technology.” 

He added: “On the [LMDh] prototype, there are a lot of lessons, from aerodynamics to cooling, as well as the V8 hybrid drivetrain being linked to the one we have in the XM.”

Talking about the opportunities afforded by electrification to an M car, van Meel said: “What the engineers really like is that once you get electrified components in your drivetrain, the control of your torque and horsepower is much better, faster and easier than a combustion engine – especially in racing.”

The new Fiat 600 compact crossover will be offered with a 1.2-litre petrol-electric hybrid powertrain from spring 2024, when it will be sold alongside the electric Fiat 600e and the outgoing Fiat 500X. 

The new Fiat 600 sits on the same eCMP2 platform as the Jeep Avenger and will be available initially with only the same 54kWh battery and electric drivetrain. Previously, Fiat had stated that it would offer only the electric 600e in the UK, but it has since backtracked and will now also introduce the 600 Hybrid next year. 

Jeep recently confirmed that the petrol Avenger will also be offered in the UK, and Citroën added petrol and diesel versions of its technically related C4 X crossover earlier this year, alongside the existing EV. 

Gaetano Thorel, senior vice president of Fiat Europe, said: “While we commit to leading the transition to electric with the 600e, we are also a socially relevant brand. So we commit to giving people what they need now - which may be electrified rather than electric. And in the UK, we still only sell one electric car in every five.” 

The new, 48V mild-hybrid system is also being rolled out to many other Stellantis models, including the Peugeot 3008. Combined power output is 134bhp, with the 28bhp electric motor integrated into a six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, allowing for pure-electric progress at low speeds.

The system is said to result in CO2 emissions of 110-114g/km in the Fiat 600. Fuel economy has yet to be confirmed but figures of around 52-55mpg are likely. 

Pricing and on-sale dates have also yet to be announced, but the new Fiat 600 Hybrid is expected to start at around £30,000, with deliveries starting in the first half of 2024.

Wales has become the UK’s first nation to lower speed limits in built-up areas from 30mph to 20mph by default, in a bid to cut traffic collisions and reduce noise.

Ministers hope it will also encourage more motorists to either walk or cycle. 

However, following trials across the country, many drivers have blasted the slower speeds for increasing congestion and journey times.

Scores of towns and cities across the UK already impose 20mph limits on residential roads, but they have to approve individual applications to lower it from the default 30mph.

But if new legislation is passed by the government later today, Wales will become the first country to impose 20mph as the standard speed limit in these busy areas.

These areas are detailed in official documents as restricted roads, in residential areas and busy pedestrian streets, where streetlights are less than 200 yards apart.

Anyone caught speeding could face a minimum £100 fine and three penalty points.

Scotland has already confirmed that it will follow suit in 2025.

"We know that 20mph zones reduce speed of traffic, reduce accidents - particularly accidents to children," Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford told the BBC.

"We want to see that become the default position right across Wales."

The Welsh government’s move has been backed by Labour and Plaid Cymru.

"We're united in our belief that this change will bring about a reduction in road collisions and their severity, while creating more opportunities to walk and cycle in communities," said Plaid Cymru's transport spokeswoman, Delyth Jewell.

"A 20mph speed limit in built-up areas will allow us to work toward providing convenient, safe, pedestrian access to the places people need to go."

Campaign groups are also backing the move. They argue that the chances of survival are seven times higher following a collision at 20mph rather than 30mph. Stopping distances are also halved.

Yet in response to a Welsh government-commissioned consultation, more people were against the speed limit than for it.

As a result, local authorities will be able to make exceptions to the limit after the government acknowledged that it “won’t be appropriate everywhere”.

Given that one in six new cars in the UK is now electric, it’s amazing how many burning questions still swirl around the technical progress of EVs. It can still seem that buyers are being ‘tucked into’ products we know too little about.

How, for instance, will EVs develop over the next few years? Will we see some giant leap in capability that will overshadow what we’re offered today? How can manufacturers enhance EVs’ character to match today’s ICE cars? Does anyone have a clue?

