This has been a long time coming, and even still, I am struggling to come up with concise metaphors to convey to you how incredible this 2027 BMW iX3 is. It is Thriller, it is The Simpsons, it is Super Mario 64, it is the iPhone 3G. It is an inconceivably brilliant work, and perhaps more importantly, a sign of things to come, both from the industry at large, and BMW themselves. Everything is going to be influenced by it, to a point where in the future, we’ll have a hard time imagining a world where things aren’t like this. This is the next generation, right now.
Fundamentals
The 2027 BMW iX3 is the first vehicle to launch from BMW’s Neue Klasse, with that name itself carrying enormous significance at BMW, representing the innovative vehicles from the 60s that very quickly overwrote the Bavarian firm’s history as a well-regarded motorcycle and airplane engine builder, into the purveyor of the Ultimate Driving Machine.
Usually when a car is called all-new, there’s actually a fair bit of carryover hardware, but not so is the case here; everything about the 2027 BMW iX3 is new. It is a new platform, with new battery and charging architecture, new motors, a genius user interface, and new computing architecture to tie it all together. It’s hard to overstate how ahead of the game this is.
Battery, range, & charging
The iX3 uses BMW’s sixth generation of battery technology; it is an 800-volt battery architecture that is capable of charging at up to 400 kW, making it the fastest charging EV by a legacy automaker, and putting it far ahead of charging infrastructure in most of the Western world as of yet.
The 112 kWh battery can charge from 10-80% in 21 minutes, and is good for 698 kilometers of range as per NRCanada/US EPA; excluding the gigantic GM trucks, that’s about as good as it gets, being in line with dedicated EV makers like Lucid and Rivian, and even beats out Tesla, let alone every other legacy automaker for the time being.
Our average energy use came in at 18.3kWh/100km; a very impressive figure for a vehicle of this size, even better than the last i4 we drove, and it bears mentioning there was a considerable amount of waste in the form of me sitting in it and playing with iDrive X.
User interface
There is a lot to be said on this front. The iX3 launches BMW’s newest infotainment software: iDrive X. It’s totally new, but generally familiar to anyone who’s used to BMW’s existing system(s), it just skipped a generation into the future. The iDrive knob is absent from this new interface, and as much of a fan as I was, I don’t miss it here; they’ve been very careful to make sure it still feels right without it.
This is enabled by a new 17.9-inch center screen, with a trapezoidal shape that angles towards the driver. This serves the dual purpose of echoing BMW’s historically driver-centric interior designs, and making the screen easier to reach. Indeed, it is placed such that it’s very comfortable and natural to use, and despite being quite large, it doesn’t feel huge.
Large buttons and intuitive gestures take center stage, so you’ll never feel like you’re getting lost opening things you didn’t mean to. There’s a new AI-powered voice assistant, which is a lot less in-your-face than BMW’s early demos made it out to be. They’ve seen the tides turn against AI, and you don’t need to use it, ever, and you won’t feel like or even notice you’re missing out.
In truth, for the first few days with it, I didn’t use it at all, and when I did, I was delighted to find it worked quite well. And, very much like the artificial propulsion sound, which very carefully curated at a specific frequency and tone (thanks Hans!) to trigger an emotional response, so too does the new Personal Assistant's "face."
The standout feature of all this new tech is the pillar-to-pillar display that stretches 43 inches across the bottom of the windshield. The most clever thing about it is that it’s not a screen at all; it’s reflected on a reflective black surface on the bottom of the windshield, below the hood line, and as a result, it almost looks like it’s floating, and it’s gorgeous. It’s as crisp and vibrant as they come, too, and because it fills a narrow negative space, it’s not obnoxious at all like so many mega-wide displays are. It is, by a distant margin, the best projection of in-car information I have ever seen.
This tester is augmented by a large heads-up display too; BMW was already exceptionally skilled with this tech, but they’ve taken it a step further with the Neue Klasse vehicles like this iX3. It is three-dimensional, able to project on both the inner and outer layers of the windshield to create depth. It may sound like a headache waiting to happen, but in practice, you don’t notice any peculiar effects endemic to 3D screens, it just looks really good, especially when displaying directions.
