Tag Archives: BMW

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BMW’s iX3 Finally Gets the White Steering Wheel It Showed Us Months Ago

When BMW first rolled out press images of the all-new iX3, eagle-eyed observers noticed something odd: a bright white steering wheel that, inconveniently, didn’t exist in the configurator. Six months later, BMW has finally decided to make good on its own marketing photos.

The German iX3 configurator has been quietly updated to include the long-teased white steering wheel, priced at a surprisingly reasonable €250. It’s a small change, but one that highlights how seriously BMW is leaning into personalization with its next-generation electric SUV.

Of course, BMW being BMW, the white wheel doesn’t come without strings attached.

To get it, buyers must also opt for the Digital White interior package, a €1,080 upgrade in Germany. This wraps the seats in BMW’s Veganza material—marketing speak for artificial leather—which is also used on the steering wheel itself. The rest of the cabin avoids looking like a hospital waiting room thanks to Atlas Gray fabric trim, a black Veganza finish on the door armrests, and an Anthracite headliner. In other words, it’s more “modern gallery” than “stormtrooper.”

Interestingly, BMW doesn’t force customers into an M Sport package to get the white wheel. Even base-model iX3 buyers can order it, which is refreshingly democratic for a brand that often hides the good stuff behind pricey trim levels. The updated BMW roundel sits in the middle of the wheel, though the change is subtle enough that most people won’t notice unless they’re staring at it in a showroom.

If white isn’t your thing—or if you’d rather not worry about blue-jean dye slowly staining your steering wheel—BMW still offers the familiar black version. That one gets a small M badge on the lower spoke, and aside from color, it appears to be identical in shape and design to the white wheel. How well the pale version will survive years of sweaty palms and coffee spills remains an open question.

More Colors, More Power, More BMW Being BMW

The steering wheel isn’t the only new addition. BMW has also expanded the iX3’s paint palette with three new shades: Fire Red, Eucalyptus Green, and Individual Frozen Space Silver. It’s a welcome move for a model that’s supposed to look as forward-thinking as its Neue Klasse underpinnings.

There’s also a new AC Charging Professional option, which boosts AC charging to 22 kW and adds Vehicle-to-Load capability. With up to 3.7 kW available, the iX3 can now power tools, appliances, or even a small campsite, turning the SUV into a rolling power bank.

BMW has also thrown in a stainless-steel loading sill for iX3s ordered with the Contemporary, M, or Individual interior themes. Meanwhile, buyers who go for the M Sport Package or M Sport Package Pro get a special key finished with BMW’s signature blue, violet, and red M stripes—because if you’re paying extra, you should at least get a fancier key.

Not everything is available just yet. Heated rear seats still don’t show up in the German configurator, as BMW plans to roll that feature out first in South Korea and Japan starting with March production. Ventilated front seats are also missing for now, though BMW says they’ll arrive later in the model’s life cycle.

The iX3’s Story Is Just Getting Started

Deliveries of the new iX3 haven’t even begun, which means this steady drip of new options is only the beginning. More BMW Individual colors are scheduled to arrive later this year, along with additional versions of the SUV, including the iX3 40 and the hotter iX3 M60 xDrive.

And looming over everything is the real performance flagship: the X3 M “ZA5,” due in 2027. If BMW’s electric future follows the same formula as its gasoline past, that’s where things are going to get very interesting.

For now, though, the biggest headline might just be a steering wheel that finally matches the pictures.

Source: BMW

News

BMW Cuts V-8 Power In Europe, But Not In The United States

BMW’s S68 twin-turbo V-8 was always living on borrowed time. Not because it wasn’t good—it’s spectacular—but because Europe’s regulators have been circling it like wolves around a bratwurst. Now the bite has finally landed. Beginning next month, BMW will detune the S68 in Europe to meet upcoming Euro 7 emissions rules, slicing 40 horsepower from the gasoline side of the powertrain in both the M5 and XM Label—and doing it two years before the regulations even take effect.

Yes, the axe falls early.

In pure BMW fashion, though, Munich refuses to let its flagship Ms look weak on paper. To offset the combustion-engine haircut, BMW is turning up the voltage. The electric motor in the M5 is upgraded so that the total system output remains 717 horsepower, exactly where it was before. The XM Label does the same trick, holding the line at 737 horsepower by pairing a slightly weaker V-8 with a stronger electric motor.

The result is a numbers game that looks unchanged on a spec sheet—but one that tells a more complicated story underneath.

Europe Loses 40 Horses. America Doesn’t.

This change applies to all M5s and XM Labels sold in the European Union’s 27 member states, plus any other markets that follow EU emissions rules. But if you’re buying one in the United States, you can breathe easy—and deeply.

BMW spokesperson Jay Hanson confirmed that U.S.-market M5s and XM Labels will continue to use the full-power S68, with no detuning required. In other words, America gets the uncorked V-8 while Europe gets the eco-friendly version with an electrified crutch.

