Beyond No Compromise, The 2022 BMW iX is Simply Better Than An X5

We’re used to EV SUVs and Crossovers being slightly smaller, or slightly less capable than their gasoline counterparts, but no more. BMW’s carbon fiber intensive iX proves that BMW is all-on on electrification because they have created an EV that’s bigger inside with more legroom, headroom, cargo room, and better performance than the gasoline model for less cash. Yep, the iX manages to be less expensive than a comparable X5 even before the tax credit. That makes this buck-toothed EV the ultimate no-compromise BMW. Even stranger? I kind of dig the front bumper…

Forget the 7 series forget the 3 series because this is the most important vehicle that bmw has launched this decade perhaps this century or even during my lifetime this is the new 2023 bmw ix this is bmw’s latest full electric vehicle and this rides on an all-new dedicated ev platform that’s based heavily on carbon fiber if you’re in the market for a no compromises

Electric crossover that is exactly what they’ve managed to create with this new ix let’s take a look perhaps the best way to think of the new ix is that this is an electrified interpretation of what an x5 could be it’s right about the same size and it definitely looks like a modern bmw large kidney grille and all the headlights definitely have a different flare

Rather than rings in there we find these horizontal lines no fog lights down below and of course the only cooling going on is right down here with these active grille shutters because aerodynamics are very important for a modern ev you’ll notice that the front when you really get close and look at it is actually quite smooth but they’ve given it these styling

Elements to help break up what would normally be a fairly boring front end design although this is about the same length as the x5 you’ll notice that the side profile is a little bit different we have that slightly shorter hood profile and a slightly longer body behind it a slightly lower roof line and a little bit less ground clearance depending on the angle

You’re looking at the ix from sometimes you’ll get more classic bmw crossover vibes back when their crossovers tend to have a little bit more of a tall station wagon vibe to them we have pretty wide tires all the way around 275 with tires back here and 22-inch wheels ostensibly these wheels should lower this vehicle’s range down to 315 miles according to the epa

But i will tell you in advance that this does a shocking job when it comes to efficiency and if you treat this right and keep it at around 72 miles an hour you can actually get 325 miles out of this exact model unlike many bmw models this vehicle has a symmetrical tire setup so we have 275 with tires up front and 275 with tires in the rear because aerodynamics

Are very important for a modern ev we find sort of a smoother and i guess cleaner design aesthetic back here than we find in other bmws not too many things are popping out from the body or digging into the body either although we do have this little slot right here in the full led tail lamp module we also have a hatch that wraps all the way around to the side so

When this is open you’ll notice that we actually have tail amp repeaters right here on the inside in an elegant touch they’re clear when they’re not in operation and when you open the hatch you can see the carbon fiber structure of the vehicle sort of this honeycomb design right here and moving up from there you’ll also notice the very flared hip design that we

Find in this vehicle it really gives it an athletic presence unlike the new bmw i4 which starts out as a rear wheel drive vehicle in the us all ix models at least for the moment are going to be all-wheel drive with the motor up front and a motor in the back the front electric motor is good for 268 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque the rear electric motor for

335 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque everything together gives you 516 horsepower and 564 pound-feet of torque if you want more oomph there is an m60i version of the ix that’s going to bump things up to over 600 horsepower and obviously get you 0-60 a little bit quicker as we see in the mercedes eqs bmw doesn’t really intend for you to dive under the hood

Too often but they do make it easier to actually open the hood however there is no prop rod and kind of an interesting twist you might be wondering how then do we fill things like the windshield wiper fluid where the little filler neck is right there in the front i’ll show you that trick in just a second but in the meantime this is where we find the heat pump this

Does have a standard heat pump in the us we also find the auxiliary cabin heater it’s a 9kw heater so this definitely has cold weather in mind if you’re worried about the performance of heat pumps in say a tesla model y or test the model x this is going to be an excellent alternative because it has the efficiency of the heat pump but also the extra cold weather

Protection of that resistive element heater right there now on the downside no front trunk storage because this hood is definitely a little bit shorter than a lot of the crossovers that give you one i have to say i’m glad that bmw allows you to open the hood because otherwise this is where you would put the windshield wiper fluid and this little funnel area just

Doesn’t seem terribly convenient in case you’re wondering opening the hood is done by these two little pull straps one on the driver’s side and one on the passenger side they’re normally tucked up right there under the dashboard you pull one then you pull the other and then you open the hood positioned underneath the passenger compartment is an actively heated

And actively cooled battery pack the usable capacity is 105.2 kilowatt hours it’s charged via the ports right back here on the passenger side there’s a ccs charge port and the standard j1772 port there’s an onboard level 2 ac charger and the peak charging rate on dc is 195 kw i do find that part a little bit disappointing i really wish they had pushed the envelope

