BMW iX3 review

In short, this is a revolution for BMW, one of the world's great car companies. The real significance of this new iX3 is to be the first out of the traps for a new generation of electric vehicles. And we mean completely new, from ground to cloud. BMW is calling them the New Class, or Neue Klasse, and it will spawn 40 new models between now and 2027. So while we wouldn't usually get frothed-up about yet another electric crossover, this one moves the dial.

How big is it? What are the rivals?

It's about the same size as the combustion X3, and will sell alongside so BMW gives you a drivetrain choice – the iX3 is electric only, because the underlying Neue Klasse structure is designed to take max advantage of electric packaging.

If your sole EV yardstick is range, the iX3's 500-mile WLTP figure thrashes all-comers. It's up against the new Audi Q6 e-tron and Porsche Macan electric and Lexus RZ, and by the time it arrives there will be the Alfa Stelvio electric and Volvo EX60 too. For the Americas, Cadillac has the bigger Lyriq. For the globe, there's the heavily revised Tesla Model Y. BMW's local rival Mercedes has a new GLC EV.

Anyway, the well-packaged battery means that although it's combustion-X3 sized, it has X5 space, especially in the flat-floor back bench.

So obviously ground-up new means new electrics?

Correct. The one we're driving is the iX3 50 xDrive. It has 407bhp between its front and rear motors, and a total of 442lb ft. That's good for a sub-5.0 second 0-62mph time, says BMW. The WLTP efficiency is 4.1m/kWh.

Energy comes from new cells in a new battery structure. It runs at 800 volts to save more weight, and charge faster. The motors and inverters are new. Everything's optimised for efficiency, and the result is that 500-mile WLTP figure, or 400 in the more realistic US EPA test.

Charge times are pretty staggering too: you can pick up 200 miles of range in just 10 minutes, the first part of it at 400kW. There are few of the necessary 800V charge posts yet in Britain, but even on our lower-power posts it'll do 10-80 per cent in half an hour, which is an addition of 350 miles WLTP.

You want comparisons? A Porsche Macan 4 Electric has the same power, takes 5.2s for the sprint, but it's far less efficient, only getting about 3.3 miles for every kWh input (WLTP measures charger-to-wheel, not the more frugal battery-to-wheel figure on your trip computer). Its charging time on the fastest posts is similar, but the less efficient Porsche adds 250 miles in a 10-80 per cent charge.

What do you think of the design?

Take a look for yourself… after years of mucking about, BMW's stylists have now got it right. The iX3 speaks of distinction and modernity, but doesn't set out to scare anyone. The clean, solid surfaces intersect with neatly defined creases. It's different from everyone else's crossover and it doesn't need odd proportions or fussy lines to do it. There's a new face mask, but this isn't Halloween.

As for the interior there’s a brand-new dash and iDrive system that debuts something we’ve not seen before – not simply a bigger screen, but something called Panoramic iDrive - a shallow display running the entire way across the base of the windscreen just above the dash. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t just look futuristic, it actually works.

Is it the Ultimate Driving Machine?

Those three words were composed by Martin Puris, one of the great American admen, as BMW's tagline for the anglophone world. In other languages BMW continued to use translations of a slogan from its pre-war days ‘Freude am Fahren’. You can read that as 'joy of driving', but the English agency moulded it into Sheer Driving Pleasure. Over in Germany though, they still talk of it as joy, and that's why the dynamics of the Neue Klasse cars are controlled by something they like to be known as the Heart of Joy. We'll come to that in a bit.

Long-story short, the iX3’s driving manners are a revelation, it feels pure, faithful to your inputs and not nearly as heavy as it should. Phew.

The new iX3 manages to expunge many or all of the annoyances of new-age EVs. It doesn't feel heavy or numb to drive. It charges super-fast, and it's efficient so needs to charge less often than rivals. The control system is intuitive. The driver assist doesn't drive you bananas.

We've driven cars that make similar claims to the iX3's. They've made us miserable, turning the human into a minor sub-system in an awkward machine with a hyper-digitised mind of its own.

The Neue Klasse isn't like that. It's not trying to be different or shocking. It's like a BMW; just a fabulously good one. An emphatic leap more intuitive, rewarding, precise and involving (yet relaxing) than the rest of today's BMW crossovers. It's refined and roomy when you need a family car. BMW design is moving into a crisp era that recalls, but doesn't ape, its best past. Given that before long there will be a Neue Klasse car to do the job of cherished cars like the 3 Series, all this is extremely reassuring.

Dr Mike Reichelt, head of the Neue Klasse project, visibly puffed out his chest when reminding us that building a totally new car at BMW is "a once in every other decade opportunity". His new iX3 is mission-critical to BMW in a way nothing else has been for, well, 63 years. And what matters to BMW matters to the rest of us because the firm's cars have always been at the tip of mainstream excellence. Just as well the iX3 absolutely, as the kids say, smashes it.