That’s not exactly new in the modern car world—but it’s still a bitter pill for European enthusiasts, especially when the M5 is supposed to be BMW’s unapologetic performance flagship.

The S68 Isn’t Going Anywhere

Despite the emissions squeeze, BMW isn’t walking away from its V-8 anytime soon. The S68 is slated to power a whole lineup of future M and M Performance models, including:

  • The next-gen X5 M Performance (G65)
  • The full X5 M (G95)
  • The X7 (G67)
  • And the next X6 in both G66 M Performance and G96 M forms

Even BMW ALPINA is expected to stick with the V-8 for the return of the B7 and an XB7 successor, though those models will reportedly come with hybrid and inline-six variants as well. An electric ALPINA is also on the horizon—which feels both inevitable and faintly tragic.

Meanwhile, the current M5 (G90 sedan and G99 wagon) will keep the S68 when its mid-cycle update arrives. The facelifted models have already been caught testing, though their official debut isn’t expected until late spring next year, ahead of production starting in July 2027.

More Than Just a Power Cut

BMW isn’t simply turning down the boost and calling it a day. European-market M5s and XM Labels are also switching to the Miller combustion cycle, a strategy that improves efficiency and lowers emissions by tweaking how the engine handles intake and compression. On top of that, BMW is upgrading the exhaust aftertreatment system and recalibrating engine management software.

The company insists the result is “continued dynamic performance at the highest level,” thanks to the stronger electric motor filling in for the lost V-8 output.

Maybe. But we all know what that really means.

Hybrids are fantastic at masking what’s been taken away—until you start pushing the car hard, again and again, when heat, weight, and battery limitations start to matter. The M5 is already a two-and-a-half-ton missile. Adding more electric hardware to compensate for a neutered engine only makes it heavier.

And if given the choice, most buyers would almost certainly take the 40 horsepower back instead of the electrons.

As someone who lives in Europe, I know I would. Better yet, ditch the plug-in hybrid altogether and let the V-8 breathe freely again. It would shed weight, restore character, and make the M5 feel like an M5 instead of a regulatory workaround.

Of course, the EU wouldn’t be thrilled about that.

Source: BMWBlog

News

BMW’s Six-Pack of M5s Proves the Color Wheel Still Matters

Choosing a favorite among BMW UK’s latest M5 press cars is less a matter of performance than of pigment. Six brand-new M5s—two G90 sedans and four G99 Tourings—have landed in the fleet, and they look like they were picked by someone who actually cares about BMW’s back catalog instead of just ticking whatever shades sell best in leasing brochures. The brief was simple: mix retro soul with modern flash. The execution, thankfully, wasn’t.

Start with Le Mans Blue on one of the sedans, a hue that immediately calls back to the E39 M5, the high-water mark of BMW’s super-sedan era. BMW UK even keeps one of those old-school V8 icons in its historic fleet, alongside a V10-powered E60 and the F10-based M5 30 Jahre Edition. It’s not just nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake either—these cars are kept in near-perfect condition, reminding everyone what “M5” used to mean before hybridization became part of the job description.

The second G90 sedan goes in the opposite direction, finished in Chalk Grey, a color that feels more Silicon Valley than Nürburgring. That modern vibe continues into the Touring lineup, where a Fashion Grey wagon shares space with three far bolder choices: Malachite Green, Wildberry, and Anglesey Green. It’s a lineup that looks more like a curated art show than a corporate press fleet, which is exactly what BMW M should be doing with a car that costs this much and weighs this much.

And yes, weighs this much. The elephant in the cargo area is the absence of a carbon-fiber roof on the M5 Touring. Unlike the sedans, which do get the carbon panel, the wagons are stuck with steel up top. It’s not a philosophical decision—it’s a logistical one. Retooling the Dingolfing plant to assemble carbon roofs on Tourings would be expensive, and the weight savings would barely register on a car tipping the scales well north of two tons. In M3 Touring terms, it made sense to skip it, and it makes even more sense here.

All six cars roll on the same hardware spec, which means the good stuff. The two-tone 951 M wheels—20 inches up front, 21 at the rear—fill the arches with proper menace, while the carbon-ceramic brakes peek through like a subtle flex. BMW UK clearly didn’t cheap out, at least not on the things that matter when you’re hustling a 700-plus-horsepower hybrid missile down a wet B-road.

And while spy photographers are already snapping facelifted M5 prototypes wearing hints of BMW’s Neue Klasse design language, don’t expect these cars to look dated anytime soon. The current styling is locked in for roughly another year and a half, with the Life Cycle Impulse models rumored to start production in July 2027. The refresh will bring tweaks, not a revolution.

For now, these six M5s are a rolling reminder that even in the age of electrification and software-defined everything, details still matter. Paint matters. Wheels matter. And when you’re driving something as absurdly capable as the new M5—sedan or wagon—you might as well make sure it looks just as special as it feels.

Source: BMW