TEST: BMW iX3 50 xDrive: Changes

To change means: to make something no longer the way it was. So the following lines should not come as a surprise.

Base price: 70.900 €
Price of the test vehicle: 86.434 €

Changes in the automotive industry are nothing new. Every few years, every brand has to introduce at least a few innovations to keep sales numbers in the green. However, one must be careful when making changes. If there are too few, this does not justify the purchase – and the brand loses a buyer. If there are too many, this can mean that the car loses its “charm”. And this charm is of utmost importance, especially for European manufacturers with barely a century of experience. To avoid such a scenario, they have taken a slightly different path. They have torn a page from an important chapter of their own history – the Neue Klasse chapter. The iX3 model is supposed to represent, just like the 1500 model did in 1962, a turning point after which everything will be different.

The designers drew inspiration from the now legendary Neue Klasse model family from the 1960s. But what does the new iX3 actually have in common with these models (apart from a whole bunch of marketing tricks from promotional material)? Well, the shape of the front “kidneys” is a clear homage to past designs, although they are no longer intended for cooling due to the electric drive. But they are illuminated! The Hofmeister break in front of the C-pillar, which has become a trademark of Beemve over the years, also remains. But let's face it, every BMW from the last six decades has retained this detail. The design of the new iX3 is by Adrian van Hooydonk, head of the design department at Beemve.

But there's one thing you should know: if you strip the new iX3 down to its platform, you'll find very little in common with the brand's other models. That's because it's completely new and quite revolutionary for the brand - hence its name Neue Klasse.

One of the main innovations is the completely new digital environment, which BMW has called Panoramic vision. It is a combination of two screens – a 17,9-inch hexagonal central screen and a 43-inch panoramic screen under the windshield. Is a good 60 inches of screen not enough for you? Here you go – a 3D projection screen, which BMW will be happy to sell you in the innovation package for €2.004. But these are just numbers. What really counts is the user experience itself. If you are the type of person who wants to know and be able to use all the functions of the car from the first second behind the wheel, the new digital environment of the Neue Klasse vehicles will not be to your liking. Truth be told, other new cars will not be to your liking either. However, when you take a day or two to get to know the new environment, it becomes clear that it is very well thought out and perfected. The time to get used to it is not due to poor design, but because of the enormous amount of content that the interface has.

The panoramic screen deserves particular praise, as it displays a lot of useful information due to its width (it stretches between the two A-pillars), and at the same time, due to its placement, it does not require the driver to look far away from the road. It is one of those solutions that makes you wonder why other manufacturers haven't adopted it? But not everything is perfect. For example, haptic steering wheel switches. Many manufacturers have already abandoned them for a reason, but BMW has only just adopted them. Why? Who knows.

The interior has progressed both in terms of design and space. The cockpit is very dynamic, the materials are mostly very pleasant, in some places a little less so (on the lower part of the door panels and the center console), and the feel is generally very good. A lot of ink has been spilled about the new steering wheel – more precisely, its fourth spoke. There is no point in discussing its appearance, since everyone has their own eyes. But the fact is that the steering wheel fits very nicely in the hand. The new iX3 is very spacious inside, both front and rear, thanks to the new platform, where adults will sit without complaints. Even if you are transporting a car full of passengers, the 520-liter trunk will easily accommodate all their junk, and the front trunk is large enough for charging cables and a backpack.

So much for this, if this were a computer classroom. But since the car has (very large) wheels, something needs to be said about the ride. Let's start with the power steering, which is a little too soft in all driving programs, and at the same time a little too stingy with feedback. However, with 2,8 turns between the extreme positions, it is almost sporty and direct. A similar story continues with the chassis, which is otherwise very well balanced. It is not excessively stiff and at the same time not particularly soft. However - anyone who is willing to pay 80 thousand and more for a car would sometimes want both. This allows for an adaptive suspension, which is not even available as an extra charge in the iX3. The result is a chassis that is versatile enough, but at the same time does not really "suck" us anywhere. My opinion is that the iX3 is not sharp enough for a BMW product on the road, not enough for driving. But the engineers probably already know. This is obviously the direction the brand is going in. Let's remember the introduction – change.

Not to spoil the overall impression – this does not mean that the iX3 drives badly. But there is room for improvement. The chassis would leave a much better impression without any changes in the settings if BMW sent the new iX3 on a diet, on which the car would shake off a few hundred kilograms of mass. This is felt – regardless of whether you drive casually or dynamically. Where there is no doubt, however, is with the new powertrain. The system's 345 kW (or 469 “horses” in the old units) of power and 645 Nm of torque impresses from the start. In summer temperatures and on summer tires, do not expect any slippage, despite the rather brutal numbers. This is also taken care of by the ESP and ASR systems, which keep all those “horses” under control perfectly. Of course, do not forget that the car has four-wheel drive.

Consumption? Despite the fact that we stretched each electric “horse” during the test, the consumption after a thousand kilometers has stabilized at 18,1 kWh/100 km – which is a very moderate figure considering the power, weight and shape of the vehicle! If we take into account the battery, whose net capacity is an impressive 108,7 kWh, you will realistically travel up to 600 kilometers on a single charge, and about 80 less on the highway. These are truly respectable figures.

No matter how impressive these numbers are, sooner or later you will run out of energy. That's when the new 800-volt architecture comes into its own. The iX3 model allows charging with as much as 400 (!) kilowatts of power on direct current (DC). According to the factory data, this means that (at a suitable charging station) the battery can be charged from 10 to 80% in just 21 minutes. And in practice? When I found a suitable charging station, I managed to charge the battery from 17 to 85% in just 22 minutes. But we are really talking about just a short coffee break here. But only on the condition that you can find a 400-kilowatt charging station. Yes, I can do it in five minutes with my personal diesel at a gas station. But you probably get the point.

The BMW iX3 is definitely a very good car, there's no doubt about it. Even if I call it excellent, I'm not exaggerating. The question that kept coming to my mind during the test period is: is this also a very good BMW? To be completely honest: I'm not sure.