First Renderings of the BMW i3 Touring Reveal a Wagon Worth Waiting For

BMW’s surprise teaser of a new 3 Series Touring at the end of the i3 Sedan premiere set the internet ablaze, and now the first renderings of what that long-roof model could look like are here. The renders give us a good indication of what the confirmed Touring body style might look like.

Up front, the i3 Touring borrows its face wholesale from the sedan: the wide, illuminated kidney grilles flanked by sharp, angular headlights that define the new electric 3 Series. It’s a bold, modern interpretation of BMW’s front fascia, and it translates beautifully to the wagon proportions. The hood line flows cleanly into what becomes a longer, more purposeful greenhouse — unmistakably a Touring.

The rear is where things get really interesting. The classic long-roof silhouette that has defined every 3 Series Touring since the E30 is very much present, maintaining that sleek, fastback-adjacent roofline that drops into a near-vertical tailgate. But the i3’s identity isn’t lost back there. The taillights carry over the same graphic treatment from the sedan — slim, full-width light bars connecting across the tailgate. The bumper and lower diffuser section also reflect the cleaner, ICE-free aesthetic that distinguishes the i-branded models from their combustion counterparts.

The overall proportions in these renders feel right. Long enough to be genuinely practical, low enough to remain sporty, and cohesive enough to look like something BMW would actually put into production rather than a wishful exercise.

The Teaser That Started It All

BMW took everyone by surprise at the end of the i3 Sedan premiere when CEO Oliver Zipse wrapped up his speech and a shadowy Touring silhouette materialized in the background. It was brief, deliberate, and effective — classic BMW showmanship (in a good way). The long-roof model is confirmed as one of 40 new and facelifted vehicles coming by the end of 2027, but one central question still lingers: will it come with combustion engines?

We’ve previously reported that BMW might skip a new 3 Series Touring with gasoline and diesel engines entirely. However, the situation may be more nuanced than that. Zipse didn’t explicitly introduce the Touring as an i3 — he called it a 3 Series. The fully electric Touring is internally known as the “NA1,” while the combustion sedan is the “G50” and the electric sedan is the “NA0.” No spy shots of either Touring variant have surfaced yet, which suggests the estate is unlikely to arrive before 2027 at the earliest.

We did hear in the last few weeks that the G51 3 Series Touring (ICE) topic has been revisited and the car is coming. Without a doubt, that’s the right move. Europeans still highly embrace their tourings and while an i3 Touring will be very compelling from a performance and efficiency perspective, the combustion-powered 3 Series Touring is too iconic to let go that easily.

A Tradition Worth Preserving

The 3 Series Touring tradition stretches back to the 1980s and the iconic E30 Touring, and the fact that it has survived the SUV era says everything about the wagon’s enduring appeal — particularly in Europe, where the Touring consistently outsells its sedan sibling in several markets.

The ideal scenario, of course, is the one that pleases everyone: a conventionally powered 3 Series Touring for those who want a diesel or inline-six, running alongside the fully electric i3 Touring for those who’ve made the switch. That would mirror the sedan lineup and give BMW maximum flexibility across markets.

In the meantime, the i3 Sedan enters production in August, with European deliveries kicking off this fall and the U.S. market following in 2027. So we don’t expect the i3 Touring until next year, and likely a bit longer for an ICE version as well. The 3 Series Touring, in whichever form it takes, remains one of the most anticipated nameplates on BMW’s near-term roadmap — and these first renderings give us every reason to keep watching.

[Renderings: Theophilus Chin]