BMW IX – Electrified SUV from BMW
Here you have it. The future, according to BMW, and the people are not happy. They are saying that BMW has lost its marbles, their way of designing cars. That what they are making now are ugly cars for the masses. Not a BMW. Well, that is not a debate I will take any side on just yet. Instead, now at least, I will go through everything about the new IX.
The iNEXT was the inspiration for the iX. Big, vertical nostrils, thin front lights, and an all-round aggressive tone. The top half of the iX tries to be a slim, sporty car, the lower half, wide, very wide. Where it is most apparent that these two design concept don’t go hand in hand is the rear. The hastily narrowing part above the rear lights tries to shave of the chunkiness often associated with the rear of an SUV, and I don’t think it have been done in the best way here. The simple question is, do I hate it? No. As with every design that goes against the grain, the design of the iX has received a lot of hate. BMW is trying new things, and although I get the feeling that they haven’t settled completely, I do believe that with time, they can create something exceptionally breathtaking. I mean, the new M3 and M4 has aged tremendously fine.
The interior has gone full Tesla is what I first thought, but look closer and the angular queues of a BMW interior is there. Yes, minimalism, or as BMW calls it “Shy tech”, has been the ethos, but the buttons that exist are beautifully designed. In many ways, the way the buttons work are unchanged, but BMW is reinventing something that has been unchanged for decades. I am painting with broad strokes here, but by looking at the pictures of the interior, I think you get the point.
What’s hiding underneath then? Over 500 hp, cobalt and lithium from certified mines in morocco and Australia (how that is possible to follow up and look into will surely be interesting), a lesser use of cobalt by 33 %, and a greater use of recycled materials. The body has a spaceframe in aluminium, and a carbon cage, main part that will protect the occupants, in carbon fiber. Lighter, stronger, more expensive and complex.
The batteries will hold over 100 kWh, giving the iX a calculated range of over 600 km. New fast charging will achieve 200 kW. When that level of charging will be available just around the corner is the real question. Claimed battery consumption will be 21 kWh/100 km, which is not all that bad considered the size of the iX. With the already mentioned power output from the electric engines, and four wheel drive, 0-100 km/h is done in under 5 seconds. 500 hp and direct torque should make it closer to 4 seconds, or even lower, but 5 seconds have no basis in anything.
No price has been announced, but the iX will probably be available in the end of 2021, with the price announced around summer.
