► BMW iX shock-and-awe EV driven in the UK
► M60 variant packs 611bhp
► Lux interior, loads of clever tech, 380-mile range
The BMW iX is one of our favourite electric cars in 2023 – but it’s not the most obvious choice. Say one thing for the way the BMW iX looks – say it’s distinctive. Whatever you think of that nose, or that rear overhang, you aren’t going to mistake it for any other car. Which is good news, we reckon, because BMW has certainly put some effort into engineering its first bespoke-platform EV since the i3.
The xDrive50 version we’ve driven abroad and now in the UK will set you back at least £91k but, for that, you can go a claimed 380 miles per charge, it has 195kW charging capability that will add an extra 93 miles of range in 10 minutes, and puts out a pretty punchy 516bhp. There is a more modest 322hp xDrive40 version also available (which we’ll test in the future), but that only claims a 257-mile range and still costs at least £69,905. Meanwhile, we’ve also got our hands on the flagship 611bhp iX M60 and assessed its credentials as an M vehicle for the EV age.
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For all of you that might sneer at yet another electric SUV, the iX is built around a carbon, aluminium and high-strength steel mix, uses BMW’s fifth generation of e-motor and battery technology, delivers the firm’s first all-electric all-wheel drive, and has an interior that majors above all on comfort.
So it’s good then?
No-one is really surprised by this, are they? I mean, the latest M4 looks gopping in the wrong finish but that’s bloody magic to drive, so BMW wasn’t about to make a mess of what it’s describing as ‘the pinnacle’ of its new electric vehicle technology.
Elements do still come at you unexpectedly. With this form-factor and a kerbweight in excess of 2.5-tonnes, I wasn’t anticipating it to be quite so immediately agile. And while all-round air-suspension and a very stiff structure were always going to be great for comfort and refinement, it rolls on minimum 21-inch wheels so surely it shouldn’t deal with bumps quite so unflappably?
On the other hand, there are some daft indulgences. You can probably already guess what they are from looking at the interior.
Can we skip the outside and go straight inside, then?
We could, but let’s just cover a few exterior details. That shape may appear ungainly, but it has a drag coefficient of 0.25. The wheels are aerodynamically optimised, and designed to break predictably in an accident. The grille is made of ‘self-healing’ plastic and has a heated element to make sure the sensors – including long-range radar and a forward-facing camera for the augmented-reality nav-guidance – keep working even in the snow.
The recessed door handles look like horrible dirt traps; open the car – for which you need only your phone, rather than anything as old-fashioned as a key – and you’ll see the bare carbonfibre reinforced plastic that makes up the bodysides. If you’re at all interested in machines, the iX has a distinct air of intrigue.
But what about that interior?
General consensus suggests the inside is more universally successful, although also far from ordinary. The curving slither of display screen on top of the dash – actually two screens joined – is de facto EV to the point of near cliché, but elsewhere it gets really wild.
There are stark joins between materials, and a fusion of soft quilted surfaces with hard, faceted crystal control elements for the iDrive and the electric seats. The latter are mounted on the door, which is unusual for a BMW and slightly unwise for this material, as when the sun hits them they send weird, trippy colours scampering about the cabin.
The steering wheel is a highly shaped hexagon. Some of you will probably be screaming at your browsers, and… yes it’s quite odd, complete with a pared-back amount of buttons compared to BMW’s norm and Tesla-aping scroll wheels that can control many functions at once. The daft shape doesn’t really matter, though – perhaps because the now remarkably intuitive variable-ratio steering means you rarely have to move your hands once you start holding it.
Beyond this is a customisable set of digital dials, above that a customisable head-up display – which prompts you with warnings such as ‘dangerous bends ahead’. Beside the dials is the infotainment screen for the new BMW Operating System 8 iDrive system. Which is as complex or as easy to master as a modern phone, depending on your perspective, and responds smartly to touch input as well as the now crystal iDrive puck. The screens themselves have such an impeccably high resolution, the colour scheme changes with what drive mode you’re in.
The BMW voice assistant is supposedly smarter, too. But we found it slow to respond and quickly stopped bothering to try – using the iDrive wheel or even tapping the screen didn’t really make many functions that more difficult anyway.
Probably our only real complaint is the lack of physical switchgear for the climate controls, but it’s relatively minor as BMW counteracts this with a properly sophisticated automatic system for it. Teeth-chatteringly cold outside? The heated seats and steering wheel will come on instantly when you start the car, or it’ll blast cold air as soon as it can if it’s stifling. The only quick control is the actual temperature gauge that runs along the bottom edge of the central screen – which ends up being enough, as it seems best to leave it to its own devices.
Is the iX comfortable?
Most definitely. The cabin is spacious – and airy, if you option the Skylounge panoramic roof, which goes opaque at the touch of a button – while the air suspension really does a remarkable job of soaking up poor surfaces, even if you’ve got the drive system set to Sport.
There is a huge amount of adjustment in the driving position, and the seats are big and armchair like, rather than sporty and embracing. Which suits the character the car is trying to project, but does mean you’ll likely find yourself sliding about once you get into the spirit of slinging the iX around a bit.
What is it like to drive?
Utterly incongruous. Turn off the Hans Zimmer backing track – some of the CAR team really like it, others just find it a little daft – and the iX is as quiet as the grave it could easily put you in if you really got carried away.
That’s somewhat melodramatic, given it’s packed with a vast array of safety kit and integrated control systems that means the front and rear motors can juggle grip like a top-class speed climber. But there is very much an aura of the closet loon about this car – you know, the sort who barely says a word at work but goes totally bananas at parties.
