The BMW M3 sedan/saloon and M4 coupe were expected to launch very soon, what with the prototypes and even final production copies cruising the streets for some time now. Marcus Flasch, CEO of BMW M, even said that the pre-production process has started. However, it now turns out the actual large-scale production will not begin until at least late 2020, and first cars will not hit the showrooms until 2021.
For those who forgot or didn’t follow, it was announced that both models would get permanent AWD and eight-speed automatic transmission, with the ability to uncouple the front axle and go RWD when desired. A ‘pure’ version for true fans would also be made available with permanent RWD and manual gear shifting.
Both the M3 and M4 would ship with the same three-liter, twin-turbo six-cylinder engine as the BMW X3 M and X4 M. The output will amount to 480 hp (358 kW) for the standard version and 510 hp (380 kW) for the M Competition. In the meantime, measuring the actual performance of the abovementioned SUVs at the dyno has repeatedly showed that the reported performance numbers figures are far below the real ones.
Flasch denied comment on the reasons for the delay.