BMW iX3, convincing enough for this dinosaur?

The BMW iX3 -or its concept- was presented at the 2018 Beijing Motor Show and went on sale in 2020. In BMW terms, that’s long enough to “finally” give it a facelift, the well-known LCI (Life Cycle Impulse).

Story mode

It was a beautiful day in the CJ headquarters, Beau told the gang: “Guys, we can test the BMW iX3 LCI for a week! But how should we approach this test?” Then somebody went like: “Yeah, Kenny is a dinosaur, he has petrol in his blood and doesn’t like electric cars. Let him test it.”
Now you know how I got stuck behind the wheel of the new BMW IX3 LCI. A week full of range anxiety and lifeless driving, so I thought …

Freude am Fahren

or in English: Sheer driving pleasure. Did BMW really manage to put some fun into this iX3 and how does it compare with a classic ICE powered X3?
With an electric engine producing 286 hp and 400 Nm of torque, this BMW iX3 should do “okay” on paper. No massive numbers, but enough to enjoy a quick getaway at the children's school. Fast enough so the other dads can’t argue with this dinosaur who hates EVs. The 6,9 seconds it takes to launch the iX3 from zero to 100 km/h feels a lot faster even if the initial jump isn’t that hard. Its power comes more into its own when you need to overtake somebody at 50, 70 or 90 km/h. That’s when the iX3 stretches its legs!

160 km/h is the top speed of the “1-speed rear-wheel-drive fully electric” BMW iX3 and at that speed, I can assure you, you will drive from the charging station to another one a few miles further. There it is! The “range anxiety”. I got into the car at BMW Brussels and was a little bit in shock when I saw the 270 kilometers range with the full battery. But after driving for 10 minutes, the iX3 was beginning to like me and added 60 km of range. That’s what true love stories are made of. BMW is speaking of a range up to 462 kilometers, which most of the times is a bit optimistic but 400 km should be an easy task. That range is made possible by a 78,83 kW battery in the 2.255 kg weighing BMW ix3. And since we are working with the numbers, our average consumption was 20,7 kWh/100km whilst BMW proclaims 18,9 kWh/100km.

On to the most painful issue with most electric cars -besides the range-: is the way the car makes you feel. A lot of electric vehicles make you feel like you are in a hospital. Everything is sterile, you need to be quiet because there are people who are ill and you have the feeling it’s the last stopping point before you die. But the iX3 isn’t like this. To go so far as calling it “fun”, that I can’t. But the difference between this iX3 and its petrol, diesel or hybrid X3-sibling is almost unnoticeable. You don’t buy a normal X3 to be particularly sporty. No, you buy it to be comfy, silent, safe, nice to look at and nice to be in. And that’s what this BMW iX3 does at its best! It has a smoother ride thanks to the one gear but at all other points. It doesn’t want to go around shouting that it’s an EV, it’s just an X3! Easy to use, easy to drive, spacious and comfy! I really understand why people buy this car.

It doesn’t look that different

And that’s the best thing about it all! Some people want to buy an EV for the “hey-look-at-me-I’m-saving-the-world”, so they need a car that shouts! I’m not that guy. So, I really like the fact the BMW iX3 and X3 look pretty much the same. There are differences like the closed grill/kidney, other bumpers in the front and the back, some other rims and a few “pretty cool looking” blue details. Nothing too major.

In the front, the bumper looks just that little bit more aggressive. Yeah, the electric car looks angrier than the petrol one! At the side, you have those special rims that not everyone likes but I adore and moving to the back, you lose the exhaust. Even the fuel filler cap is at the back of the car and on a lot of the EVs, it’s on the front. I do have a little notice on that part! If you don’t have a long parking space where the charging station is, you need to park. Then open the booth and take out the cables, close the booth and you need to park closer in order to plug it in and park between the lines. It’s a bit of a hassle and maybe not the best thing BMW did but, after a while, you get used to it!

Classic BMW

Again, 12 points go to BMW! No massive differences between the X3 and iX3 (or any BMW on that part), but that’s the best part! You get into the BMW iX3 and it’s still a CAR. A clean and easy-to-use digital dashboard with enough edit possibilities in front of you, a firm steering wheel that gives enough information for a car of this type and an interior made of quality stuff that will work for over a decade. The infotainment system is still separate from the digital dashboard making the driver feel like he’s still the most important person in the car.

More greatness on the middle console are the BMW-typically physical buttons which a lot of things can be hidden behind. Favorite radio station, the phone number of your BFF or your address in the GPS if you are too drunk to put it in yourself! A little note: we don’t support or encourage drunk driving! DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE. Just like with the “normal” X3, the iX3 has the possibility to select driving modes on the center console, the big rotary knob and the gear selector (with blue details for the iX3). A small heads-up for the driving modes: the reaction time of the car in Sport is good, the weird “I’m a little bit mad”-sound that BMW has produced = not so good. It’s overkill.

Conclusion

Even though the BMW iX3 loses 40 liters of booth space -still 510 liters-against a petrol or diesel-powered X3, it still is a really practical car that ain’t shy on space. The price difference -at the start- between the cheapest X3 and the iX3 is 20.000 euros (BE). But for the beginning 71.000 euros, the BMW iX3 has a lot more to offer! Adding a few options to this car -it ain’t necessary to put a lot on it because it’s a good start- our BMW iX3 ended up at 79.835 euros. That ain’t cheap, we know that, but we would definitely take this one home instead of a BMW X3 for the same price. This dinosaur succumbed to the electric pressure.