BMW Once Thought Fake Gearshifts Were A ‘Funny Gimmick.’ Now The Electric i3 M60 Is Getting Them

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The BMW i3 M60 xDrive arrives in 2027 with paddle-shifted ‘Stages’ tied to M eDrive, a feature the i3 40 and i3 50 can’t get later.

The BMW i3 M60 xDrive is said to simulate gearshifts through its steering wheel paddles when the electric M Performance sedan launches in 2027. Christian Heiss, a senior driving dynamics engineer at BMW, confirmed the feature at the international launch of the new 3 Series and i3.

Heiss told carsales that Munich’s first reaction to Hyundai’s virtual gearbox was dismissive: “We at BMW thought: well, that’s a funny gimmick.” Minds changed after BMW executives allegedly drove the Ioniq 5 N and other performance EVs.

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Heiss now argues the paddles bring real gains in drivability and feedback, and he singled out track driving as the place where they help most. It’s the same argument Alexander Karajlovic, BMW M’s head of development, made earlier this year about the electric M3: gears give a driver a feel for their speed on the way into a corner, and a single-speed EV takes that reference away. Karajlovic went as far as calling simulated ratios essential in a performance EV.

Heiss was careful with the wording. BMW ended up with something close to a gearbox simulation, he said, but the company deliberately avoids calling it one. He also expects anyone who was hoping for simulated shifts to be pleased with the result, possibly more than pleased.

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BMW reportedly calls the steps “Stages” rather than gears, although that name isn’t official yet. The paddles are linked to M eDrive, the M-tuned version of BMW’s Gen6 electric drivetrain, so instead of selecting a physical ratio, each pull changes how the motors deliver power. We saw them fitted to a pre-production i3 M60 just a few weeks ago.

The i3 M60 also gets its own sound, which BMW had already confirmed. For reference, the iX3 M60 xDrive revealed in October uses a speed-dependent sound tuned specifically for its M Performance status, and its paddles let the driver adjust how M eDrive responds.

BMW hasn’t said how many Stages there are, and Heiss said only that the system differs from Hyundai’s N e-Shift in several important ways without listing them. Torque delivery is the most likely one. N e-Shift limits torque depending on the virtual gear to mimic a real gearbox, and BMW said in June that the electric M3’s simulated gearbox wouldn’t do that. Whether the i3 M60 follows the M3’s approach is one of the questions BMW hasn’t answered.

Why The i3 40 And i3 50 Can’t Get Stages Later

Stages is limited to M Performance models and anything above them, which in the new i3 range means only the M60. Owners of the lesser versions hoping for an over-the-air unlock are out of luck. According to Heiss, the i3 40 and i3 50 don’t have the paddles or the hardware behind them, so BMW can’t add the feature with a software update.

For a company that once tried to sell heated seats by subscription, it’s a refreshingly simple rule. You either buy the car with Stages, or you never get them.

When The i3 M60 Arrives And What It Packs

BMW says the i3 M60 xDrive launches in 2027. It tops the NA0 i3 range until the electric M3 arrives, sitting above the i3 50 xDrive, and like other new M Performance models it gets M Yellow Lights up front. We believe the sedan makes 450 kW (603 hp) and 875 Nm (645 lb-ft), the same as the dual-motor iX3 M60 xDrive. BMW hadn’t published official figures for the i3 version when it announced the car in September.

The iX3 M60 does 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 3.9 seconds and has a limited top speed of 240 km/h (149 mph). The i3 M60 is lower and lighter, so it should be at least as quick. Expect the same 108.7-kWh battery as the i3 50 xDrive.