Spy-Photo

It's winter now in the northern hemisphere - this means most if not all the spyshots sent in by our European spy photography providers will be of future cars having fun in the snow. And winter means reduced visibility - this means a lot of the cars that are caught will have their headlamps and tail lamps on, revealing new design details that couldn't be seen before.

This particular F30 LCI 3-Series had its tail lamps on so we can clearly see the new graphics that BMW will be using for its updated compact executive. It appears to be a two bar design that makes a little loop and joins together towards the outer edge of the tail lamp.

This is actually very similiar to what we've seen on the recently unveiled 1-Series LCI and the upcoming all-new G11 7-Series. You can see it in the two images embedded just above - the one on the left is a spyshot of the 7-er's tail lamps while the one on the right is the 1-Series LCI.

This particular 3-Series prototype also had the words "Hybrid Test Vehicle" on the side. The F30 LCI will get a new plug-in hybrid variant which will indirectly replace the (non-plug-in) ActiveHybrid3. It will use a four-cylinder engine instead of the six-cylinder in the model it will replace.

The plug-in 3-Series will have an all-electric mode, which can be active at up to 120 km/h and as far as 35 km. The lithium-ion battery can be re-charged (through a plug on the front left fender) at any household power socket, and the new power pack takes up less boot space.