BMW’s iX3 and iX electric SUVs: Cherishing the past and painting the future

If it hadn’t been tipping down with rain, the marketing and product development folk at BMW would have had us (a bunch of car journalists invited to the company’s EV “iDrive” day), foraging for food on a beach.

The idea was for us to gather some (edible) seaweed on Bombo Beach, near Kiama south of Sydney, and then enjoy its delicacies in a beautifully prepared meal at a nearby food destination. Then the rains came, but we still ate well. A professional forager was dispatched to find the seaweed.

BMW was keen to underline its environmental credentials, something they have been very keen to point out as they roll out new EV models, and establish sustainable supply chains and their use of recycling in both making their products and pulling them apart at the end of their life.

We didn’t get to forage for seaweed, but we did get to enjoy not just a beautiful meal, but a brief taste of some of BMW’s new electric offerings – the iX3, the iX, and the brand new i4 – which have all come in a rush over the last six months.

BMW, if you remember, was one of the first big car makers to produce an EV nearly a decade ago when they released the quirky i3, at a time when the emphasis on EVs was to make them as different as you could from the existing range of fossil fuel cars.

These new offerings signal a change in tack. BMW is now building EVs that are either adapted from their existing range, or fit neatly into it.  In some ways it is a celebration of the past, in others an embrace of the future.

In this article we will focus on the iX3 and the iX, because drive impressions of the i4, BMW’s first electric sedan, are embargoed for a while longer, until other journos have had the chance to drive it. (It rained so hard the following days that even the drive component was cancelled).

The iX3 is essentially an electric version of the popular X3 SUV. In that sense, it is similar to what other car makers are offering with electric versions of existing models – think the Hyundai Kona, the first Ioniq, the Volvo XC 40, the MG ZS and a myriad others.

The iX is something different altogether. It is the first of its new electric only models.  (The i4 is also based on a fossil fuel equivalent). And because of that it is the first to invite customers to marvel at the flat floors, the sense of space, and the improved handling that these cars can offer.

Being BMW, nothing is cheap, but the quality is high. (That much was deeply noticeable when I hopped out of the iX and into the Polestar I had borrowed for the week, and then back into my own Tesla Model 3. But you do pay for it).

The iX is a beast, in size, speed and impact on the bank balance. (I was going to say damage to the bank balance but if you can afford one of these things you are probably not thinking that way).

At between $135,900 and $169,900 – depending on the specs – it competes directly with the likes of the Tesla Model X, and the electric offerings of Audi, Jaguar and Lexus.

But many people will think this is the best of the lot. It’s hard to be sure after such a short drive, and we will do a full review in time. But the xDrive50 version has a 112kWh battery geared to performance and 4.6 seconds from nought to 100kmh. And it will deliver an impressive range of 630kms.

The xDrive40 is not so bad either, in either the straight or sporty versions. It will take 6.1 seconds to get to 100kmh, which is fast enough for just about everyone, and boasts a range of 425kms, which is plenty enough.

It creates both the feeling of space, and space itself, thanks to the flat floor, and cool features such as a wrap around visual display, an open centre console, and a hexagonal shaped steering wheel.

And it has its own “spacy” EV engine sounds courtesy of the award winning composer Hans Zimmer, if you decide that the silence of an EV motor is not golden.

Even with all this, you sense that BMW is not yet ready to think too “futuristic”. It wants to guide its customers through the transition, one model at a time.

The remarkable thing about the iX is that it doesn’t feel like a beast when you drive it. It has excellent handling, it’s stylish, it’s luxurious, it has space.

It’s lightweight, too, thanks to the extensive use of secondary aluminum and reused plastic – the engineers, it seems, have been doing a bit of foraging of their own. It points to the BMW narrative of resource efficiency.

All in all, it’s so good (well, it really has to be for that money), that it makes you wonder what BMW could achieve if they decided to build smaller electric models.

The one thing that the iX does do is point to the future os stand alone electrics for BMW. Right now, however, the company is hedging its bets, offering electric versions of popular models such as X3 and BMW 4 series.

That’s where the iX3 comes in. It offers an electric version of its best selling car in Australia, the X3 SUV, at a price of around $114,900. There’s not much to tell them apart from the outside, apart from optional blue highlights on the electric version. But consumers can choose to go incognito if they want.

Inside, there is not a huge amount of difference either. BMW has been careful not to scare off its core audience with any radical changes.

On the road, however, it’s a big change: The iX3 is so much better to drive than the fossil fuel equivalents, thanks to its lower centre of gravity (74 mm), it’s easy acceleration, and one pedal driving (among a range of re-gen options). And there is also another tailored version of Hans Zimmer’s EV sounds.

Its battery is sized at 80kWh, which should deliver a range of up to 460km (WTLP), and will take you from start to 100km/h in a relatively modest time of 6.8 seconds, which is still more comfortable than the fossil fuel version.

It’s a car designed for those so attached to the X3 they don’t want anything that much different from what they are used to, apart from the knowledge of not burning fossil fuels as they drive.

The X3 fossil cars range from around $76,000 to $120,000, depending on the trim and other specifications.

BMW reckon that the electric version is about equivalent to the plug in hybrid version ($107,000) or the performance M40 version (121,000), although the petrol performance vehicle does 0-100km/h in 4.8 seconds.

Clearly though, it has hit a spot. The iX3 sold 86 in the March quarter, more than one quarter of total X3 sales in Australia, taking the total since it was released late last year in Australia to around 150.

EVs make their case for economic parity when they present something new that defies direct comparison, something that Tesla has achieved and Polestar, Rivian and others are trying to emulate.

The iX, however, is a demonstration of what can be achieved on a new platform. Forget, at least for the moment, its enormous price. It will be the first of many new models.

The official line from BMW is that they want to make the world’s most environmentally sustainable car, which is great plan.

But they also say they will make just 50 per cent of their car offerings fully electric by 2030. You would think they are kidding themselves that it won’t be more, given the anticipated shift to electric and the bans on fossil fuel car sales in so many countries by that time.

The transition must happen a lot quicker than that. And BMW will have to be prepared for that.

So it seems, then, that the iX might end up being the blueprint for the future. BMW has now found a way to build a new electric car, from the ground up, using their e-drive system, and made it look and feel like a BMW car.

Imagine what they could deliver if they could do that with one of their smaller sedans! At half the price!