Steve Lambert does. He’s head of electrification at McLaren Applied, the Woking-based independent technology company that was spun out of the McLaren Group (which also contained Automotive and Racing) in 2021.

In recent years, the task of Lambert and his peers has been to apply their company’s deep and detailed expertise gained from racing to wider markets: railways, mining, buses and, of course, the electric cars of the future.

The team have devised a neat and succinct way of categorising 25 years of EV development into four key phases that take us from the rise of pioneering EVs like the 2008 Tesla Roadster (“laptop batteries in the back of a Lotus Elise”) to the gotta-have-one EVs that we hope manufacturers will be offering in the mid-2030s, when even plug-in hybrids will no longer be permitted for sale in the UK and Europe.

Lambert recently explained his theories in a short but pithy public presentation that raised so many supplementary questions that we decided to seek him out for an interview at Applied’s headquarters.

He tells us that phase one of EV development encompasses the rise of pioneers like that Tesla and the 2010 Nissan Leaf, which showed practical road cars were possible. 

Phase two, which recently finished, encompassed the rise of cars like the Jaguar I-Pace and Mercedes-Benz EQC. EVs came to public consciousness as legislators demanded cleaner cars and public confidence in the tech increased.

“People started embracing EVs and not going back,” says Lambert. “It was a breakthrough, but not a tipping point.”

Phase three, the rise of efficiency, has just begun. “The fast integration of EVs during lockdown took people by surprise,” says Lambert. “Suddenly they were quite common on the road, and in 2020 we started talking seriously about boosting their efficiency.

In this phase, believes Lambert, manufacturers will move from offering serviceable EVs often based on outgoing combustion cars to embracing efficiency in all forms (packaging, weight saving, battery development, aerodynamics and powertrain refinement).

This phase will include the widespread adoption of what Lambert sees as two must-haves of new-era EVs: an 800V electrical architecture and silicon-carbide inverters – both Applied specialist areas. Lambert calls the inverter “an unsung hero” in an electric powertrain that decides how much energy the car needs, controls the motor and can even improve NVH by smoothing power delivery.

In the brave new automotive world, the combination of 800V and silicon carbide will become a badge of performance, says Lambert, a bit like a GTI model today.

An 800V inverter can roughly halve a lesser powertrain’s efficiency losses, providing opportunities for cars to run smaller, less costly batteries and motors and to use less raw materials.

Phase four, a few years hence, will begin when car makers decide in detail how they will compete with one another on driving characteristics, rather than just a car’s size, shape and number of seats.

Lambert believes that precise motor control – naturally via 800V silicon-carbide inverters – will create differences in feel, uniquely matched to a car’s marque and model.

The much-admired Porsche Taycan is a pioneering example of what’s possible: Lambert says the car’s Porsche-typical feel is “because of the way it exerts control over its electric motors”. He foresees a rise in more imaginative driving modes in future models, plus advances in opportunities for individual drivers’ settings.

Above all, Lambert sees phase four as crucial if EVs are to match the appeal of ICE cars. “People must be able to continue enjoying their driving,” he says. “Progressive technology doesn’t have to be boring, and based on conversations we’re having with car makers, the next EV generation is likely to be better to drive than ever before.”

How motorsport can improve electric cars

One powerful generator of early EV development was the adoption of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System by Formula 1 cars in 2009, followed in 2014 by the advent of Formula E. 

“There was a time 15-20 years ago when people wondered whether cars going around in circles still had any relevance to road cars,” says McLaren Applied’s Steve Lambert, “but KERS changed all that. It was so open. The regs – which in effect said ‘do what you like, just make it more efficient’ – brought a whole load of innovation that’s still benefiting road cars.” 

A prime example is Formula E teams’ transition from multi-speed to single-speed gearboxes, achieved by optimising motors’ designs and running them at faster speeds. 

Singlespeed units have reduced complexity, weight and cost, making them the best solution for Formula E, and the same has happened with road cars.

