LIKES
- Top-notch cabin materials
- Space-smart interior
- Superb luxury-vehicle ride
- Precise acceleration and braking
DISLIKES
- Polarizing exterior styling
- Detached driving experience
- A little gimmicky in the details
- Huge grille but no frunk?
BUYING TIP
- The BMW iX is at its best in base form. It’s unlikely the iX will be that much more satisfying to drive in M60 guise, and its strengths are its quiet, spacious cabin and unique luxury experience.
The 2023 BMW iX is for those who want their electric SUV to stand out from the gasoline establishment.
What kind of car is the 2023 BMW iX? What does it compare to?
The iX is a fully electric luxury SUV that’s at the larger side of mid-size by American standards and seats five. It makes a far quirkier design statement than the Audi E-Tron SUV, the Cadillac Lyriq, or the Mercedes EQS SUV, but it might be easier to process than the Tesla Model X’s steering yoke and falcon wing doors.
Is the 2023 BMW iX a good car?
The BMW iX is good, with some excellent scores for comfort, features, and efficiency. If you can be at peace—or in love, even—with its peculiar exterior, it may be a much higher-rated vehicle to you, but we give it a TCC Rating of 7.4 out of 10.
What’s new for the 2023 BMW iX?
The BMW iX is a completely new model that channels some of the technology cachet (and carbon fiber) of the BMW i3 hatchback into a much larger vehicle with a more conventionally recognizable form factor. Although up close, the iX’s exterior expresses a brand of quirky that not everyone will be willing to sign onto.
A big 105.2-kwh pack rides below the cabin, and a dual-motor system provides a combined 516 hp and 564 lb-ft of torque in the xDrive50i or up to 610 hp and 811 lb-ft of torque for launch mode in the top-performance M60, which also gets its own upgraded M Sport brakes and suspension tune. And the iX’s 8.8 inches of potential ground clearance should give it what it takes for driving down a two-track to the trailhead or churning through fresh snowfall.
The iX gets great efficiency for its size and weight, and more range out of the energy in its battery compared to all but the Tesla Model X. EPA-rated ranges span up to 324 miles in xDrive50i form with the base 20-inch wheels. The iX will charge from 10-80% in as little as 40 minutes, with a potential (momentary) peak of 195 kw.
The iX’s overarching interior design is its strong suit versus other such electric SUVs. It’s finely detailed, warmly adorned, truly luxurious, and super-roomy for five to cruise in quiet solidity—if you turn off the Hanz Zimmer motor sounds. Footwells are kept open across the front of the cabin, and a console hovers between the front seats and just ahead of the second row. Cargo space allows a long cargo floor and relatively low load height. Although some might grumble about the quirky frameless doors and, perhaps, the lack of a frunk.
The iX offers up BMW’s eighth-generation iDrive interface, with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity plus wireless device charging. Instead of buttons, BMW has added haptic surfaces both around the iDrive controller dial and on the steering wheel. A simple rocker switch shifts between drive, neutral, and reverse, while you hit an adjacent button to select park. But with lots of redundancy, including voice and reaching for the screen, you’ll get used to your own ways.
The 2023 BMW iX ranges from $86,545, for the base iX xDrive50i in Shadowline guise, all the way up to nearly $120,000 for a fully optioned iX M60 with massage seats, laser headlights, and Bowers & Wilkins sound among the many upgrades.
Where is the 2023 BMW iX made?
In Dingolfing, Germany.
Styling
The iX has fine proportions, muddled by a bewildering set of design details.
Is the BMW iX a good-looking car?
No. But some might find it eye-catching in all the right ways. From the outside, the BMW iX’s styling is deeply polarizing. The exterior loses two points—even though its proportions, profile, and stance are all good—because of how awkwardly its collective details fit (or don’t fit) together, while interior gains a point for BMW’s positive moves in design, if not always functionality. That’s a 4.
