BMW has several EVs in its U.S. lineup, but none of them are quite like the iX3. This electric SUV ushers in a new generation of electric cars for the brand, and the newness is evident both outside and inside, extending to the mechanicals buried deep. The iX3 is the first of what the company calls its Neue Klasse (New Class) family of vehicles, and we’ve detailed what that means in our first look at the vehicle and our drive of a pre-production prototype.
Now we’ve driven an uncamouflaged, production-spec iX3, and we’re able to put it all together. For as much novelty as there is here, the iX3 still manages to feel like a BMW rather than an accomplished but anonymous electric SUV that could be from any manufacturer.
To briefly recap, the iX3 rides on a new platform and is BMW’s first EV with an 800-volt architecture. The 109-kWh battery pack features cylindrical cells that are 20 percent more energy dense than the prismatic cells in current BMW EVs. This new arrangement is good for an estimated WLTP range of between 422 and 500 miles, with BMW saying to expect up to 400 miles when using the EPA’s testing methodology.
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The iX3 recharges at around twice the max rate of the brand’s current EVs: up to 400 kilowatts, should you find a sufficiently powerful public charger. A NACS port will be standard in the U.S. market, with an adapter for the older CCS charging standard. The on-board AC charger is 15.4 kilowatts (a 22.0-kW unit is offered in other markets). The new electronic architecture also supports bidirectional charging and has vehicle-to-load and vehicle-to-home functionality.
Looks Like a BMW
Besides new EV technology, the Neue Klasse also brings a new design language, one that walks back some of the brand’s recent excesses. Although the form language is still somewhat chunky, the iX3 is far more approachable than the weird and off-putting iX. The front fascia is particularly successful channeling a recognizably BMW look—the four-element headlights play well against the correctly proportioned kidney grilles, which are ringed with lighting elements instead of chrome. Size-wise, the iX3 casts a shadow just over an inch longer and exactly an inch narrower than the gas-powered X3.
The iX3 presents greater novelty behind the wheel. That starts, well, with the start, since there’s no on/off button; you just step on the brake and shift into gear. The interior’s most evident innovation, however, is the dash-spanning strip of information that is projected onto the base of the windshield. This novel digital presentation dispenses with an instrument cluster, placing the speedometer readout in front of the driver, while the information on the remainder of that screen varies with the drive modes or can be manually selected. The “Hey, BMW” virtual digital assistant is represented by a floating-head animation that’s more than a little creepy, but it can be banished from the display. There’s also a large (17.9-inch) central touchscreen with a vaguely parallelogram shape. It can play video-streaming apps when the car is stationary and also supports video gaming via the AirConsole.
We had little issue adjusting to the projected windshield display, but the view from the driver’s seat is somewhat un-BMW-like. The dashboard is fairly deep, and the A-pillars are beefier than the BMW norm and reach forward into your peripheral view, recalling EVs from General Motors.
The seats and steering wheel are also new designs, with a couple of variants available. The car we drove was equipped with M Sport seats, which are supportive and comfortable. The steering wheel is more unusual. With no instrument cluster behind it, the wheel has spokes at the bottom and also at the top, but none on the sides. The highly sculpted rim is comfortable to grip at either the 9-and-3 or the 10-and-2 positions, but the top spoke and the squared-off shape make it somewhat awkward to casually drape one hand at the top of the wheel. If this setup is too weird for you, there is an M steering wheel without the top/bottom spokes, and it will be available as a standalone option. The rear seat is roomy, with a flat floor and plenty of foot room under the front seats—the latter is not a given with EVs.
Despite all the focus on novel screens and the desire for reinvention, not all physical controls have been banished. The column stalks for lights and wipers remain. Traditional seat-adjuster switches are mounted on the door panels. The shifter is a little flipper on the center console, which also has a roller for volume and buttons for the defrosters. Other climate controls are onscreen, including positioning the air vents—a particularly absurd innovation. You also have to delve into the touchscreen to change the level of liftoff regen—there are no paddles. One-pedal mode is the exception; select it by shifting from D to B.
Drives Like a BMW
The dual-motor iX3 50 xDrive is the first model out of the gate (a single-motor, rear-wheel-drive model is set to join the lineup at some point), and it makes 463 horsepower and 476 pound-feet of torque. As those numbers suggest, acceleration is certainly quick if not hyperkinetic in the manner of some mega-horsepower EVs. (BMW posits a 60-mph time of 4.7 seconds, but we reckon that’s rather conservative.) We had no problem zipping past dawdlers, even in the short passing zones afforded by winding mountain roads.
The drive modes don’t have a huge effect on the proceedings. The Sport steering effort isn’t much heavier than the highly boosted standard setting, and neither is very communicative. It’s the most disappointing aspect of the driving dynamics. The chassis it guides, however, is highly responsive. With only passive dampers, there are no suspension settings to choose from. The car turns in eagerly on winding mountain roads and feels well balanced with no front-end push. You can feel the rear bias in the torque distribution; switch the stability control into Sport mode, and you can feel it even more as the rear gives a little wiggle on aggressive corner exit. A couple of laps around Spain’s Ascari circuit, with a cone slalom added, showed the iX3 to good effect, with sharp turn-in and impressive body control. The gentle pavement on the public roads of southern Spain didn’t provide much of a test of ride quality, though, so we can’t really comment on bump absorption, but some undulating sections revealed an excess of fore-aft pitch.
Braking is particularly impressive in its smoothness. You can’t feel any transition from regenerative to friction braking; that’s because in most situations, there isn’t any. BMW says that, except for panic stops, the iX3’s deceleration typically is all regen. In any event, modulation is excellent, so much so that you’ll want to reduce the liftoff regen to the minimum (coasting) setting, because lifting the right pedal suddenly in high-regen modes triggers some drove-into-a-pool-of-molasses head-bobbing—and there’s just no need for that.
We were less enamored of what BMW calls the HypersonX EV soundscape. Despite the branding, it’s not particularly novel—more like the typical weird electric-car noise. Near as we could figure, it’s also inescapable in Sport mode; you can switch to Silent mode, but that locks out the heavier steering and snappier accelerator response that we preferred in Sport.
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Mostly, though, the 2027 iX3 successfully opens a new chapter in the BMW brand story. And if the SUV version of BMW’s new EV platform drives this well, we’re eager to see what the first Neue Klasse sedan brings.
Specifications
Specifications
2027 BMW iX3 50 xDrive
Vehicle Type: front- and rear-motor, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door wagon
PRICE (C/D EST)
Base: $60,000
POWERTRAIN
Front Motor: induction AC, 165 hp, 188 lb-ft
Rear Motor: current-excited synchronous AC, 322 hp, 321 lb-ft
Combined Power: 463 hp
Combined Torque: 476 lb-ft
Battery Pack: liquid-cooled lithium-ion, 109 kWh
Peak Charge Rate, AC/DC: 15.4/400 kW
Transmissions, F/R: direct-drive
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 114.1 in
Length: 188.3 in
Width: 74.6 in
Height: 64.4 in
Cargo Volume, Behind F/R: 65/30 ft3
Front Trunk Volume: 2 ft3
Curb Weight (C/D est): 5300 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST)
60 mph: 4.2 sec
100 mph: 9.8 sec
1/4-Mile: 12.5 sec
Top Speed: 130 mph
EPA FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST)
Range: 400 mi
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