BMW iX3 prototype review: “an emphatic leap more intuitive, rewarding, precise and involving”

What is it?

In short, this is a revolution for BMW, one of the world's great car companies. This new iX3 will launch next year, but its real significance is to be the first out of the traps for a new generation of electric vehicles. And we mean completely new, from ground to cloud. More about the tech, background and scope of the related cars here. BMW is calling them the New Class, or Neue Klasse.

So while we wouldn't usually get frothed-up about a disguised prototype of yet another electric crossover, this one moves the dial.

That disguise is giving me a migraine. How big is it? What are the rivals?

It's about the same size as the combustion X3, and will sell alongside so BMW gives you a drivetrain choice – the iX3 is electric only, because the underlying Neue Klasse structure is designed to take max advantage of electric packaging.

If your sole EV yardstick is range, the iX3's 500-mile WLTP figure thrashes all-comers. It's up against the new Audi Q6 e-tron and Porsche Macan electric and Lexus RZ, and by the time it arrives there will be the Alfa Stelvio electric and Volvo EX60 too. For the Americas, Cadillac has the bigger Lyriq. For the globe, there's the heavily revised Tesla Model Y. BMW's local rival Mercedes has had the GLC, but EV years are dog years and it shows. So next year there will be a replacement, called GLC EV.

Anyway, the well-packaged battery means that although it's combustion-X3 sized, it has X5 space, especially in the flat-floor back bench.

So obviously ground-up new means new electrics? How does it go?

The one we're driving is the iX3 50 xDrive. It has 407bhp between its front and rear motors, and a total of 442lb ft. That's good for a sub-5.0 second 0-62mph time, says BMW. The WLTP efficiency is 4.1m/kWh.

Energy comes from new cells in a new battery structure. It runs at 800 volts to save more weight, and charge faster. The motors and inverters are new. Everything's optimised for efficiency, and the result is that 500 mile WLTP figure, or 400 in the more realistic US EPA test.

Charge times are pretty staggering: I watched as it picked up 200 miles of that in just 10 minutes, the first part of it at 400kW. There are few of the necessary 800V charge posts yet in Britain, but even on our lower-power posts it'll do 10-80 per cent in half an hour, which is an addition of 350 miles WLTP.

You want comparisons? A Porsche Macan 4 Electric has the same power, takes 5.2s for the sprint, but it's far less efficient, only getting about 3.3 miles for every kWh input (WLTP measures charger-to-wheel, not the more frugal battery-to-wheel figure on your trip computer). Its charging time on the fastest posts is similar, but the less efficient Porsche adds 250 miles in a 10-80 per cent charge.

Hmm, clever but hidden. Isn’t there anything I can show off with?

See the dash up above? BMW calls it Panoramic iDrive. Its first wow is a shallow display running the entire way across the base of the windscreen just above the dash (it's actually a reflected image in the blacked-out strip of the glass that hides the parked wipers). That contains useful configurable widgets, plus the driver's display itself – speed, navigation arrows, battery percent, warning lights etc.

So there's no separate driver's display. The wheel is smaller and you don't have to drop your eyes to see under the rim. Sorta like the Peugeot idea, but because the display is higher we reckon more people will be comfy with it.

Then a big central tablet, a uniquely six-sided shape. Don't worry, its oblique outline will be reversed for RHD. Everyone in the car can see the pano display and the tablet. Plus there's a handy HUD for the driver.

Yes, it works. The icons are big enough that it's quick to distinguish and jab at them. Everything acts snappily. It's clear. You can use steering wheel buttons to do much of what the controller wheel used to do. Finally, the voice recognition is excellent and knows who's speaking, so 'warm me up' or 'turn on my light' will do it for just that person's seat.

Right, but this is the future of BMW. How does it drive?

Like a real BMW ought to. Not like a bulky EV crossover, or soulless digital-first zombiemobile. Cornering and ride match a particularly well set-up AWD 3 Series. But the powertrain is vastly smoother and more responsive.

It's relaxed when the going's easy. It holds true to a straight line and peels into curves with an intuitive weight and gearing to the steering, brakes and accelerator pedal.

But get a wiggle on and it feels remarkably content. Electric crossovers tend to throw their weight around, but this one staves off roll, heave and pitch. It doesn't understeer if you have to tighten your radius. It's polite even in simultaneous inputs of brake, steering or accelerator, and even when the road bowls you a googly with a dip or crest.

It's organic and engaged: you can feel the power going to the rear, and the steering lightening when the front tyres can do no more. Even in the wet.

In short, it feels like it's about a tonne and three quarters. Now BMW is still being cagey about mass among other specs, but I'd be surprised if in reality this spec were less than two and a quarter.

What witchcraft is this?