And maybe given this 250 kw of charging capability because this actually charges a little bit slower than the bmw i4 and it has a slightly smaller battery pack that means that instead of charging from 10 to 80 in about 30 to 35 minutes like you’d find in a tesla model s or a model x this is going to take about 45 minutes it’s not an enormous difference but it is

Going to be important for some folks and if you want to charge a lot faster there are a reasonable number of options that support the newer 800 volt charging standard and charging rates up there towards 300 and 350 kw instead of seat controls on the seats like we’ve seen before from bmw they’ve moved over there to the driver’s door and bmw has made some unusual

Choices with the ix bearing in mind this starts over 83 000 and as equipped this model is 102 000 i find it odd that the driver’s seat does not have an extending thigh cushion and the front passenger seat doesn’t have the same range of motion as the drivers in this model the passenger seat is missing the four-way adjustable lumbar support and it doesn’t have the

Available seat massage functionality either although this seat massage functionality is strictly the three lumbar bladders inflating and deflating so there’s no seat bottom cushioned massage and no higher level massage we do have a power tilt telescopic steering column with a surprisingly large range of motion however if you’re a taller person you’ll probably find

The ix much easier to live with than something like the tesla model y because we get a little bit more headroom here and we get a seat track that moves pretty far rearward we also find a ton of legroom in the back this vehicle has 79.1 inches of combined legroom versus 77.5 in the bmw x5 and this rear seat area feels honestly cavernous leaning back here i probably

Have about four and a half inches of headroom left thanks to this large panoramic glass roof up here in the middle seat it’s even more expansive really because all you get above you is that glass sheet scooting all the way over to the right side of the vehicle this front seat is comfortably adjusted for a six foot five passenger so you can see i still have about 4

Inches of legroom left so you could very easily combine adults and child seats in here the rear bench seat appears to be a little bit narrower than the bmw x5 but the difference is very very minor and it’s certainly wider than the x3 the rear seat backs don’t recline but there is a button right here so that way you can electrically flip them forward you can also

Do that from the cargo area in the back adding to the feeling of spaciousness there is a nearly flat floor here and you can see that the center console actually kind of sticks out there to give you those air vents and the rear seat climate controls rather than trying to give you more storage space that gives you a lot of room for your feet and just helps make it

Look a little bit roomier on the seat backs you’ll notice here that we have integrated headrests they’re not adjustable and then we have two usbc charge ports and a place to dock an ipad holder and as we see in other bmws the rear seats fold in a 40 20 40 fashion before we go to the cargo area i wanted to show you that we do have frameless windows so that’s a pro or

Con to some folks there and you can see the sort of naked carbon fiber look that we find all the way around the vehicle right there on that lower portion of the pillars and all around the door opening so it’s very obvious this vehicle is carbon fiber and bmw really wanted to show that off as i said before the ix is truly a no compromises ev generally speaking when

We’re talking about a similar sized ev to a similar sized gasoline vehicle the compromises in terms of aerodynamics etc generally make the ev heavier and perhaps a little bit smaller in the cargo area and that’s not true with the ix this actually has more cargo room more combined legroom and it’s about the same curb weight as the x5 going in for a closer look you

Can see those 40 20 40 folding rear seats and that we have some extra storage space right here under the load floor also in that rear portion of the cargo area as well sort of a pizza box shaped storage area there and over here you could definitely put a 22 inch roller bag in here if you were to relocate the charge cable that comes with the vehicle and the can to

Fix the flat and tire inflator that come with the vehicle as well as we look around the interior keep in mind that this model has about 20 thousand dollars worth of upgrades we have this really large panel glass moonroof right there that extends to just over the rear passengers heads and it definitely has a positive impact on headroom now this is a liquid crystal

Sunroof so you can press this button and get a more opaque look or a more transparent look the design of the driver and front passenger seats are definitely different than other bmws you can see that the headrest is integrated into the seat it also integrates surround sound speakers in both front headrests and the rear outboard seat headrests as well the upholstery

Definitely has a stylish look to it the seat back and bottom cushion are perforated because these seats are both heated and ventilated also heated is this panel right there in front of the passengers knees and in front of the driver’s knees that’s a trick that we also see in the bz4x to very similar effect so rather than heating the cabin if your feet are cold you

Can actually activate that radiant heat panel right there into that glovebox lid and it’ll actually help warm your feet moving over to the front doors we definitely have a different design than we find in other recent models like the 7 series or the i7 the crystals on the front doors are the seat controls we have well integrated speaker grilles right there on the