The BMW iX serves up a design statement that’s challenging, to say the least. The proportions and floating-roof look are pleasant enough, but from a few feet away the details and surfacing tend to distort it all in unbecoming ways. The farther away you step from the iX and don’t try to pick apart all of its odd trim choices—or the gigantic patterned plastic faux-grille, covered with a self-healing material, or the seemingly random, blocky taillight design—the more acceptably it all fits together.
Performance
The iX is perky and polished, but those with ideas about BMW handling will find it remote and uninspiring.
Composure and comfort are the emphasis over “ultimate driving machine” thrills. We give the iX two points extra for its excellent drivetrain and power delivery and another point for its above average ride and all-around poise. But we take a point away for its detached handling that goes incommunicado on curvy roads. That amounts to a 7.
Is the BMW iX four-wheel drive?
All versions of the BMW iX have dual-motor all-wheel drive.
In the xDrive50i version, the iX makes a combined 516 hp and 564 lb-ft of torque from its motor system—enough to enable a 0-60 mph time of 4.4 seconds.
The other version of the iX, the M60, cranks up the power for the dual-power setup, bringing 532 hp and 749 lb-ft of torque, or in its launch mode, 610 hp and 811 lb-ft of torque—and a 0-60 mph time of about 3.6 seconds. In addition to a range of dressed up trim items and features, the M60 gets M Sport brakes and its own suspension tune, including the adaptive air suspension.
The BMW iX weighs more than gasoline SUVs its size, but its aluminum-space-frame and carbon-fiber construction helps enable more battery capacity—and thus more range—than most electric SUVs this size.
The iX is satisfying in pretty much every aspect of forward performance. It’s gentle and precise when you need it, and downright sprightly in Sport mode. The brake pedal feels a little remote, but the iX stops exactly where intended. And there’s a choice between four modes of regenerative braking, including low, medium, and high—for what’s essentially one-pedal driving—plus an adaptive mode that matches (mostly) the deceleration of vehicles ahead.
Where’s the iX disappointing? Despite all the weight savings, the low center of mass from the battery pack, and the available suspension and rear-wheel steering wizardry, the iX feels disconcertingly light and nimble, and not in ways that channel the dynamic magic of BMW sport sedans. With little useful steering weighting or seat-of-the-pants feedback in corners, the iX simply isn’t rewarding to drive fast.
Although stepping up in wheel size typically means some sacrifice of driving range, it doesn’t detract from comfort here; even on the showy 22-inch Air Performance bi-color wheels, as we experienced the iX, it has perhaps the quietest, most serene ride quality in this class of luxury SUV.
Comfort & Quality
Passenger and cargo space are abundant and materials are impressive in the iX.
Passenger and cargo space in the iX are hard to fault, given the five-passenger, upscale-family-friendly mission; we give the iX bonus points for its superb front and rear seating—with true space for five—plus good cargo space, top-notch fit and finish, and quiet cabin. It would be a perfect 10 if it weren’t for the sometimes kludgy frameless doors and different-to-be-different switchgear.
Seating space is vast, and the wide-open floor space and low-set dash makes the front-seat space feel bigger than in other like-size models. Cargo capacity is 35.5 cubic feet with the rear seatbacks up or 77.9 cubic feet with them folded forward. There’s a long tray below the cargo floor for keeping items safe or out of sight, and up on deck there’s plenty of space for a family’s grocery stock-up—if that’s the sort of thing you do in person anymore.
From the jewel-like seat adjustment controls and clear shift selector to the haptic console-top buttons and button-release doors, the collective newness of all the interface pieces in the iX will either seem special and eye-catching or a little too different for the sake of being different. The iX is also the first BMW SUV to have frameless doors—a feature the brand has previously only offered in coupes. While they offer an excellent seal from wind noise, their mechanisms—like a few other elements around the iX’s cabin—can feel more finicky than luxurious.
Safety
The 2023 BMW iX hasn’t yet been rated for crash-test safety.
