Although the dashboard is covered up, there are clear signs the BMW 3 Series facelift will sport the company’s new curved screen infotainment interface.
Under the shroud, we can see there’s a long rectangular section stretching from ahead of the driver across to the edge of the front passenger’s area.
The large bump over the instrument cluster present in today’s 3 Series is missing from the prototype.
This indicates the facelifted model will have a similar setup to the controversial iX electric crossover, where a single rectangular block houses a 12.3-inch instrumentation display and a curved 14.9-inch touchscreen.
Powered by the iDrive 8 operating system, the new infotainment system supports over-the-air updates, has a minimalist interface with large icons, and improved personalisation and voice recognition features.
When the iDrive 8 system was unveiled last month, BMW hinted the setup would spread across its range as models were renewed or facelifted.
The iX and i4 will be the first production models to use the new system.
As the exterior of this prototype doesn’t have any visual updates applied to it, we don’t think the 3 Series facelift will be unveiled this year.
Given the latest 3 Series sedan was launched in 2018, the facelift will likely appear in 2022.