Door and this little section right here that’s actually the hand grip for opening the door this is an electronic release door so there’s a button right there up front and then if you want a manual lease it’s right down there just above that bottle holder and the storage bin bmw’s mission with the i series of vehicles is more than just electrification it’s also about

Sustainability so a lot of the materials in here are recycled or recyclable or biosourced moving across the dashboard you’ll notice a very different design than we find in other bmws with this very large twin screen setup here the infotainment screen is actually larger than the instrument cluster and it’s mainly the width this is a little over 14 inches over here

And the instrument cluster is a little over 12. bmw really wanted this vehicle to look like the screens are floating above the dashboard so you can see you can actually wrap your hand completely around the display and it’s attached to the dashboard with sort of strut like towers on the back on the driver’s side of the dashboard there’s a large full-color heads-up

Display those are a little bit tricky to film but it is running the latest offer from bmw as is the infotainment system right here this is idrive 8. one of the interesting things about idrive 8 is that it supports two-screen carplay so you can see that this navigation map over here in the instrument cluster is actually a carplay map being driven by my wirelessly

Connected iphone right here and you can do two different things so you can do media over here and navigation right there in the middle in case you’re wondering apple maps is the only thing that can happen over here on the instrument cluster you can navigate obviously with google maps etc over here but you can’t for instance move music or move your google maps or

Your ways over to the left screen it only will happen on the right side below that we have two large air vents and a few physical buttons hazard lights there rear defogger front defogger right there down here we have a holder for your smartphone and definitely an interesting twist on bmw’s interface this doesn’t just look like wood it is in fact real wood and then

We have little plastic inserts here that are part of the touch interface this entire module actually clicks down so if i press that home button you’ll see this entire module actually clicks and then there’s a touch sensitive surface but this is real unvarnished wood on the front it really gives us a premium feel i’m not entirely clear how long this will last or

How easy it will be to clean but it is a really really cool look we then have crystal elements here for the traditional eye drive shifter that rotates around and clicks but you notice that the wood does not rotate around with that knob really cool touch there again an illuminated volume toggle there toggle for the shifter drive is back there b is their one pedal

Drive mode that gives you more aggressive regen braking reverses up front there’s a start stop button right there then we have park and auto brake hold if you’re offended by glare on surfaces in your car you should know that this crystal shifter does give you a little bit more glare than i would like and it does make it a little bit difficult to see these options

As you’re driving down the road behind that we have a split center armrest that opens to reveal a pretty large storage area but remember that the center console sort of cuts in towards the back there so this is not actually square that’s uh nothing right down there under that bridge like center console we find two cup holders a 12 volt power port two usb c ports qi

Wireless charger and then basically a flat floor right there between the driver and front passenger there is this small center console where things like the air conditioning ducts and things like that have to go down towards the rear in addition to the moving map display they’re also turned by turn navigation displays you can get an active safety system display where

It’s going to show you vehicles motorcycles etc that it’s detected ala tesla and you can change the layout between three different designs two of them will give you a power gauge then some reduced content in the middle you’ll notice those purple flashing lights around the display those are part of the driver monitoring system they’re not actually visible to the

Human eye they’re only visible to the camera so don’t worry about that moving out from there we have one of my new favorite steering wheels it’s thickly rimmed and i have to say i wasn’t sure about this but i do kind of like the flat sides here the flat bottom obviously makes it easy to get in and out of the vehicle but you can see that it’s still round enough to

Make three point turns and things like that pretty easy to do on the left side of the steering wheel we find controls for the adaptive cruise control and the aggressive lane centering system that’s what you can do with that mode button right there on the right side we have the controls that multi-function display as well as the infotainment system one thing that

We don’t find back here however are things like regen paddles i would love to see what bmw could do with that in this vehicle you only have three options when it comes to regen braking we have drive we have b mode and then we have adaptive so you can see right now that little display right there shows you adaptive that’s going to use the radar sensor and other

Sensors around the vehicle to basically adapt the regen braking based on traffic around you the first thing you’ll notice about the ix is the blistering acceleration this model went 0-60 in four seconds even repeatedly time after time after time and even more impressive than that i zero to 60 tested this at 100 battery and at eight percent battery and it still

Went zero to sixty in four seconds even down there at eight percent and a lot of evs really taper off the acceleration profile after about 40 battery charge so bmw was definitely aggressive with the acceleration numbers in this vehicle now as i said at the beginning this is truly a no compromises electric vehicle part of that is the curb weight this weighs right

