Four-motor monster hints at next BMW M3

REVEALED Bonkers rolling laboratory uses four electric motors to produce huge power, and provides a tantalising preview of future super-saloon

- Ellis Hyde

EX THIS is the BMW Vision Driving Experience: a rolling laboratory built solely, we've been told, to push the limits of the manufacturer's nextgeneration electric car platform and software. However, the only thing most people are going to see when they look at the gloriously maniacal saloon is a new M3.

And we can't blame them really, because the Vision Driving Experience (or VDX as we're going to call it from now on) is based on BMW's Vision Neue Klasse concept that was revealed in 2023, and previews the design of the all-new 3 Series coming next year, plus the next M3 that's due to arrive in 2027.

We also noticed that the VDX's flared wheelarches, aggressive front bumper with its speed humpannihilating splitter, sizeable bootlid spoiler and illuminated kidney grilles are elements that featured in our exclusive image of the iconic sports saloon's next iteration (see Page 12).

The VDX even uses an all-electric, quad-motor powertrain, which we've known for some time will be available in the next M3 and have been told can deliver up to 1,341bhp - the equivalent of one megawatt of power.

However, the M3 probably won't have that much on tap, and it almost certainly won't generate the same earth-shattering 18,000Nm of torque as the mad machine you see here.

Among the features that definitely don't have any production relevance - although we'd love to be proven wrong are the five impellers the VDX uses to create more than 1,200kg of downforce, sucking the car into the tarmac before it moves an inch, producing a categoryfive racket - a noise as loud as a hurricane - as they do so.

You're sure to have noticed the coloured LED strips in the wheels, which glow green when the car is accelerating, blue when it's recuperating energy, and orange if the friction brakes are being used.