Car makers operating in Europe’s traditional automotive manufacturing hubs, including Germany and the UK, are sounding the alarm over the cost of developing and building both cars and automotive technology locally as they brace themselves for competition from cheaper, more profitable Chinese electric cars.

“We want to invest in technology, batteries, chips but Europe is too slow in this game,” Thomas Schaefer, head of the Volkswagen brand, told Autocar at the recent Munich mobility show.

Schaefer singled out battery plants as an example where the local costs are hampering plans to onshore what will be a key investment as EVs ramp up. The VW Group said back in 2021 it would build six battery plants in Europe but has so far announced only three.

“For a battery plant, electricity price is key. China is six cents per kilowatt hour [kWh], or five cents, or less. Canada is seven cents," said Schaefer. "Germany is up to three times as high. It’s cheaper to build in Canada and re-import into Germany, even with all the logistics and import duty”.

Europe is being squeezed as an automotive manufacturing hub by both North America and China because of a mix of local subsidies, lower energy prices, cheaper labour costs and supply chain efficiency. 

The threat from China is more fundamental because local players are increasingly using their manufacturing efficiency to export vehicles that threaten to undercut European-built models. 

At the Munich show, competitors such as BYD, MG, Leapmotor, Seres and HiPhi lined up to give tangible proof to the old guard of what they were up against.

Currently, global legacy car makers have a 95% market share in Europe, leaving Tesla and the Chinese players 5%. By 2030, the Chinese will be up to 20% in Europe, with Tesla at 10%, banking firm UBS predicted in a recent report looking into the cost effectiveness of Chinese-built cars. 

Someone like BYD might not have the brand recognition in Europe despite its market leadership in China. But crucially it already builds a profitable car.

A UBS teardown of the BYD Seal saloon, one of BYD’s star cars at Munich, discovered that even the base-model Seal carried a 5% profit margin compared with a 1% loss for the entry German-made Volkswagen ID 3. That was despite the Seal – a bigger car - selling for a whopping 50% less in its home market of China compared with the ID 3 in Germany.

In response, the European Union last week confirmed it is investigating whether low-priced Chinese electric vehicles are distorting the car market, with their government-subsidised prices threatening the prosperity of European car makers, it is claimed.

This key topic on how to tackle the cost disparity was prevalent at Munich. “We know the Chinese cost base is much, much lower than the European one for all kinds of reasons, including the state-managed environment, and that can be a problem for the European industry eventually if we don’t find the right answers,” Florian Huettl, CEO of Vauxhall/Opel, told journalists at Munich.

One answer European manufacturers have arrived at in the short term is to join the Chinese by manufacturing in China, not just for the local market but also for export to take advantage of that lower cost base.

Next year, for example, Mini’s plant in Oxford will lose production of the electric Cooper – as the fifth-gen small car is to be called – to China while it invests in the plant to make it more cost efficient for a 2026 reintroduction of the Mini Cooper and Mini Aceman small electric SUV.

“To get this business case right for Oxford was a very difficult challenge based on the existing structures,” Milan Nedeljković, head of production at Mini parent BMW said at the announcement of the 2026 investment last Monday. Crucial to that challenge was a reported £75 million boost from the government to the overall £600m overhaul bill.

The list of cars from global auto makers – mainly electric or hybrid SUVs – built in China being sold or due to be sold Europe is growing and includes the BMW iX3, Dacia Spring, Citroën C5 X, Tesla Model Y (right-hand-drive models), Honda e:Ny1, Honda CR-V, Honda ZR-V, Cupra Tavascan, Mini Cooper EV, Mini Aceman and DS 9. 

Some companies are also exporting the development of the cars, again due to costs. “Germany has become really expensive in last three to four years [to develop cars], and we have to stay competitive,” Kai Grünitz, head of development for the VW Group, told journalists at Munich.

The outcome of moving R&D to markets like China is a reduction of development workforce at its base in Wolfsburg, Germany, he warned. “We have to go to the markets to develop the cars for those markets,” he added.

