BMW iX review

A caveat upfront: we’ve only driven the latest iX xDrive 70 so far. Full impressions on the other two revised variants, the xDrive45 and 60, will come at a later date.

Still, here we go. BMW has reworked the chassis and suspension of the iX to deal with the increased performance of the drive system. The suspension on all iXs features a double-wishbone front axle and a five-link set-up at the rear, and there’s a new hydraulic support bearing at the rear to sweeten the balance between handling and comfort.

The M70 gains adaptive air suspension with two-axle ride level control, electronically controlled shock absorbers, and M-specific tuning. The anti-roll bars are beefier, and it also has BMW’s Integral Active Steering, which brings with it an active rear axle. Faster and more agile, then.

And how does that translate onto the road?

Honestly, the M70 is an impressive device that delivers way more performance than is entirely necessary. Not all electric cars generate that ‘falling off a cliff’ sense of momentum, but this one sure does. Ask yourself: do you really need 650bhp in a 2.5-tonne sort-of SUV? Zero to 62mph takes 3.8 seconds, which is faintly bewildering pace in something this size.

What no-one ever really admits is that the full-bore performance of the likes of the Tesla Model S Plaid or Porsche Taycan is actually not all that enjoyable, once the novelty has worn off. The iX xDrive M70 isn’t as nuttily fast as them, but it’s still extremely rapid.

Does it handle though?

Absolutely. It’s still a BMW, so it certainly doesn’t run out of answers when you point it at a corner. But fanging from apex-to-apex halfway up a Spanish hillside is clearly not its forte, as responsive as the steering is, and as confidence inspiring as it turns out to be on the brakes. When you drive it like that, you tend to miss the stuff it’s actually really good at, which is making near-silent, unbelievably soothing progress. This side of the – not unrelated – Rolls-Royce Spectre, there aren’t many cars that are this blissfully quiet in motion.

The ride is flat and well-controlled, and reasonably supple even on 22in wheels. All that carbonfibre in the bodyshell gives it a terrific sense of strength and integrity. There are no shudders here. It’s still the same size as before, so we know it’s a bulky thing to thread down back roads, but in town the 4WD and copious cameras and even automatic manoeuvring systems do their best to avoid parking scrapes. Traction of course is immense, but not so much that it can't be overcome on a tightish corner even in the dry. Whereupon the traction control and front-rear torque vectoring keep you proceeding in exactly the direction you're steering.

Anything else?

As before, you can call up a synthesised sound that varies in pitch, tone and volume according to accelerator position and speed. That cue does help judge your approach to corners actually, and it’s the work of famed movie soundtrack maestro, Hans Zimmer. But as with most of these systems, it actually ends up playing second fiddle to the sound of silence.

Also, the hexagon-shaped steering wheel that we were a little unsure of before is now an option. A regular, round wheel is back on the menu.

What about the lesser versions?

As before, we suspect that the middle-ranking version will likely be the one to go for. That’ll be the iX xDrive60, which, erm, makes do with 536bhp and 564lb ft. Oh, it’s also the one that delivers the claimed range of 426 miles – versus a maximum-on-a-good day 366 for the M70. And it costs £21k less. You can see the case we’re building here, can’t you? The smaller-batteried xDrive45 is good for 374 miles.

How’s the range and charging?

We saw around 2.6 mi/kWh on our drive, suggesting 283 miles of ‘real’ range in the M70. But we were pressing on a bit. Activate the Max Range function and BMW says the range can be increased by ‘up to 25 per cent’. Weight-and-friction optimised wheel bearings and low rolling resistance rubber helps here. For what it’s worth, BMW’s range indicators are unfailingly accurate.

There have been improvements to the charging set-up, too. The xDrive60 and M70 can now be charged via direct current at 195kW, the xDrive45 at 175kW. Charging from 10 to 80 per cent takes a claimed 35 minutes. Pre-conditioning for the high voltage battery and a heat pump help promote greater charging efficiency. All iXs have three-phase 11kW on-board AC chargers, but few of us have three-phase at home so we'd be limited to single-phase 7kW. Reckon on about 16 hours for the M70 to get from near-zero to 100 per cent.