How safe is the BMW iX?
The BMW iX is likely a very safe vehicle. Its aluminum space frame, with carbon-fiber reinforced plastic, high-strength steels, and thermoplastics, forms a strong “carbon cage” to up safety without adding weight, BMW claims.
That said, because it’s an expensive niche vehicle—and unlikely to share its body structure directly with other models—the federal government is unlikely to test one, and it could be some time before the IIHS does.
Outward vision through the windows and mirrors is quite good in the iX, thanks to the low beltline and relatively thin pillars.
Features
The iX wows on features but gets too tangled up in iDrive 8.
The 2023 BMW iX comes in two versions: the xDrive50i, and the M60. Although there are many subtle trim and feature differences between the two, the main distinction is performance.
All versions of the iX include the Live Cockpit Plus infotainment system, with a curved display that spans from instrument cluster screen space over to a wide-format 12.3-inch touchscreen system that boasts wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility.
BMW’s iDrive controller banks less on its jewel-like rotary controller—to the point where you might as well get your finger out and reach for a tiny icon on a screen. There are shortcuts and redundancies, but at face value it feels busier than previous versions of iDrive.
There are two different looks to the iX—Shadowline and Sport. The former serves as the base model for the lineup, at $86,545, with the feature set including the panoramic roof (with electrochromic shading), a Connected Package Pro with data and telematics services, and the Active Driving Assistant (active cruise control with lane keep assist)—which helps make sense of the rounded/hexagonal steering wheel. Step up $2,800 to the Sport and you get 21-inch Aero bi-color wheels plus dark trim and taillights.
A $2,300 Convenience package adds a head-up display, a surround-view camera system, Harman Kardon surround sound, gesture and voice controls, and supplemental propulsion sounds. A $4,000 Premium package adds those items plus multi-functional massage front seats, an interior camera, and 30-speaker Bowers & Wilkins sound. A $950 radiant heating package is a standalone option, although four-zone climate control is included across the lineup.
The iX M60 starts at $109,720 and adds a series of features that are optional on the xDrive50i. Examples include the panoramic roof, laser headlights, and the B&W sound system. Showier 21-inch wheels are included, with 22-inchers available.
Go for the xDrive50i, because it feels more luxurious than any other electric SUV costing well under $100,000. The M60 offers neither the three-motor dynamic delight of the Audi E-Tron S nor the all-out assault of the Model X Plaid.
How much is a fully loaded BMW iX?
With one of the premium colors, upgraded 22-inch wheels, the perforated-leather interior, the Driving Assistant Professional Package (automated parking and partly automated driver support), and the Luxury Package (self-close automatic doors and glass-and-wood controls, with open-pore walnut finish), plus bronze trim and blue seatbelts, the BMW iX M60 adds up just short of $120,000—and that’s before accessories.
Fuel Economy
A big battery pack and reasonably good efficiency means impressive driving range.
Is the BMW iX good on gas?
As an electric vehicle, the BMW iX never needs gas and doesn’t generate any direct tailpipe emissions—although, of course, it’s only as clean as the grid electricity you charged up on.
With an efficiency of about 2.6 miles per kwh in its xDrive50i form, the iX earns a 9 out of 10 here. It’s not in the upper echelon of EV efficiency, but it’s not a guzzler of electrons.
The xDrive50 is offered in three different wheel sizes, while the high-performance M60 is offered in two sizes, and they each yield slightly different range and efficiency ratings. With the smaller 20-inch wheels you’ll get the most miles out of your energy, with 324 miles of range and 86 MPGe combined. Versions with 21-inch and 22-inch wheels are rated at 305 and 315 miles, and 83 and 86 MPGe, respectively. The M60 achieves 288 miles of range and 77 MPGe with the 21-inch wheels, or 274 miles and 76 MPGe with the 22-inchers.
The iX includes two years of complimentary 30-minute charging sessions on the Electrify America network.
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