BMW iX review

BMW has reworked the chassis and suspension of the iX to deal with the increased performance of the drive system. The suspension on all iXs features a double-wishbone front axle and a five-link set-up at the rear, and there’s a new hydraulic support bearing at the rear to sweeten the balance between handling and comfort.

The M70 gains adaptive air suspension with two-axle ride level control, electronically controlled shock absorbers, and M-specific tuning. The anti-roll bars are beefier, and it also has BMW’s Integral Active Steering, which brings with it an active rear axle. Faster and more agile, then.

And how does that translate onto the road?

Brilliantly. The xDrive60 has a floaty and cushioned ride (at least on the optional air suspension – we’ve yet to try the updated iX without it), and the suspension does its thing without thunking away in the background. There’s a hint of side-to-side shake, but it’s mostly incredibly settled, and save for some wind noise off the windscreen, progress is calm and muted. This side of the (not unrelated) Rolls-Royce Spectre, there aren’t many cars that are this blissfully quiet in motion.

All that carbonfibre in the bodyshell gives it a terrific sense of strength and integrity. There are no shudders here. Even the M70 is supple on 22in wheels.

Speaking of, the M70 is an impressive device that delivers way more performance than is entirely necessary. Not all electric cars generate that ‘falling off a cliff’ sense of momentum, but this one sure does. Ask yourself: do you really need 650bhp in a 2.5-tonne sort-of SUV? Zero to 62mph takes 3.8 seconds, which is bewildering pace in something this size.

What no-one ever really admits is that the full-bore performance of the likes of the Tesla Model S Plaid or Porsche Taycan is actually not all that enjoyable, once the novelty has worn off. The iX M70 isn’t as nuttily fast as them, but it’s still extremely rapid.

So I should avoid that one?

That’d be our advice. We’ve not tested the xDrive45 yet, but the xDrive60 – with its 536bhp and 564lb ft – looks like the one to go for. 426 miles of range is the claim, versus a maximum-on-a-good day 366 for the M70. And it costs £21k less. It’s still quick too: you can stick it in Efficiency mode and its turn of pace will easily see off A-road stragglers.

On a warm spring day we saw 2.8 mi/kWh from the iX on mixed roads, albeit with no motorway driving. That suggests real-world range of just over 300 miles – about two thirds of the ‘official’ figure, but that’s pretty common for an EV. You’ll beat our effort with gentler use of the throttle.

We’ve seen similar performance from the M70. Activate the Max Range function and BMW says the range can be increased by ‘up to 25 per cent’. Weight-and-friction optimised wheel bearings and low rolling resistance rubber helps here. For what it’s worth, BMW’s range indicators are usually very accurate.

The smaller-batteried xDrive45 is good for 374 miles on paper.

Does it handle, though?

To a degree. The xDrive60 gets found out if you lob it from one extreme to the other, but single corners are dealt with immaculately, with little body roll and great grip. Fanging from apex-to-apex halfway up a hillside isn’t what it was designed for.

Traction is immense, but not so much that it can't be overcome on a tightish corner even in the dry. Whereupon the traction control and front-rear torque vectoring keep everything in check.

The steering and brakes are responsive, but the best thing about it by far is the throttle response. It’s spot on – the accelerator pedal’s elastic enough to make town driving easygoing, but precise and immediate on quicker roads.

It’s still the same size as before, so we know it’s a bulky thing to thread down back roads, but in town the 4WD and copious cameras and even automatic manoeuvring systems do their best to avoid parking scrapes.

Anything else?

As before, you can call up a synthesised sound that varies in pitch, tone and volume according to accelerator position and speed. That cue does help judge your approach to corners, and it’s the work of famed movie soundtrack maestro, Hans Zimmer. But as with most of these systems, it actually ends up playing second fiddle to the sound of silence.

There have been improvements to the charging set-up, too: pre-conditioning for the high voltage battery and a heat pump help promote greater charging efficiency. The xDrive60 and M70 can now be charged via at 195kW DC (weird, it used to max out at 250kW), and the xDrive45 at 175kW. Charging from 10 to 80 per cent takes a claimed 49 minutes.

All iXs have three-phase 11kW on-board AC chargers, but few of us have three-phase at home so we'd be limited to single-phase 7kW. Reckon on about 16 hours for the M70 to get from near-zero to 100 per cent.