In Australia, we really struggle for choice when it comes to electric vehicles, so any new entrant into our market is incredibly welcome.
The BMW iX3 is due to go on sale in Australia before the end of 2021 (November) and offers a quite capable 460km of range (WLTP). When you do run out of charge, there’s either standard AC charging at home, or fast charging at a rate of 150kW from the CCS charge port in the right rear quarter. BMW says this will charge up to 80% in around 34 minutes.
The iX3 drivetrain consists of an electric motor on the rear wheels providing 210kW of power and 400Nm of torque. It certainly won’t be the snappiest acceleration we’ve seen in an EV, with a 0-100km/h time of 6.8s. By comparison Tesla’s Model Y LR will do the sprint in 5.0s while the Performance spec gets it done in just 3.7s.
It is a little disappointing not to see AWD for this price point, although I doubt many of these will ever see a dirt road.
The iX3 is available to reserve from the BMW site today and allows you to select from a range of colours, black, silver, grey, white, blue and red. You also get to select your interior colour, with a choice of Mocha, Black or White which includes the seats, console and door panels. There is a similar choice of 3 trims for the dash.
BMW designers are clearly really proud of the rims they’ve designed for the iX3 as there’s just 1 option. As we move from ICE to EVs, interior designers are often rethinking the interior of vehicles, however the IX3 offers much more of an iteration, rather than a revolution inside.
Those families buying an SUV need a car that’s not only capable of doing the school run during the week, but also the road trip away on the weekend and the iX3 looks to be incredibly capable of servicing this in style.
When it comes to technology, you’ll find a fairly standard set of driver assist and safety options on-board. There’s also the MyBMW smartphone app to monitor vehicle charging, lock/unlock the vehicle, adjust the climate control and also acts as your digital key to enter the car.
Make no mistake about it, BMW don’t make cheap cars and the current situation with EVs means you will pay a significant premium to go electric. The BMW iX3 starts at a premium A$114,900.
While that number is well north of what many people spend on vehicles, if you’ve done well in your career, love the BMW design and styling and have decided to go EV, then you will have a great option by the end of the year.
It is great to see an long-time automaker like BMW offering quite an array of EV options to buyers. These include the BMW i4, i4 M50, the i3, iX and now the iX3.
