BMW iX1 Review (2023-present)

What is the BMW iX1?

The BMW iX1 is the smallest of BMW’s electric SUVs and – currently – the cheapest option in the brand’s portfolio of electric vehicles. It sits on the company’s new modular ‘FAAR’ platform, which has previously been used in the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer.

At launch, only the BMW iX1 xDrive30 was available, which gets a 64.7kWh usable lithium-ion battery (66.5kWh total), four-wheel drive and 308bhp for a WLTP driving range of up to 272 miles. Roughly a year later, BMW introduced the eDrive20, a cheaper option with a single motor driving the front wheels. It has the same battery pack as the more powerful car, allowing a slightly longer average WLTP range of up to 293 miles

It’s bigger than you might expect, the iX1. It’s grown quite a bit over the previous BMW X1 and now measures 4.5 metres long, so don’t go thinking that this is a successor to the dinky BMW i3, or even that it’s a Nissan Juke or Renault Captur-sized SUV: it’s some 30cm longer and noticeably chunkier in general than those compact SUVs. The BMW iX1 (and the BMW X1 models that offer a variety of petrol, diesel and plug-in hybrid powertrains) is now the size of the Volkswagen Tiguan and is very much a mid-sized family SUV.

In fact, with pricing of more than £46,000 and up, and with an even more grown-up demeanour and inflated size, the BMW iX1 now treads on the toes of its bigger sibling, the BMW iX3.

How practical is it?

The whole point of the iX1 is to be a roomy and versatile family car. The 490-litre boot is a good shape, has a fairly low load lip and enough underfloor storage to keep a couple of cables neatly out of the way.

The rear seats are comfortable and offer enough leg- and headroom to accommodate a couple of six-footers very easily, although the floor feels high in relation to the seat base so – particularly on a long journey - long-legged passengers can feel like they have their knees bent up uncomfortably.

The seats don’t slide, as they do in the non plug-in variants of the BMW X1, but the seat backs recline in a 60/40 split. Parents of young children will rejoice, too, as there’s durable, wipe-clean plastic on the back of the front seats; perfect for enduring the kicks and scuffs of small feet.

Having said all of that, it should be pointed out that, while the iX1 is more spacious than the Mercedes EQA, the rear seats in the Skoda Enyaq iV, Tesla Model Y or Ford Mustang Mach-E (which are all bigger than the iX1 but compete with it on price) ultimately offer even more spacious and comfortable rear passenger accommodation.

Where the iX1 really stands out from its premium crossover rivals is the cabin space up front. This all-new BMW iX1 takes a lot of its interior inspiration from the bigger, supremely luxurious BMW iX, and it’s paid off with an interior that feels as classy as more expensive rivals like the Audi Q8 e-tron and Jaguar I-Pace. The Mercedes EQA gives the BMW iX1 a run for its money when it comes to swish interior design and ambience, but for overall perceived material quality, the BMW just about takes it.

Our test cars had optional electric seat adjustment, which gave plenty of adjustment and will suit drivers of any shape and size. There’s also plenty of storage space around the cabin.

What's it like to drive?

Like you would expect from any electric BMW, the iX1 is very smooth and confident on the road, but not the enthusiast’s family EV that some may have been hoping for given BMW’s reputation for making every day cars that are also great fun to drive.

Choose the xDrive30, and the iX1 is seriously rapid, especially if you go for a cheeky dab of the ‘Boost’ mode via the paddle on the steering wheel. This gets you 10-seconds of full power for a comically rapid surge of acceleration, which is sure to entertain the kids and is also useful for the odd overtake.

Go for the eDrive20 model, and it's not as ballistic as the more powerful version, but you still won't be short on pace. It picks up speed eagerly and responsively, feeling quicker than its 0-62mph time of 8.6 seconds would suggest, so it'll be plenty fast enough for most drivers.

The regenerative braking in the iX1 is adaptive, so it varies automatically when the car senses a junction or traffic ahead, or you can select ‘B’ mode for one-pedal driving. This makes the brake recuperation so heavy that you don’t even need to use the brake pedal in slower, about-town driving; you literally moderate your speed simply by modulating the throttle pedal. This can be very odd when you experience it for the first time, but many EV owners like to use it for maximum efficiency and potentially very smooth progress in traffic.

Go for the eDrive20 in entry-level Sport trim, and you get a passive suspension that we haven't yet had the opportunity to try. Go for any other version, and you get an adaptive suspension as standard. It does a good job of keeping the worst bumps and road scars from bothering you in the cabin. Sport mode firms things up a bit and can make the iX1 feel a little unsettled, especially over mid-corner bumps, but most of the time the iX1 is a calm, comfortable and confident car to drive, regardless of whether your car is front-wheel drive or has the xDrive all-wheel drive.