Cabin accommodations
Clever use of materials and contrasting colors creates a cabin design that’s airy, clean, minimalist (not plain), and more than a little futuristic. You can see in cars like the 5 and the X3 that they were starting to move in this direction, and this is what they’ve been working towards. A sharp, cynical eye will clock lots of cost-cutting, but it’s so cleverly disguised and so well executed that it’s not a sore point; fewer materials and simpler shapes organically results in cohesion. It’s not cheap if everything you touch and see looks and feels fantastic.
There’s tons of space, with a floating center console hiding a monster storage area, the back seats are stretch-out spacious, and rear cargo room is more than generous, too. It’s very practical with excellent use of space, great visibility, and easy ingress and egress. Our tester’s panoramic glass only makes things better without letting in too much light, and effectively zero heat, by use of thermal glass and anti-UV coating.
Chassis & handling
Unlike most higher-end BMWs, the iX3 does not use air suspension or electronically adaptive shock absorbers, instead relying on conventional steel coils and passive variable-rate dampers. Despite this, it does drive and handle like a BMW ought to; they were good at setting up cars long before adaptive-everything was the norm, and haven’t forgotten anything.
BMW has been careful to shed weight, in order to improve performance and efficiency, while reducing (yours and their) costs and benefitting sustainability. The chassis, steering and suspension components, and wheels are cast from aluminum - 70 to 80 percent of which is recycled.
That, combined with smart battery packaging means the this loaded iX3 weighs in at 5,038 pounds, which is relatively lithe for a good-sized modern EV (to be pedantic, BMW specifies a weight of 2,360 kg, which works out to 5,202.9 lbs, but also specifies their curb weights include a 165 lb driver, and a 90% fuel load… I can’t imagine electrons being all that heavy).
Motors and mechanized brains
All iX3s (for the time being) are powered by two motors, with the rear motor making 322 horsepower, and the front motor filling in an additional 165, with their combined output coming in at 463 ponies, and 476 lb-ft of torque. This deliberately uneven setup lends a more rear-drive feel to the iX3, imbuing it with livelier handling when you’re feeling playful, and a more natural power delivery when you’re not. Either way, it’s quick, with gobs of instant and effortless electric shove at your beck and call.
Electric motors are almost as responsible for slowing as they are for going, and it’s in calibrating this regenerative braking function and low speed creeping that the real genius of BMW’s work in the iX3 starts to reveal itself. Almost every car on the road has many computer control modules for each individual function, often made by different manufacturers, all forced to talk to each other, and translate for each other, through miles of wiring. As cars have gotten more and more complicated, this has become more and more of a problem; the Neue Klasse undoes that miasma.
There are just four very powerful modules in the iX3; one for the advanced driving assistants, one for iDrive X, one for basic comfort functions and energy management, and notably, just one for everything related to driving dynamics, aptly named the Heart of Joy.
It’s all done in house by BMW instead of being outsourced by industry heavyweights like Siemens, Bosch, and Continental, and because it’s their own singular system managing everything drive related, they have the finest possible control over everything - and therefore, so do you. All of the (usually) minute awkwardnesses that exist in EV power delivery and regeneration are gone, and there’s a distinct feeling of rightness that comes with that.
In demonstrations, BMW test drivers would tell blindfolded journalist passengers to say when they think they’d stopped the car - they couldn’t. I reproduced this test myself, and my passengers couldn’t pinpoint it either.
On the road
All of this new engineering and technology sounds and looks like a lot of bells and whistles all stacked on top of each other; I’ve seen many times lately, especially in luxury-marketed vehicles, how piling on more and more features becomes a precarious pile of stuff you almost have to work around. Neue Klasse vehicles like this iX3 is how it all integrates and sort of disappears. It’s all still there, but it serves the drive, not distract from it.
