Would Anyone Complain If The Next BMW M3 Looked Something Like This?

Probably not.

The all-new BMW 3 Series, codenamed G20, is only days away from its official global debut at the Paris Motor Show. We’ll be on hand to bring you all of the details and plenty of live photos of the German automaker’s latest sports sedan and hopefully continued segment benchmark. But whenever there’s an all-new 3 Series, talk naturally switches gear to the next M3 high-performance sedan. Given that we haven’t yet seen the new 3 Series, aside from spy photos and teasers, it’s a little hard to figure out what the new M3 itself will look like. Hard, but not impossible.

Thanks to graphic designer Aksyonov Nikita, via Behance, these rendered images offer one of the best previews yet of what the G20 M3 could look like.

Clearly, Nikita started off his G20 M3 preview with the outgoing F80 M3 CS. The new car’s overall dimensions are said to be similar, though we do expect it to grow in size at least somewhat. Naturally, it will sport BMW’s latest styling language as shown on, for example, the 5 Series and M5. This render shows new headlights, a redesigned lower front fascia, as well as new taillights and exhausts.

One specific area the rendering artist didn’t alter, though he probably should have somehow, is the trademark twin-kidney grille. The grille shown here is the same design from today’s 3 Series/M3. We know this will change on the G20 generation.

However, the new taillight design could be pretty close to the real deal, based on what we’ve seen from spy shots as well as the latest 5 Series. Interestingly, the artist opted for dual exhausts instead of the quad units typically found on M cars. We think it happens to look good, but we fully expect to see the next M3 stick with quad pipes.

Under the hood, chances are BMW has upgraded the current car’s twin-turbo 3.0-liter inline-six, though it’s possible it’ll be connected to a 48-volt electric system. Total output will increase to around 500 hp, a nice improvement over the current 453 hp CS. Based on the previous launch timelines, don’t expect the G20 M3 to debut until a year or so following the regular 3 Series.