Along with its moose and reindeer populations, Arjeplog, Sweden, is home to a healthy number of mules. Not the sort that comes from breeding a horse and a donkey, but the camouflaged prototype vehicles automakers employ during the development phase of a new model or technology.
The Swedish locality is a cold-weather testing hub for several automakers and industry suppliers, including Bosch, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW. The latter brand first began testing in the area in the 1970s, eventually opening a dedicated testing center in the vicinity in 2006. The 69-acre facility sits a stone’s throw away from Lake Kakel. It’s a sizable body of water that freezes over in the coldest months of the year, at which point its surface serves as an ice track that further supports vehicle testing.
This lakeside site is where BMW brought us to get an early drive of the upcoming battery-electric i3 sports sedan, which is kin to the iX3 SUV. We were let loose in a fleet of disguised i3 50 xDrive prototypes wearing 19-inch wheels wrapped in Hankook iON i*cept winter tires over snow-covered roads and a handling course laid out on the ice.
The all-wheel-drive i3 has the same 463-hp dual-motor powertrain as an equivalent iX3, and it should also have a similar battery as the SUV, which gets a 112-kWh pack good for an estimated 400 miles of EPA range. The i3 does receive its own chassis setup that better aligns with the more engaging handling dynamics long associated with the 3-series model line, plus its lower center of gravity and less mass versus the iX3 ought to aid its agility.
More on the i3
BMW is mum on just how heavy the i3 50 xDrive is, but we wager it likely tips the scales a couple of hundred pounds lighter than the dual-motor iX3, which we estimate weighs in at around 5300 pounds. Though the direct and low-effort steering, responsive pedal actions, and predictable chassis motions of the i3 endowed the car with a more playful persona on the snow and ice than its roughly two-and-a-half tons suggest, the vehicle still failed to capture the lithe and agile driving characteristics that have defined the 3-series for ages.
Getting this side of the car to come out and play requires engaging Sport mode—which you’ll want to do if only for the steering’s ever-so-slightly increased effort and more natural buildup in turns—and also completely turning off stability control. With these actions taken, we were able to get the i3’s more sporting spirit to emerge. With slick snow and ice under its tires, the car was eager to enter an easy-to-control drift with a good nudge of the right pedal.
The i3 prototypes default to a more mellow state, putting less emphasis on pushing the limits and more on staying within them. That’s down to the automaker’s new in-house designed software stack that BMW initially introduced in the iX3. The setup reduces the complexity of the electrical system by using a single controller for the steering, brakes, and powertrain functions. According to BMW, this nets responses from these systems that are 10 times quicker than before. This allows these three different dynamic controls to work together with greater unity. The car adjusts power output, regeneration, friction braking, and certain steering functions in response to the information processed by a central server that calculates multiple yaw and acceleration rates.
In practice, the whole production keeps the i3 from overstepping its limits and reduces brake-based interventions to a minimum. If you overcook the i3 into a corner aggressively enough, the friction brakes do come into play to bring the vehicle back in line, but in most instances, the motors’ output and regeneration are doing the work. While these interventions may be less jarring than brake-based correction, they also put a damper on the whole proceedings. It felt like our right foot was in a constant fight with the system as it slowed the i3 down mid-turn and all but eliminated any tail-out antics. As smooth as the system is, it can feel like an anchor holding the car back.
Granted, the i3 mules we drove were just that: pre-production prototypes. The engineers seemed keenly interested in our feedback and acknowledged that software tuning is still ongoing. With production set to commence in the latter half of 2026, we’ll see whether the i3 can move closer to that 3-series ideal.
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Despite their shared last name, Greg Fink is not related to Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s infamous Rat Fink. Both Finks, however, are known for their love of cars, car culture, and—strangely—monogrammed one-piece bathing suits. Greg’s career in the media industry goes back more than a decade. His previous experience includes stints as an editor at publications such as U.S. News & World Report, The Huffington Post, Motor1.com, and MotorTrend.
