BMW iX Road Test. Shifting Electric Motoring Preconceptions
BMW’s iX is quite simply an electric concept car you can buy.
BMW tells us that it’s trailblazing iX is paves the way toward future generation of BMWs that promise to redefine premium driving sustainability and pleasure that has been developed from the ground up, inside out. This is also a car we have waited patiently to test for so many reasons. It’s controversial, to start with. All electric cars are. The fact that it arrived less than fully charged because of a scrum and a fight at a hard-pressed Cape Town charging point only added fuel to that fire.
BMW iX a Concept Car for the Road
But what about this concept car for the road? What’s it like to drive? And live with, for a bit? Well for starters, it feels just like that. Something straight out of your driving future — inside and out and driving it. But it’s here now, so let’s just get on with it!
The first (and probably last) BMW built on a specialized modular, scalable platform, iX sustains strict environmental compliance through what Bavaria suggests is an all-encompassing approach to the extraction of raw materials. Using a high proportion of recycled materials and renewable electricity in its manufacturing process, it contributes to a ‘global warming saving’ of around 45 percent versus a comparable diesel Sports Activity Vehicle, over 120,000 miles of driving.
BMW calls its iX a modern Sports Activity Vehicle designed from the inside out to redefine space and luxury. Progressive and imposing, not everyone took to the iX’s clearly structured, reduced design language. Those who liked it, however loved it. It’s also a case of function over form. That innovatively manufactured and almost completely blanked off BMW kidney grille for instance hides many of the necessary automated driving and systems camera and radar sensors.
Minimalist Design Showcases ’New Mobility’
BMW recons iX is a clear and minimalist design that showcases a new form of mobility. They say it is geared to squarely satisfy every occupants’ need as it enables each to best enjoy their time spent on travelling every journey in a relaxed, safe and secure new form of luxury. Expect to be stunned when you swing that door open to reveal a truly opulent showcar cockpit. Abounding in luxurious ambience, it feels vastly spacious inside iX.
Our tester’s splendid newly developed cross-stitched integral head restraint pews bring the aura of high-quality furniture. They invite you into a remarkable crystal, leather, and wood encrusted space. You feel its i3 and i8 ancestors in there too, while the open space left by the expulsion of a monster central transmission tunnel brings an almost eerie sense of room. It also leaves more than enough space for thingy storage around the innovative center console and just about everywhere else.
BMW’s latest generation crystal clear curved touchscreen iDrive system blends into the car’s instrumentation behind that Bauhaus steering wheel. Based on BMW’s ‘future toolkit’, this latest in car tech traverses several BMW development fields, from onboard network architecture to futuristic software and latest generation digital services advances. All while embracing Munich’s strides toward most efficient energy management, connectivity and automated driving.