BMW M has built its one-millionth car. And, rather fittingly, it’s an M3. Because if you’re going to celebrate more than five decades of making fast BMWs, you may as well do it with the car that has become the badge’s calling card.

The milestone machine rolled out of BMW’s Munich factory wearing BMW Individual Fire Orange III paintwork. It also provides a neat link between M’s past and its rather more electrified future.

Munich will build the next BMW M3 too – only this time it’ll be fully electric.

The forthcoming M3 will be the first high-performance BMW to use Neue Klasse technology, following the electric i3 into production at the historic factory.

BMW says the new architecture will form the basis of its next generation of M performance cars, including fully electric models.

For the workers in Munich, there’s an obvious emotional connection. The current M3 has been built there since 2020, and now the factory is being transformed for an entirely different era.

From 2027, Munich will produce only fully electric cars. BMW is spending around €650 million on the conversion, including a new body shop, assembly facilities and logistics infrastructure.

That’s quite a transformation for a factory with more than a century of history.

But the message is clear: BMW isn’t putting the M badge into retirement. It’s taking it somewhere considerably quieter – and, potentially, considerably quicker.