You sit fairly high, with a commanding view over the road through the large windscreen, and a visible hood to see the front corners. There’s no start button, it comes to life as you enter, and the brake pedal is the trigger for making the vehicle drive ready. Putting it in D for drive mimics drivetrain creep like a conventional gas vehicle, and putting it in B for brake enables one pedal driving that’s natural to EVs - with no screens or menus.
This ride of this M Sport Pro model with the largest available 22-inch wheels is very much on the firm side of compliant. It’s never harsh, the body is well isolated from imperfections in the road, but there’s a definite sharpness to the way it feels - whether or not that’s a good thing is up to you, you don’t have to get the M Sport Pro package.
Steering feel is quite good, well-weighted and smoothed out, but perhaps a tad more granular and less numbed than other modern BMWs. Body control is terrific, with eager turn-in and neutral mid corner balance, with a capacity to be quite playful if you’re looking for fun, and even in one-pedal-drive, it feels natural to add in some separate braking action when slowing into a fast corner.
Otherwise, it’s exceptionally quiet and comfortable, with a great driving position and fantastic seats. Interacting with the interface feels very natural; it’s a short reach to the center screen, and everything you might need to touch is very large to prevent fat-finger frustration, and responses are instant, with a soft auditory “click” for sound haptics.
Speaking of haptics, the steering wheel itself is very clever about this. First off, the shape of the wheel is brilliant, and organically encourages proper hand positioning with ergonomic thumb and palm rests. Those same palmrests make reaching over to use the steering controls feel more natural, and the controls themselves are laid out on an angle to feel more natural still. On top of that, they have haptic feedback too, and can even scroll and double-press with certain functions, all meant to feel more natural and, in a way, disappear.
BMW’s assisted driving functions have only gotten better too, and have gotten smarter about using the pillar-to-pillar and heads-up displays to telegraph what the car is seeing and thinking for greater peace of mind. I was able to get on the Don Valley Parkway, a highway that winds along the Don River north-south through Toronto and connects to the Gardiner Expressway that spans east-west through the downtown core, and once I set the system, I was able to take my feet off the pedals and let go of the wheel for (I counted) 42 minutes, until I arrived at my off-ramp.
It sped up, slowed down, came to stop and set off again, and followed curves and ramps, slowing as needed, without any input from me, save for the occasional suggested lane change, that I could initiate my merely turning my eyes to check that side’s mirror, at which point it would signal and move over. Very little of this is brand new to BMW, but its implementation is better than ever, and it was already industry leading.
Money
There’s a lot of very sophisticated engineering and technology here. It feels very next-generation, and next-generation tech in the present day tends to be expensive. It’s not exactly cheap, but it isn’t as expensive as you’d think, either. Most of what’s here isn’t really new stuff or exotic materials; the advancements all come from innovation, from re-using or iterating what was already available in novel ways, as seen in the reflected displays.
Pricing for the 2027 BMW iX3 50 (50 meaning dual-motor, a single-motor “40” is available across the pond and may make it’s way here, and I’m sure a 60 with more power will come in time) starts at $75,900, and that gets you the full, nearly 700 kilometer range. Our loaded tester, with the M Sport Pro package (M wheels, brakes, trim, steering wheel), the Premium package (panoramic roof, Harmon Kardon audio, massaging seats, hands-free highway driving, parking assistant) and some additional addons (3D HUD, rear climate control, Polarized Grey paint) rings up to $89,700, loaded.
Ninety grand is not a trivial amount of money, but among luxury cars, even putting aside the next-level tech interface, for the amount of performance, range, space, and comfort you get, it’s a serious deal. It’s no wonder the new plant in Hungary has already added another second shift to keep up with demand.
Wrap it up
There’s a lot about the all-new 2027 BMW iX3 that is really, very, incredibly impressive, but the most impressive thing about this very next-generation vehicle is how it harkens back to a bygone era where technology was exciting. You don’t even have to be very old to remember this (I'm 35, not quite a fossil) but there was a time when new tech didn’t come with dread, no, new tech used to be cool. The Neue Klasse’s greatest achievement is re-igniting that excitement, making new things interesting again, and the best part: I know that this 2027 BMW iX3 is only the beginning, and that is the most exciting of all.