BMW M has confirmed that it’s developing a new halo supercar, one that could revive the spirit of the M1 from the late 1970s. Though the company hasn’t released any official details yet, the news has already sparked creative interpretations. Among them is a striking digital study by independent designer Sebastiano Ciarcia, who has envisioned his own version of a next-generation BMW exotic. He calls it the Ethos.

More: BMW Almost Launched An All-Electric Hypercar With 1,300 HP

This digital concept channels the same energy as the striking Nazca C2 prototype from the early 1990s, originally penned by Italdesign. There are also clear influences from the BMW i8 and the Vision M Next concept from 2019, both of which serve as recent milestones in BMW’s design evolution.

A Study in Surface and Stance

The BMW Ethos has a dramatic, low-slung stance with a wide footprint. A glass canopy covers the cabin, while partially exposed rear wheels recall the look of vintage Italian exotics. Up front, Ciarcia reimagines BMW’s signature kidney grille with a cleaner, body-colored design and a small, offset BMW badge. According to the designer, the grille pays tribute to BMW classics from the 1950s, like the 503 and 507.

Another highlight is the LED headlights which are integrated within the front intakes, slightly reminiscent of Peugeot‘s 9X8 Le Mans Hypercar. The sculpted fenders are protruding from the rest of the bodywork, contributing to the athletic profile. Ciarcia describes the surfacing as “a contrast of soft and hard volumes”.

Around back, the Ethos features a slim, full-width LED light bar, an active spoiler, and an aggressive diffuser to tie it all together.

Illustrations Sebastiano Ciarcia

Designed With Future Powertrains in Mind

Although the concept doesn’t display any obvious signs of an internal combustion engine, it isn’t imagined as fully electric either. Instead, Ciarcia envisions a hydrogen fuel-cell setup that could deliver performance on par with a modern hypercar, an approach that leaves the door open for alternative propulsion technologies.

To help bring the design to life, the Ethos has been rendered in a Champagne finish and placed in a setting that feels perfectly suited: the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on Lake Como in Italy. It’s the same venue that BMW introduced the limited-production Speedtop shooting brake this year, following the Skytop from 2024 and 2023’s Z4-based Touring Coupe.

More: BMW Scrapped A 95% Finished Supercar For The XM SUV

When it comes to potential rivals for the Ethos, the designer points to a wide range of high-performance supercars and hypercars, including the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale, Aston Martin Valhalla, and Ferrari F80. Perhaps the closest match, though, would be the rumored all-electric supercar from Mercedes-AMG, previewed in 2023 by the Vision One-Eleven concept.

Ciarcia is an Italian automotive designer currently based in Gothenburg, Sweden. A graduate of IAAD, he has worked with several major automakers, including Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Rimac, and Volvo. CarScoops readers might recognize his name from a few years back, when he unveiled an impressive mid-engined reinterpretation of the Lancia Delta.

For more of his work, you can follow Sebastiano Ciarcia on Instagram.

Sebastiano Ciarcia

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A post shared by Sebastiano Ciarcià (@sebastiano_ciarcia)

BMW’s Neue Klasse 3-series sedan is just around the corner, but barrelling up to the next curve down the road, and coming in hot, is its M3 brother. The M3 will be available with both electric and ICE power, and our spy photo team has has papped the EV (possibly named the iM3, following a recent BMW trademark) wearing its fat production fenders and no distracting M-color camouflage for the first time.

Although we’ve seen electric M3 test cars before, they’ve always been fitted with riveted arch extensions or fender graphics that make it hard to see what the shape of the rear quarter panels. But now we get to see the true contours of the real fenders that will add more than 3 inches (76 mm) of girth versus a stock i330 sedan.

Related: BMW M Knows You Don’t Like EVs But They’re Making Them Anyway

The extra width of the front fenders is fairly subtle, though combined with the suspension drop gives the M3 a much lower, wider and meaner look than the i330 prototypes we’ve seen. But there’s no missing the rear-end makeover. Those new swollen fenders are huge, meaning the charging flap on the nearside rear quarter lies almost at 45 degrees.

How do we know this is the electric M3? There’s the lack of tailpipes, of course – we see a diffuser for the first time on a prototype – but that’s not the only clue. Electric versions of the Neue Klasse 3-series, including the M3, have a much shorter gap between the front door and front wheel arch opening, a more sloping windshield and a forward-angled window post in the middle of the rear door. On combustion-powered NK Threes, which get an updated version of today’s 3-series’ CLAR platform, rather than the Neue Klasse architecture, that window post is vertical.

Though this M3 prototype gives us a look at the production fenders, it’s still keeping plenty of secrets – it won’t be launched for at least 18 months, after all. The front and rear bumpers remain literally under wraps and we’re yet to see the final design for the front and rear lights. 

