BMW previews its next wave of EVs
As the first ground-up new BMW EV since the i3, the new iX SUV is significant – BMW’s electric renaissance starts here.
If you’re going to be late to the party, you’d better bring the fireworks. Five years after Tesla kicked off the premium, all-electric crossover thing with the Model X, and three years after Jaguar upped the stakes with the i-Pace, BMW finally has a contender: the iX, which showcases BMW’s latest electric-drive hardware and promises revolution inside. It’s set to come on stream in late 2021.
But first, that name. It was previewed as the iNext, but we expected the production version to wear an iX5 badge, in line with the very conventional iX3. We were wrong. ‘It’s done! No new name,’ says BMW development chief Frank Weber. ‘This is the iX, and it’s not going to change.’
That signals BMW’s intent to make this a standalone EV flagship, one step removed from the many other BEVs it plans to crank out over the next decade.
Struggling to see the fuss around a late Audi e-Tron rival? Well, even if the iX isn’t for you, chances are it contains much of the stuff that’ll make your first electric BMW great – or otherwise. There’s Munich’s fifth-generation eDrive powertrains, the versatile CLAR platform, an all-new cockpit architecture and user interface, and a good deal more ambition here than you’ll find in the new, also-battery-electric iX3 (which uses much of the same componentry but doesn’t try to re-invent the wheel).
BMW’s claiming more than 300 miles of range from the iX, over 500bhp on tap and a 0-62mph time of under five
seconds. What’s more, within SUV parameters, it’s promised the iX will drive like a BMW.
‘ If you’ve driven the X5 45e in electric mode, you’ll know it manages a good balance between comfort and agility,’ explains product management head Peter Henrich. ‘It’s a car you can push but it’s also comfortable for long distances. The iX will have this kind of balance; refinement but with a sense of alertness and agility. Let’s be honest, an electric vehicle with such a range has some weight, but our engineering focus is very much on not letting the driver feel the weight. The iX will be a specifically BMW interpretation of the luxury electric SUV.’
Further building the iX’s credibility as a driving ⊲
The iX name signals BMW’s intent to make this a standalone flagship
machine is the chassis. Carbonfibre reinforcement of an aluminium structure points to high rigidity while helping offset the weight of the electric powertrain. BMW calls it the Carbon Cage, and it’s a more pragmatic (less expensive!) evolution of the composite strategy used in the pioneering i3 and i8, and more recently of the Carbon Core in the 7-series.
Inside, BMW is throwing everything at the iX, with new and ambitious technology hidden within a Trojan horse of loungelike, timber-trimmed calm. There’s wood in the centre console, glass trinketry on touchpoints like the iDrive controller, and recycled plastics. It’s aiming for a feelgood sense of stripped-back luxury. And that’s before you get to the two biggest details: the hexagonal steering wheel and the massive new curved display.
The former might be an eyebrow-raising gimmick (one that’ll make it onto other i-branded cars in future, so convinced is BMW of its functional merits), but the latter is big news. It’s made up of a 12.3-inch screen for the instrument cluster, merged with a second 14.9-inch display that houses the iDrive 8.0 interface. Featuring an all-new look, more functionality and increased processing power, the latest system will dramatically reduce the number of switches, and debuts on the iX.
A worry, given the direction VW’s taken? Weber is emphatic BMW’s interface is still the best in the business: ‘There’s no user interface anywhere in the industry that can be operated as simply and as safely as ours.’
Behind the vertical snout, BMW has crammed in a vast suite of sensors and radar, working with that 5G capability. But it’s cagey about billing the iX as Level 3-ready – a step back from a previously confident Munich. Blame the legislative challenges of implementing such self-driving capability.
What’s next? Revolutionising the entire range, no less. ‘Along with the iX3, the iX and the i4, the 5-series, 7-series and, later, the X1 will all have fully electric versions,’ continues Weber. BMW’s factories are going to be busy. Dingolfing – which Weber calls the iX’s ‘mother plant’ – will also build the electric i7. Dadong in China is already building the iX3 for world markets. Regensberg will build all powertrain versions (including a new electric variant) of the X1 and expand into battery production. ‘By the end of 2022, all our German plants will have at least one fully electric vehicle in their programme,’ says Milan Nedeljković, BMW’s board member for production. ‘Allocating capacity in this way makes them more ecient.’
Much more to come, then. And that future starts here.