Despite all the recent rhetoric against Chinese cars, calling for out-and-out protectionism to the point that Europe is shut off from the country’s products and battery supply chain is not feasible.

“At the moment, China is leading on this technology so we wouldn’t be able to get where we want to get to on net zero by banning Chinese product,” UK business and trade secretary Kemi Badenoch said last Monday at the Mini Oxford plant. “It does present an economic challenge but we are working on that.”

Europe needs more of the state support that got China to the position it is today, according to European auto industry lobby group ACEA. “Unlike in Europe, China has adopted a holistic approach to industrial policy, looking at the entire value chain for what it considers strategic industries,” said director general Sigrid de Vries in August. “The EU needs a robust industrial strategy that ups the ante in being a base for its critical industries.”

The message is the same in the UK. More help please to reduce manufacturing costs, lessen the burden of moving from combustion engines and develop new technologies that’ll return us to the cutting edge. Until then, many global players will have to use Chinese efficiencies on EV manufacturing to reduce the cost of their electric cars.

After my irate column of 16 August on the subject of people being asked to pay ongoing fees to use features in their cars, I think I’ve put my finger on what irritates me most about it.

It’s the idea that a manufacturer wants to retain some kind of stake in or ownership of a product long after you’ve bought and paid for it.

I’ve had a lot of correspondence on this. Only a few people have said they think it’s okay, but I suspect I will remain unconvinced regardless of the elegance of the arguments or analogies. The vast majority agree that it’s a grim practice.

Accordingly, BMW will stop charging such fees for hardware-based features (although not for software-based features) on its future cars.

Sales and marketing boss Pieter Nota told us at the Munich motor show: “We thought that we would provide an extra service to the customer by offering the chance to activate that later, but the user acceptance isn’t that high.

People feel that they paid double, which was actually not true, but perception is reality, I always say. So that was the reason we stopped that.”

My analogy is to imagine a property developer building 1000 houses to the same design, all with an en suite bathroom, because it’s cheaper than troubling the builders to make some with, some without.

So you buy one, move in and love it. What a place, and it’s all yours! But what’s that behind this door? Ah, now that, say the developers, is an extra bathroom, but you can only access it if you give them £30 a month in perpetuity.

I think if that happened, there would be lots of doors kicked in. So should there be here.

The origins of the word 'supercar'

Researching the origin of the word ‘supercar’ (or ‘super-car’) for my column of 30 August, I found that it got its first outing in Autocar in an advert in 1915 and in an article (about aero-engined specials) in 1921.

My reading was, however, limited to our digital archive (subscriptions sold here, would make a great present, etc).

In Man of Speed, the biography of engineer Reid Railton by estimable historian and author Karl Ludvigsen, he mentions that the term also appeared in a 1921 issue of The Motor, a weekly magazine much later incorporated into Autocar.

There it referenced, rather than a general idea, a specific machine. ‘First Descriptions of the Performance of a British Super-car in which Originality and Unconventionality are Prominently Characterised’, ran the headline on the Leyland Eight, designed by Railton and his gaffer, Leyland chief engineer JP Parry-Thomas.

Parry-Thomas, a setter of many speed records, would later race a special-bodied version of the car, dubbed the Leyland-Thomas, at Brooklands, lapping the circuit at 129.73mph.

It’s often unclear which car is the first of any genre, and Ludvigsen is inclined to discount the word when used by manufacturers in adverts, although as it not long after entered general vernacular, I’m more relaxed about that.

The Eight wasn’t the first car of its type, but if one is looking for the first specific model that was independently referred to as a supercar and certainly thought of as one, it could be that.

Are car parking providers easing up?

Twice this year I’ve appealed against private car park penalty notices and succeeded (kudos to NCP for its one, which I didn’t think it was obligated to).

Meanwhile, at short notice, I’ve just delayed a Europcar hire car’s return by a good few hours and been told there’s no extra fee.

Am I lucky, or have parking and car hire providers, so often maligned, recently become more consumer-friendly?