The Germans from BMW plans a new generation of the 3 Series and here comes the most interesting part! The addition of a hybrid model beats everything, especially knowing BMW and the motto they have: “ultimate driving machine”, thus they have been seen testing the new acquisition and we can show some spy photos shooted during testing.
Just looking at the pictures, it’s almost impossible to tell this prototype 3 Series is a hybrid, apart from one small thing; the mandatory ‘hybrid’ sticker on the front door window sill.
Unfortunately, no details regarding the engine of the car are available at this time. However, speculations have been made and, according to them, this car will take its power from a 3.0-litre six-cylinder petrol engine teamed with an electric motor providing a combined output of around 250kW. If this is the case, the BMW ActiveHybrid 3 will be the most powerful 3 Series in the lineup, apart from the BMW M3.
One of the things we can be certain of though, is the fact that BMW won’t make the same mistake it did with X6 ActiveHybrid, which has recently been discontinued, due to the fact that it was way too powerful, way to heavy and way too expensive.
The upcoming BMW 3 Series range is expected to arrive late next year, while the new ActiveHybrid 3 variant will likely join the market some time after the initial model launch, possibly early in 2013. Stay tuned for more details.
Images: CarPix