The iX1 steers predictably and you can weight the steering up in Sport mode, or enjoy fairly light and easy-going response for wieldy about-town antics. It’s just a shame that the steering is short of much feedback or real sense of engagement. You can enjoy a good road, but more in a secure, predictable fashion, rather than delivering the involving, poised handling that has made cars like the BMW 3 Series famous as a great choice for those who love to drive.

In the context of its closest electric crossover rivals, including the Mercedes EQA, Audi Q4 e-tron, the electric version of the Volvo XC40, and even the faster but much firmer-riding Tesla Model Y, the BMW iX1 is still one of the best to drive overall. Look to a used or nearly-new Jaguar I-Pace if you really want the best-handling electric SUV at this price, or a new Kia EV6 also offers slightly more involving handling and similar performance and practicality for the money.

Technology, equipment & infotainment

This is another strong area for the BMW iX1. Sport is the entry-level trim, and even this version is still equipped, with 17-inch alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control, ambient lighting, an automatic tailgate, cruise control, a leather steering wheel, automatic lights and wipers, parking sensors and a reversing camera. You also get the full infotainment system with its 10.7-inch central display and 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster. More on that in just a moment.

Next up is xLine trim, which adds the adaptive suspension and 18-inch wheels, along with glossy black interior detailing, heated front seats and BMW's convincing 'Sensatec' faux-leather upholstery. M Sport trim adds 19-inch wheels, racier exterior styling, and sports front seats with contrasting blue stitching, but that's about it.

The infotainment system is the focal point for the cabin, with its frameless, curved screen that houses a 10.7-inch touchscreen and a 10.25-inch driver’s readout. The new Operating System 8 software, previously introduced on the iX, brings wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a very effective native nav system with charger search function, wi-fi hotspot, Bluetooth, wireless over-the-air software updates and configurable home page shortcuts.

The screen responds well and is mostly quite easy to use, and the graphics are second to none. Some may bemoan the climate controls now being permanently in the touchscreen, but at least the temperature controls are always visible and easy to adjust regardless of what else the screen is showing. The standard voice control is one of the better systems out there, too, and proved effective at simple commands when we tried it out.

There’s no rotary dial and shortcut buttons, as has previously often been a feature on BMW iDrive systems, and that's a shame because this control method is much less distracting on the move than using touchscreen functionality.

Other tech features include an optional Parking Assistant Plus feature, which is part of the Technology Plus Pack. This is a semi-autonomous parking aid that steers for you into a parking space. It can also learn your routine parking habits – such as how you normally reverse into a driveway or parking space at home – and mimic it. Efficiency tech features include active aerodynamic ‘fins’ on the car’s fascia that open or close to change the air flow depending on the speed you’re travelling, in order to improve efficiency.

Overall, while it’s a shame that features such as adaptive cruise control and wireless phone charging aren’t standard on any version given the price of the BMW iX1, equipment and tech features are still good overall.

BMW iX1 running costs

The BMW iX1 is not cheap to buy, but it is competitively priced by the standards of comparable premium electric SUVs.

Running costs will also be competitive, and fuel costs will be cheaper than for an equivalent petrol or diesel car. If you pay for your domestic electricity at the national average of 28p per kWh, then a full home charge of the car's batteries will cost you somewhere in the region of £18.

You can also cut the electricity costs involved in running an EV by using cheap overnight charging tariffs. The car makes this easy by allowing you to set charging hours via the touchscreen, or via the Smartphone app, and any internet-enabled home charger will also offer this function. You can cut the cost of charging your car by as much as 75% if you routinely charge overnight on the cheapest available tariff.

If you expect to use public chargers frequently, factor that into potential costs as public charging is a lot more expensive than charging at home, and prices vary widely depending on the region, the charge provider and the speed of the charging station.

Insurance costs are comparable with other high-performance SUVs, so expect them to be fairly high. Servicing prices should be similar or less than the petrol BMW X1.

BMW iX1 reliability

The BMW iX1 is too new to have been subject to any owner surveys. Typically, electric cars are more reliable than petrol or diesel cars as they have far fewer moving parts in their powertrain. However, ancillary electrics, software and charging hardware can still play up. BMW has a long history of producing EVs with the BMW i3 having been sold for over a decade, so you’d hope and expect that reliability would be very good.

The What Car? 2023 reliability survey suggests that the brand overall is middling-to-good, coming 12th out of 32 brands included.

An eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty is included on the high-voltage battery of the BMW iX1, while the car itself is warrantied for three years with no mileage limit. Others, including the Kia EV6, Genesis GV60 and Hyundai Ioniq 5, have longer warranties.