Can BMW

If you love BMWs, your favorite pastime is probably complaining about BMWs.

Stop for a second and think about that. Deep down, you know it’s true. Even if a hardcore BMW fan is excited about the latest twin-turbo M3 or M5, they have a dozen more BMW fans to contend with online who insist that the M cars from 20 years ago were better somehow—just as the same kind of people argued 20 years ago that those M cars were inferior to the ones that came before. 

The fact is, any BMW with the famous three-stripe badge is probably pretty great. But I think BMW’s first official electric M cars are going to be something phenomenal. So can they win over the biggest skeptics around?

That’s what we’re discussing on this week’s Plugged-In Podcast. 

This year is a critical one for BMW. It’s got the new iX3 SUV coming out, and by all accounts, the first car on the electric Neue Klasse platform seems fantastic: a class leader in range, charging, software and even handling. Plus, at $60,000, it’s actually way less expensive (though still not cheap) than we all thought it’d be.

Personally, I’m excited for the BMW i3 sedan. That darn Tesla Model 3 has been talking too much smack lately, and somebody needs to take it down a peg or two. If BMW can apply the same magic to a 3 Series-sized EV, that’s going to be special.

And that’s all before what my co-host Tim Levin got to preview recently: the first electric car worthy of an M badge. We’re talking a quad-motor setup—previously, stuff we’ve only seen in big trucks like Rivians—with simulated gear shifts and engine sounds, plus groundbreaking levels of torque and horsepower.

Everything we’ve heard about this car makes a Porsche Taycan sound like a Volkswagen Passat. But on the podcast this week, we discuss whether it can win over the BMW fans who truly love internal combustion and don’t want to give it up without a fight.

We also recap CES from last week and chat about all the robots I saw in Las Vegas. There were a lot of them. There was also a huge showing from Chinese automaker Geely, at an auspicious time when the American market is backing off from plug-in cars. 

Plus, we chat with Stephanie Valdez Streaty, the Research & Development Director for Cox Automotive Mobility, and she’s going to help us game out the EV market in 2026. Are we really headed for a crash, as some predict, or will automakers hold the line until newer, better and cheaper options arrive? 

Check out the show wherever you get podcasts (find your preferred platform here). Thanks for tuning in—we’re in for an exciting year ahead, and I can’t wait to cover it on the show.

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com