2027 BMW iX3 50: First Drive – BimmerLife

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The cadence of new car releases is so incessant that it’s easy to feel saddled by malaise when testing this new SUV or that new sedan. Given the quality of modern cars, most manufacturers are lucky if new releases can manage meaningful gains over their predecessors, many seemingly delivering change for the sake of change.
Rarely, something more significant comes along. For BMW, the new iX3 is its most significant car in a very long time. This is the first realization of the long-teased, long-hyped Neue Klasse platform. Well, the neue Neue Klasse, anyway, a name not applied to a new BMW platform since the early Sixties. BMW has literally been telling the world for years that this car is a massive step forward for the brand. After wheeling one around the stunning scenery in Málaga, Spain, I’m inclined to agree.
Photo: BMW
While most of BMW’s previous EV efforts have rolled atop some variation of the company’s Cluster Architecture platforms, which do double-duty for internal combustion and electrification, the iX3 is the first of this new generation of EV-centric BMWs.
That means a massive change to the fundamental chassis design, wholly built around a 108.7-kilowatt-hour battery pack. That net capacity is similar to what was seen on the iX and i7, but it uses a new cylindrical cell design and chemistry to deliver far more capacity in a smaller size.
The iX3 uses a cell-to-pack architecture, a change from the former modular designs used in BMW’s EVs. All EV batteries are made up of hundreds or thousands of individual cells, often grouped together into replaceable modules. Those modules are then brought together to form the battery pack itself.
This battery design does away with the modules, effectively gluing all 188 cells together to form one big battery. The absence of those removable modules does eliminate repairability, but in exchange, you get lighter weight, greater energy density, and lower cost. It’s a trade-off that many EV manufacturers opt for in pursuit of EVs with higher ranges and lower prices.
That new pack pairs with revised designs for the other key EV components, like motors and inverters. The iX3 has two motors, a synchronous electrically excited unit at the back and a simpler, asynchronous motor up front. Since neither relies on permanent magnets, reliance on rare-earth metals is reduced. The iX3 can also coast—or sail—without regen, though a one-pedal mode is available. Combined power output is 463 horsepower and 476 pound-feet of torque sent to all four wheels.
Current runs through new, far more efficient silicon-carbide inverters, helping this thing do somewhere around 400 miles on a charge. That’s a significant boost from the (admittedly larger) iX’s 364 miles, from a larger, 113.4-kWh battery. The iX3’s new architecture also delivers a higher maximum charging rate of 400 kW, current that comes in through BMW’s first use of a NACS port, the plug popularized by Tesla and used by that company’s Supercharger network. Find yourself a charger with enough juice, and you can pick up an 80 percent charge in 21 minutes.

I covered nearly 100 miles behind the wheel of an iX3. They were not easy miles. I climbed up and over mountains as I crisscrossed my way through the stunning Sierra Crestellina National Park in southern Spain, doing so with the A/C on and with plenty of time in Sport mode. I did all that on 30 percent of a full charge, for an average consumption just short of three miles per kWh and a theoretical maximum range of about 325 miles. That means you can get big miles even driving like a hoon, and I’d expect BMW’s 400-mile estimate in more moderate driving to be perfectly achievable.
And driving like a hoon is something you’ll actually want to do. While the base X3 can be underwhelming dynamically, the iX3 is surprisingly rewarding. The car I drove had the M Sport package, but that only comes with up-sized 21-inch wheels; otherwise, the tune is exactly the same as any other iX3. All flavors of BMW’s new compact SUV roll on the same suspension setup, which is neither adaptive nor adjustable.
It simply is what it is, and what it is is very good. The engineers who tuned the iX3 told me how they were able to optimize the SUV’s suspension setup to take advantage of generous damping and suspension travel. The result is a surprisingly different experience. Over uneven roads, you can really feel the iX3’s suspension moving a lot, and by extension, the body can move a fair bit, but it never feels out of control. The damping is plush but predictable, leaving the car absorbing bigger bumps without fuss, then settling quickly so you can dive into the next corner.
There’s a fair bit of roll too, but steer eagerly and you can work through quick sequences of corners without feeling like you’re constantly waiting for the suspension to settle. And, thanks to a refined steering setup, you can really feel the car react.
In Personal mode, the iX3’s steering is ridiculously light and near-absent of feedback. It makes parallel parking with one finger a breeze. Drop over to Sport mode and things firm up predictably, but more importantly, you also get a big boost in feedback. In that mode, I could really feel the asphalt imperfections and, more importantly, when the front tires were giving up their grip.
The fronts always gave up first when I was entering corners too hard, a balance that maybe isn’t the most engaging, but does make for the kind of safe, predictable behavior that you want from a practical crossover SUV.
On corner exit, getting back to power, the behavior of the iX3 changed dramatically depending on the mode. In Personal mode, if I stomped on the accelerator too hard, the car just continued to understeer. However, when I got too aggressive on the throttle in Sport mode, it was actually the rear that kicked out first.
Photo: BMW
This isn’t thanks to a fancy, variable locking center differential like in the M5 or anything like that, because the iX3 has no center differential at all. The dual-motor configuration means that the SUV can dynamically change the power-output curve of each motor independently, varying its front/rear power bias with infinite precision. It really makes for a machine that feels substantially different as you dial from mode to mode, even if the suspension tune stays exactly the same.
BMW’s enhanced control over those motors extends to other areas of the drive, most impressively in the regenerative braking. This is the first BMW EV that can come to a complete stop relying only on the braking force of those electric motors. That may sound like a minor point, but in practice it creates an experience unlike any EV I’ve ever driven, and I’ve been lucky to drive damn-near every EV that’s ever hit the roads in the U.S.
On an earlier drive of the iX3 prototype, on a closed course, Dr. Falk Schubert, the ADAS engineer for the iX3, asked me to close my eyes. He then brought the car to a complete stop and asked me to tell him when I knew it had stopped moving. Amazingly, I couldn’t tell. The car’s final deceleration was so smooth it was absolutely imperceptible.
Again, that sounds like a minor thing, but in practice, driving in traffic or zipping from stop sign to stop sign, it makes a substantial difference, especially for your passengers. Going back to any other car after driving the iX3 feels harsh and crude, much like going back to internal combustion feels harsh and crude after living with an EV for a while.
Photo: BMW
The in-cabin software experience is a similar step forward. BMW tragically does away with the rotary iDrive controller in the iX3, but in exchange, you get a much smarter, much snappier voice assistant. The revised BMW Operating System X interface on the angled, 17.9-inch touchscreen is improved, but will be familiar to anyone who’s left any fingerprints in a BMW lately.
The Panoramic Vision system, though, is like nothing else on the road. Think of it as a head-up display that spans the entire width of the windshield. The left-most portion acts as a gauge cluster, while the rest of it is fully customizable, showing anything you like from navigation prompts to weather forecasts.
It looks a bit overwhelming, but I quickly found myself getting used to and appreciating having all that information available at a quick glance. It’s a big step forward in automotive user interfaces.

That’s a good way to summarize the iX3, a new SUV that makes everything else in its segment feel like a step backward. From the finely tuned suspension to the radical new user interface and the substantial range, it’s all genuinely impressive. It’s every bit as significant as BMW promised it would be, and truly a big step forward for the brand’s EV future.
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