Does the BMW iX look better with a camo grille?

“It's like it swallowed a beaver.” Among the more polite comments sitting underneath the first images we published of the BMW iX, a 500bhp electric SUV that’ll take the fight to the Audi e-tron and Jaguar I-Pace next year.

You may be forgiven for looking at these new pictures and thinking BMW’s taken the internet’s stern critique of the iX’s styling and done what half the commenters appear to have asked: the kidney ‘grilles’ have been covered up, and the car plonked in surroundings so beautiful and arresting, you’d be forgiven for not noticing there’s even a car present.

However, what you’re actually looking at is an iX doing some cold-weather testing in the most northerly point of mainland Europe, the Nordkapp right at the tippety-top of Norway. Temperatures won’t really get above freezing point for the rest of this year, and will likely plunge well below going into January and February.

It’s a stern test of everything: its suspension, its four-wheel-drive system, the function of the electric motors and the performance of its heat management and batteries. Not to mention how those batteries charge, and the accuracy of the screens and displays that inform the driver about how quickly they're charging.

If all of the iX's innards work in the depths of the Arctic Circle, they’ll probably work anywhere. Whether the same can be said for the camouflage on its grille, well, there’s a comments box below…