Around the same as a plug-in hybrid bmw x5 and only a little bit more really than a bmw x5 with the v8 it has a near perfect weight balance and the rear electric motor is more powerful in the front which definitely gives us a rear power bias you will feel that out on the road with the rear end gently curving around behind you it’s never going to feel tail happy

Like some bmws can instead it’s going to feel safe and secure just like you’d expect in a bmw x5 very different than some evs that have a powerful electric motor up front you don’t really get any torque steer around corners even when you’re flooring this and that is unusual for a dual motor ev with a powerful front motor i’m not entirely clear what bmw has done to

Remove the torque steer from this vehicle but whatever they did they really did a good job at it in a number of powerful evs if you floor it around a corner like this you’ll definitely notice that you’ll get some rear end steer but you’ll also get some torque steer we see that in for instance the tesla model s because there’s so much power going on in the front

Axle and this we really don’t have that problem six to zero stopping distances are also very impressive i measured just 110 feet in this model thanks to the 275 with tires and the pretty big brakes of course bmw has also done a really good job with the regenerative braking mapping this has a blended braking system so pretty different than tesla’s but it doesn’t

Have that same sort of disconnected feel that some blended braking systems can have i do think that the blended braking setup in the porsche tycon is a little bit better than the one that we find in this bmw but that’s pretty high praise as it is if we go for a mild breaking application and then panic stop there is just the very hint of a moment where the braking

System is doing nothing but it is much much more rapid than we find for instance in toyota’s plug-in hybrids or hybrids as you’d expect out of a bmw that can go zero to 60 in four seconds and stop in just 110 feet actual grip numbers are excellent in the ix that’s thanks to a relatively low curb weight and the carbon fiber construction the carbon fiber construction

Doesn’t just reduce curb weight it also helps lower the center of gravity because the upper structure of the vehicle is a little bit lighter the battery pack is of course way down there really giving us that low center of gravity feel coupled with an adaptive air suspension that firms things up when you drive this harder and a relatively light curb weight the ix

Is a lot of fun curb weight is really important in an eevee because that helps improve range it helps improve handling ability performance etc and this is going to be significantly lighter than a decent number of the competition for instance the cadillac lyric its curb weight numbers have recently been announced it’s about 5900 pounds so about 200 pounds heavier

Than this in rear wheel drive form the model that i’m driving has the optional adaptive air suspension and even out on a rougher road like i’m on here this does a really good job of soaking up large bumps and small bumps without making the ix feel wallowy at 50 miles an hour in my cabin noise test i measured 70 decibels in here making this just half a decibel louder

Than the bmw x5 and one of the quieter vehicles that we’ve tested here at alex and autos if you’re looking for an ev with a really quiet cabin especially really well controlled road noise this is going to be absolutely excellent the other thing that’s excellent but i was not expecting to be excellent to be perfectly honest is the efficiency in this vehicle over

Our road trip range test i averaged three miles per kilowatt hour giving this a real world range of 315 miles what’s unusual about that is that the epa window sticker range which is a blend of a 55 city 45 highway that is also 315 miles this is one of the few vehicles that in my road trip range test actually gets what the epa sticker says it should perhaps even

More impressive than all of that if you set the cruise control to 72 miles an hour on steady state level interstate highway driving this will average about 3.2 miles per kilowatt hour meaning that the range will bump up to over the epa range estimate about 325 miles to 330 miles in this exact vehicle in my road trip range test a 405 mile rated tesla model s ends

Up at around 330 miles of road trip range that’s shockingly close to this bmw ix and the reason is that this has a slightly bigger battery pack it’s about 10 kilowatt hours of extra usable capacity but also because efficiency is incredibly high and actually i suspect a little bit above that epa estimate bmw may be choosing a voluntary reduction for me at the moment

The ix is the electric crossover to beat in america as long as you don’t need a third row seats you’ll only find that in the tesla model x if you don’t need those seats however i would certainly take this over the current lineup of tesla crossovers i like the interior i like the carplay integration it is shockingly efficient and thanks to the big battery pack range

Is excellent handling and ride quality are also really really good ride quality is significantly above the tesla model y and i would say a very close competitor to the model s the one likely issue for some shoppers is going to be the relatively slower dc fast charge rates 195 kw is not the speediest charging it does average a relatively high charge rate but not as

High as we find in modern teslas and thanks to the big battery pack charging is going to take longer than in a lot of the competition but to be honest dc fast charging is not that common a lot of folks think they’re gonna dc fast charge an awful lot more often than they do if you’re interested in pricing in comparisons just watch this video all the way to the end

Click the option for part two and i’ll see all of you over there you

Transcribed from video
Beyond "No Compromise," The 2022 BMW iX is Simply Better Than An X5 By EV Buyers Guide