You’ll notice this the first time you find yourself hurtling towards the speed restriction at the start of a village, doing about a million mile an hour in near-total silence. Try that trick in an M4 and locals will be dislocating their eyeballs; in the iX no-one even glances up (although they might double-take at the looks if it happens to pass in front of their retinas).
Perhaps for this very reason BMW has limited the iX to 124mph, a speed the xDrive50 version has absolutely no trouble thrusting at for sustained periods of time. But with 516hp and 564lb ft, of course it’s fast, and of course it does 0-62mph in 4.6sec – the real sock to gob here is the way it maintains the initial urgency even at higher velocities, and the way it dances around those dangerous bends like Bob from accounting’s on the Es again.
It’s all a little confusing, after the first few miles. One minute it’s wafting silently, then the next it’s skipping around fast corners like a Mazda MX-5. Well, almost like an MX-5 – there is some body roll after all. But with a circa-650kg battery pack bolted to the floor pan, the centre of gravity is very much in the right place and the opportunity to exploit every essence of that performance comes up apparently repeatedly.
What’s so trick about the BMW fifth-gen electric drive stuff?
BMW refers to the motors and batteries as Gen5 (Gen1 going all the way back to the BMW Concept ActiveE of 2009). The motors are the more interesting – probably – as they use copper-wound iron electromagnets instead of rare-earth permanent magnets. This is not only greener, it allows the engineers to manipulate the magnetic field, holding on to maximum power and torque until higher rpm.
Other neat EV features include the adaptive recuperation, which uses the sensors and nav data to control how much the iX slows when you lift off the accelerator. Works well, but I mostly just used B-mode for even greater regen and near-flawless one-pedal driving.
The brakes are fascinating, however. The iX debuts BMW’s new Integrated Brake technology, which as with many other areas of the car, takes a bunch of traditional components and compresses them into a single unit. The brake pedal only makes a physical link to the friction brakes in a system failure situation; up until that point, the Integrated Brake manages slowing the car via the motors and/or friction.
The result is consistent (if artificial) brake feel no matter how the iX is doing the stopping – although it will supposedly simulate brake fade if you’ve really been rinsing it, just as a warning that you’re reaching the limit.
And, in terms of actual range – our tests in the UK showed a real-world range of around 305 miles on a full charge via the car’s own algorithmic predictions. A decent chunk off the 380 miles claimed, true, but still a good amount – especially when the iX we tested had been spannered about by journalists like us for a few days prior.
What’s the iX M60 like?
Rather than act as a specialised performance version, the iX M60 sits atop of the range as an all-round halo model – with BMW even admitting that it’s harder to differentiate M cars when dealing with EVs. That means minimal visual alterations and comparatively minor performances upgrades compared with petrol-powered M Division cars.
The exterior is treated to 22-inch Air Performance Alloy Wheels, M logos in gloss black and titanium bronze plus brake M-branded brake calipers finished in blue. Meanwhile, additional equipment such as Laserlights, Parking Assistant Professional and the colossal Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Surround Sound System are also thrown in. As is the addition of a built-in selfie camera for the cabin. Old school M-car, it ain’t.
That said, the figures are mighty impressive. Armed with a 111.5kWh battery and six-phase motor, the M60 makes 611bhp and 811lb ft of torque. The dash to 62mph is done in 3.8 seconds, while top speed is 155mph. Range is up to 348 miles, a slight dip on the 380 miles of the iX 40.
As you might imagine, launching 2.6-tonnes of prime BMW EV from 0-62mph in less than four seconds is a serious feat and one that feels every bit as spectacular behind the wheel. It’s savage, relentless and surprisingly adept at not tailing off in the way that EVs do when you get up to higher speeds. On our test drive in Germany, a flat-out blast down an unrestricted piece of Autobahn saw the M60 reach its 155mph top speed incredibly quickly with little fuss.
However, as BMW again concedes, the real-world difference between the acceleration of the M60 and iX 40 isn’t the yawning gap you might expect, with both capable of lighting pace at a moment’s notice. In fact, one of the primary differentiations in the driving experience comes from the aforementioned Hans Zimmer inspired ‘engine noise’ in M60 guise. Turning the car on and off yields a unique sound, while a flex of the right foot delivers a synthesised thrum that boasts far more depth than your usual EV buzz. It ain’t no straight-six shriek, but it’s certainly got something to it.
Elsewhere, the M60 has been given tech such as actuator-based wheel slip limitation and M-tuned air-suspension – all in an effort to make it handle somewhere close to what an M Division car is famous for. And while the agility and body control is admirable, there’s no getting away from that colossal kerbweight. The balance is noticeably front-limited (probably for the best) and while the M60 is capable, there won’t be many occasions when you feel the desire to push its limits.
Thankfully, BMW attempts at adding handling dynamism having negatively impacted overall comfort levels. Despite the big wheels and M-tuned suspension, the M60 is still lusciously comfortable and capable of swallowing big, un-electric-car-like distances with alarming ease.
BMW iX: verdict
Above everything else, BMW’s new iX is incredibly intriguing. It’s such a dramatic step in its design inside and out for BMW (even by its own recent radical standards) and yet still has plenty of the brand’s DNA sewn into it. Granted, the M60 version doesn’t feel like the specialised M cars we’ve become used to (it’s more of an overall halo model), but we suspect that the army of new-age BMW customers will care little for the traditions of old.
You’ll need to be quite invested in the idea of a luxury electric BMW that might occasionally scare children in order to justify the cost. If you are, though, it seems very unlikely you won’t enjoy it. As even if the garnish is a little too strong in some places, the not-so-basic basics are spot on – the iX is good to drive, good to sit in and good at making you feel like you’ve just slightly stepped into the near future. Which is surely what a modern high-end electric car should be.
Specs are for a BMW iX xDrive50 M Sport
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