The roving i’s
BMW’S all-electric X3 should fear rivals
This BMW ix3 must have had the quickest facelift in history. The all-electric version of the X3 has been on sale in Germany for several years and when it was launched to the UK market late last year it was very close to being facelifted.
In fact, if you ordered one last year you would have received the new-look version.
That’s if it’s been delivered and not been held up by the semi-conductor shortage. It’s a pretty minor tweak anyway, just redesigned lights and slight changes to the bumpers.
Oh, and BMW has changed the line-up a bit. The previous car came in Premier Edition and Premier Edition Pro trim levels but the facelifted car is now either an M Sport or M Sport Pro.
We’re testing the entry-level ix3 M Sport and even that costs a huge £60,890, including delivery.
Elsewhere this week I’ve been noting how expensive new cars are getting, especially electric ones. This BMW is a perfect example.
It’s not even a bespoke electric vehicle because underneath it is the same X3 that might contain a petrol or diesel engine.
If you really do intend to go off-road in your SUV then this isn’t the car for you (you weren’t going to anyway, were you?) because not only does the battery pack under the floor rob it of some ground clearance, but the ix3 is rear-wheel drive only.
Surprising as many of its rivals have dual electric motors and are therefore 4WD.
What this BMW does have is a very efficient state-of-the-art battery and electric motor.
The battery is not that large in capacity at 74kwh of usable energy, but the car has an official range of 285 miles, which is impressive.
The electric motor produces 282bhp and gives the car a 0-62mph performance of 6.8 seconds. It feels quick, but then many EVS have similarly good sprinting performance, even ones with far humbler badges such as MG.
Inside you have a standard X3 interior and that’s a good thing.
BMW still uses switches, buttons and knobs to control almost all functions and has resisted the temptation to dump everything into the infotainment system.
You even have the excellent rotary controller that BMW invented decades ago. It’s partly because I’m used to it, but it is also because the system is so intuitive you can just climb in a BMW and find where everything is and how to use it in seconds.
No manufacturer has come up with anything substantially better.
BMW is also renowned for making cars that are great to drive. There’s nothing wrong with how the ix3 drives but it is a heavy SUV so the entertainment is very limited.
This is not a car to buy if you love
driving. And that being the case, there are plenty of alternatives.
One tends to think of Mercedes and Audi as being natural rivals but I’d say the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 should be considered.
They have much more appealing styling than the BMW (which looks like most other X models but smaller) and are cheaper.
Times are changing and the days when BMW ruled the roost because its cars were the sportiest to drive are over.