After the i3 and i8, there was nothing at BMW in terms of e-cars for a long time. Bayern have been back in action since the beginning of the year. With an electrified bestseller.
With the iX3, BMW has been offering its first fully electric SUV in the mid-range since the beginning of the year. And, you can already say, it's not a bad offer. The iX3 costs 66.300 euros, but is largely fully equipped. If you spice up a conventional X3 with medium performance in a similar way, it also comes in similar price regions. The iX3 benefits from the production in China, which also makes it easier for the customer to find his way through the equipment list. Apart from colors, moldings and rims, he is not spoiled for choice. To do this, he has to do without the multiple customization options that one is used to from German manufacturers. If the car is relatively cheap for a BMW, it should be fine with us. In addition to everything that goes without saying, such as automatic air conditioning, the price includes all kinds of helpers such as traffic jam pilot, lane guidance or parking assistant, LED light, a connectivity package with a large navigation system, WiFi hotspot, adaptive chassis and an alarm system.
Choice of color without surcharge
Visually, the electric X3 differs from its siblings through blue-colored elements in the BMW kidney grille, on the side skirts and on the rear diffuser, which conceals the missing tailpipes. Since our test copy was painted white, the bright blue accents were particularly noticeable. You can do it like that, but you don't have to, which is why BMW optionally offers to omit these at no extra charge. We would advise it.
You don't notice that the iX3 comes from China. It feels and smells like a BMW. And it goes without saying that it also drives that way if you give the electric drive its spurs with its output of 210 kW / 286 PS. It doesn't matter whether he sprints from standstill to country road speed in 6,8 seconds or simply has enough power to overtake. Thanks to the low center of gravity thanks to the low-mounted battery, the iX3 is stable on the road and is nimble and extremely agile when cornering. Contrary to what you would expect from an SUV, the drive does not come from all four wheels, but exclusively from the rear axle. On the autobahn it ends at 180 km / h. The electronics then shut down if the driver's common sense has not done so beforehand. And, with all the love for a sporty pace, that's a good thing. As with all cars, and especially electric ones, consumption increases exponentially at higher speeds. In the case of e-cars, this is noticeable in an alarming shrinking range. Then the BMW only manages half of the promised 450 kilometers.
But an e-car like this educates you to be serene anyway. A light foot on the accelerator coupled with a careful driving style reduces consumption and increases the range. BMW specifies a standard consumption of 18,6 - 19 kWh in the more realistic WLTP standard. We came to values around 21 kWh in short-distance use, in comfortable travel mode with 120 on the motorway the on-board computer even showed 17 before the decimal point at the end of the tour. In the test, we were in the range of the standard value in the end with 18,8 kWh. The driver's green conscience is happy when they set off with a displayed range of 306 kilometers and after a good 100 kilometers of relaxed tour arrives at their destination with almost the same value, because the consumption on the way was simply lower than on the previous short-distance tours. In everyday life, you get along well with the wallbox at home. At a fast charging station, the iX3 can hold up to 150 kW of electricity in the 74 kWh battery.
With a head-up display, of course
In everyday life, we particularly liked the fact that BMW has not yet succumbed to the otherwise prevailing trend towards ever more and ever larger displays. The operation remains sufficiently analog and you can, for example, set the large digital display in front of the driver to a calm mode that shows almost nothing except the speed. All the essentials can be seen in the excellent head-up display in the windshield. The assistants work gently, without too abrupt interventions. For example, if the car automatically adapts its speed to slower vehicles without first activating cruise control, this happens seamlessly. As with all manufacturers, traffic sign recognition did not work completely flawlessly. Over and over again she refused to recognize the sign of our town and also imagined she was hundreds of meters after the sign in a 70s zone that had not been signposted before. At the exit, however, the street was correctly assigned.
Overall, the iX3 is convincing because it is a good electric car and a good SUV, and one that can even be called cheap, at least in the premium mid-range.
Technical data
Five-door, five-seater mid-range SUV; Length: 4,73 meters, width: 1,89 meters, height: 1,69 meters, wheelbase: 2,86 meters, trunk volume: 510 - 1.560 liters
Current-excited synchronous electric machine, 210 kW / 286 PS, maximum torque: 400 Nm from 0 rpm, rear-wheel drive, automatic input, 0-100 km / h: 6,8 s, Vmax: 180 km / h, standard consumption: 18,5 kWh / 100 kilometers, CO2 emissions: 0 g / km, emissions standard: 6d, efficiency class: A +, test consumption: 18,8 kWh, price: from 66.300 euros
In brief
Why: because I'm looking for a pretty good electric SUV
Why not: because the price for it is high
What else: Audi e-tron, Mercedes EQC, Jaguar I-Pace