Green Hell, meet BMW’s newest green car: our friends at Motor Trend managed to snap a couple of photos of what appears to be a hybrid 2012 BMW 3 Series sedan testing at Germany’s famed Nurburgring.
The prototype in question was painted black and wearing BMW’s trademark swirled camouflage, which makes it look more than a little bit like the M3 Sedan we saw testing last week. Still, a closer look reveals that the prototype wears different wheels and some less-flared wheel arches, as well as a less-aggressive front fascia and aerodynamic kit.
Underneath, the hybrid 3 Series is a bit of an unknown: early reports claimed that the hybrid setup would be similar to the ActiveHybrid 5 Series, which will pair the N55 twin-scroll turbo 3.0-liter inline-six engine with a 54-horsepower electric motor, but with the N20 turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder in place of the N55. Should the N20/electric motor marriage happen, expect the total system output to be somewhere around 300 hp and fuel economy to be about 10 percent better than the equivalent 328 sedan.
In any event, expect more details to leak closer to the 3 Series’ official release. Until then, check out the full barrage of photos at Motor Trend’s site.