Remarkably, it does all that without active anti-roll, or 4WS, or air springs or even adaptive damping. Actually if it had those things it'd be heavier. No, the key – apart from BMW's long-held skills in body stiffness, suspension geometry and damping – is something called the ‘Heart of Joy’.

Oh do come on…

No honestly it really is a thing, not just a winsome slogan knocked out on a Friday afternoon at the ad agency.

The Heart of Joy is a single integrated processor that controls all drive: the motors, regenerative braking, traction control, ESP, steering assistance. Plus, when added, all the dynamic suspension systems the iX3 doesn't yet have – or need.

As a single processor it can react with lightning speed, and integrate signals coming in from multiple sensors and going out to the steering assistance, as well as to the motors which of course can take advantage because they're far more quick-witted than an ICE powertrain.

So if you're losing grip, the HoJ can magic up the right torque from each motor and adapt the steering weight and even brake a wheel. Because it can do it instantly and even predictively, what you feel is progressive and intuitive.

The iX3 uses regeneration, not friction, for about 98 percent of braking events. Great for efficiency of course. But also it gives the pedal an impressively consistent feel because it's not juggling two different retarding forces. Also, the thing comes to rest with an uncanny absence of jerks or creaks – you really can't point to the exact moment it has come to rest.

Long years of passengering have taught me that most drivers don't give a monkey's for smooth progress in traffic jams, but it matters to me a lot and this car is better even than chauffeur-oriented petrol Rolls-Royces. The iX3 engineers call it the sheer joy of stopping.

And what about the going?

That's smooth too. Really not much to say – it just accelerates as you want, whether that's gentle or quite brisk enough. If you demand something more brutal, step up to a Turbo-badged Porsche or Performance Tesla, or wait for the inevitable M-badged BMW versions.

There's a switchable synthetic sound, and it gives a useful extra connection with what the car's up to.

Presumably it drives itself?

Back in 2017, before launching the then flagship iX, BMW said that car would be more or less self-driving door-to-door in many parts of the world, by 2023. No way can it, even now. So the claims for the Neue Klasse have been scaled right back.

The phrase they use is co-operative driving. Basically, if you're on the case it won't nanny you. When the systems are on (and there are handy controls to switch them off) they don't grab the wheel and accelerator. They subtly work with you. If you're following a sensible course and the monitor camera sees you're looking ahead, it lets you take a smooth curve that might mean slightly transgressing a white line. If you change lanes without indicating, but you've looked in the mirror, it won't yank the wheel or sound an alarm. You can brake or accelerate while the cruise control is still on and it won't immediately cancel.

Yeah it has some party tricks. If you come up behind a slower car and look in the overtaking mirror, it'll indicate and change lanes automatically. If there's an obstacle like a parked car that blocks your urban lane it'll gently brake then steer round it if there's space. Not just beep deafeningly, flash red, and jam the brakes on.

Its self-parking uses AI to great effect, making it super-easy to use while still giving you the choice of which space you go for and which way you end up pointing.

This stuff all works very well. I tried the fancy lane change and parking in test track demos, and used the lane keeping on the road.

But it's a significant moment that BMW has stepped back from an arm's race of hype and recognised what we all knew: in 2025, ‘self-driving’ is still for the birds.

That said, the onboard sensors and actuators and processors and in-cloud connectivity are powerful enough that when it's ready (and people outside China and LA actually want it) ‘self-driving’ could be switched on.

What’s it look like under the disguise?

BMW design is moving on. The surfaces are crisper than before, less awkward, and best of all there's less ornament and flash.

The Neue Klasse X concept car shows the body panels. The real thing will be shown at the Munch Show on 5 September. Look at the concept, and mentally add frames around the door windows, pop-out handles and slightly less exaggerated front and rear aero bibs.

As for the interior, the new iDrive system and fascia were shown at CES, and that's exactly what the iX3 will get, right down to the screen shapes, graphics and the steering wheel.

What’s the verdict?

The new i3X manages to expunge many or all of the annoyances of new-age EVs. It doesn't feel heavy or numb to drive. It charges super fast, and it's efficient so needs to charge less often than rivals. The control system is intuitive. The driver assist doesn't drive you bananas.

I've driven cars that make similar claims to the iX3's. They've made me miserable, turning me into a minor sub-system in an awkward machine with a hyper-digitised mind of its own.

The Neue Klasse isn't like that. It's not trying to be different or shocking. It's like a BMW; just a fabulously good one. An emphatic leap more intuitive, rewarding, precise and involving (yet relaxing) than the rest of today's BMW crossovers. It's refined and roomy when you need a family car. BMW design is moving into a crisp era that recalls, but doesn't ape, its best past.

Given that before long there will be a Neue Klasse car to do the job of cherished cars like the 3 Series, all this is extremely reassuring.