BMW officially drops “i” suffix from petrol cars: next 330i to be badged 330, 520i to 520, M340i to M350

It’s official – BMW has dropped the “i” suffix from its petrol-powered models with the introduction of the new F70 1 Series. This comes just over a year after it was first reported, bringing an end to 55 years of Munich using the letter to denote cars fitted with fuel injection.

With the new 1 Series, the 120i variant is now the 120, while the M135i xDrive hot hatch is badged the M135 xDrive. The diesel-powered 118d and 120d retain their “d” suffix, however, so a remnant of the old naming scheme remains. Plug-in hybrid models are also expected to keep their “e” suffix, according to some reports.

By that logic, the next petrol 3 Series – the G50, rumoured to arrive in 2027 – will have model names like 330 (previously 330i) and M350 (previously M340i), while the facelift of the still-new G60 5 Series will probably feature variants like 520 (previously 520i).

Complicating things is the suggestion that SUV models will retain the “X” prefix but drop the xDrive identifier at the end, so what is currently called the X3 xDrive30i could end up being the X330, which sounds insane as is. Will the replacement of the X3 M40i become the XM350? The mind boggles…

It was previously reported that the new nomenclature would help BMW better differentiate models powered by electricity (which use the “i” as a prefix) and internal combustion engines. This is expected to start with next year’s Neue Klasse models, including the new i3 that is slated to have variant names like i330. The iX3, on the other hand, will have models like iX330 in its lineup.

Several questions remain, of course. The current naming scheme for full-fat M models (M3, M4, M5, etc.) will likely continue, but will an all-electric version of the M3 be called the iM3? Will the next X3 M be called the XM3 and the electric version the iXM3? And what about bespoke SUV models like the iX and XM, which don’t correspond to the usual BMW series?

Last but certainly not least, will the increasingly convoluted alphabet soup of prefixes end up being more confusing to customers than, say, i5 eDrive40 or M3 Competition Touring with xDrive? Answers on a postcard (by that I mean the comments after the jump).

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