But one shot showing a glimpse of the interior through the passenger window confirms the presence of the same Panoramic iDrive centrally-mounted tablet touchscreen and full-width head-up display at the base of the windshield that BMW showcased at CES in Las Vegas at the beginning of 2025.

Under the skin the electric M3 will have as many as four electric motors delivering just over 700 hp (710 PS) in standard form, while the ICE version will get a mild-hybrid six-cylinder engine.

Credit: SHProshots

The BMW i4 M50 was M division’s first EV, but it wasn’t a very fast one. A zero to 62 mph (96 km/h) time of 3.9 seconds wasn’t exactly dog slow, but plenty of M cars and plenty of other automakers’ EVs could blow it into the weeds. This summer, M’s most popular car gets a power upgrade to help redress the balance a little.

Out goes the i4 M50 and in comes the i4 M60, which justifies its new number with a boost to its dual-motor drivetrain. Output jumps from 537 hp (544 PS / 400 kW) to 593 hp (601 PS / 442 kW) and drops the 62 mph lunge to 3.7 seconds. That’s still puts it behind other performance EVs like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N and Tesla Model 3 Performance, and 0.2 seconds adrift of an M3 Competition xDrive, but it’s nevertheless a step in the right direction.

Related: The Most Driver-Focused M2 Drops The One Thing Real Drivers Care The Most

At the same time, and at the other end of the i4 spectrum, the eDrive35 and eDrive40 now come with silicon carbide semiconductor components that cut consumption by around 4.5 percent. That mod potentially improves the distance achieved on one charge by 14 miles, giving the 35 a still unimpressive range of 266 WLTP miles (428 km) and pushing the 40’s touring endurance to 317 miles (510 km).

BMW’s summer update also improves the standard equipment on the 1-series and 2-series Gran Coupé, adding heated front seats and an alarm, while the optional M Technology Package II available for the M135 xDrive hatch now includes M seat belts with M colors in the weave.

The 7-series and i7 gain laminated safety glass and individual sun/heat protection options for occupants, and the X5M Competition and its X6 sister debut an Ultimate Package. This brings a carbon engine cover and mirror caps, panoramic roof, ventilated massage seats, a Bowers & Wilkins stereo and a pointless (for most of us) increase in the speed limiter from 155 mph (250 km/h) to 180 mph (290 km/h).

And if you were thinking of adding a fancy BMW Individual paint job to your new car, you can now do it inside the regular configurator rather than jumping across to the BMW Individual Visualiser.

BMW

Many car manufacturers are learning that it’s easier to convince someone shopping for an affordable and efficient car to opt for an EV than it is to persuade a diehard car enthusiast to buy a car that utilizes electrification, let alone a full EV.

This shift presents a unique challenge for enthusiast brands like BMW’s M division, but the company is confident it will continue to deliver the right products for its loyal customer base as the industry makes the inevitable switch to electrification.

Read: BMW’s Next M3 Will Offer New Type Of Gas Engine And EV

If BMW M can learn anything from the missteps of arch-rival Mercedes-AMG with the four-cylinder hybrid C 63 it’s that enthusiasts know what they want and, in this case, want that familiar sound and rev building they know and love when they’re behind the wheel of a sportcar. BMW M vice president Sylvia Neubauer acknowledged this is a challenge shortly after the M5 morphed into a plug-in hybrid, and it started working on M’s first fully-fledged EV.

“It’s been a challenge to keep this up,” she told Top Gear. “If you look at our following, which mostly consists of enthusiasts, they aren’t the most natural types to go electric”, Neubauer said.

“But I think we should not describe this target group as the only target group, because we are seeing a change already. Of course, the enthusiasts are the core group, and it’s going to be harder to convince them to switch, but we will have the right product for them,” she added.

What M’s VP is saying is that the best way to keep its core customers and at the same time attract new ones interested in EVs is (obviously, but also costly) to offer options that appeal to both. Thus, this is exactly what it will do with the next-gen M3. In addition to developing a ICE model with an updated version of the inline-six found in the current G80, BMW will offer an all-electric version of its sports sedan, potentially dubbed the iM3.

Key technical specifications about these two models remain under wraps, but it’s reasonable to assume the next ICE-powered M3 will push horsepower deeper into the 500s. The electric version will likely pack a lot more grunt, as BMW has already revealed its quad-motor setup can support up to 1,341 hp, even though the electric M3 likely won’t ever get even remotely close to that number.

Nevertheless, most diehard petrolheads would happily trade a straight line performance for a much more engaging powertrain – besides, even the current combustion M3 is anything but lacking in power.