New BMW M3 Touring CONFIRMED by BMW – expect it in 2022

The new version of the BMW M3 will, in a couple of years, include a BMW M3 Touring for the first time as BMW confirm its plans with a tease image.

The petrolhead verdict on estate cars splits in to two camps, with one thinking estates are driven too slowly, in the wrong lane by geography teachers with leather patches on the elbows of their tweed jackets, and the other camp thinking estate cars – especially performance state cars – are the ultimate transport, offering the dynamism of a saloon with the practicality of an SUV. Consider us firmly in the second camp.

Some car makers, like Mercedes, pander to that lust for performance estates, but BMW – makers of the ‘ultimate driving machine’ – has only ever produced one performance estate – the M5 Touring – to quench buyers’ thirst, and then only twice and not for a decade. 

To be fair, there were plans to produce the M5 Touring in other 5 Series generations than the E34 and E61, but they never happened, and BMW did produce and M3 Touring Concept 20 years ago, but it too came to nought.

But now, eighteen months on from the arrival of the latest generation BMW 3 Series, and just before the M3 saloon is revealed, BMW confirm they are, finally, building an M3 Touring, although it will be 2022 before it arrives.

Whether the M3 Touring will come with the same range of alternatives as we expect from the M3 – like RWD or 4WD, Standard or Competition, Manual or Auto – remains to be seen, but, especially when we see the new M3 next month, it won’t take much imagination to work out how the M3 Touring will look. And, helpfully, BMW has sent us a single image of the back of the M3 Touring (above) so we have no doubts.

Just a shame we’ll have to wait until 2022 for the M3 Touring, and a shame it’ll come with the huge grille from the 4 Series. But that’s not enough to put us off, and the promise of 480bhp in the ‘Standard’ version and 510bhp in the ‘Performance’ version is something to look forward to, for the Saloon and the Touring.