BMW iX3 Review (2021-2025)
BMW iX3 cars for sale
4.0
Expert review
Pros
Comfortable ride, thank to adaptive suspension
Impressive real-world range
Generous equipment
Cons
The ix3 is pricier and slower than a Tesla Model Y
A Ford Mustang Mach-E is more practical and costs less
Not as appealing to keen drivers as a Jaguar I-Pace
The CarGurus verdict
The BMW iX3 is a great electric family SUV, which justifies its comparably high price with generous equipment levels, a great ride and handling balance, a classy finish and generally impressive practicality. It’s still got serious competition in the form of the cheaper and faster Tesla Model Y, which also gets the benefit of the excellent Tesla Supercharger network, and the Ford Mustang Mach-E and VW ID.4 offer better practicality for less cash. The Jaguar I-Pace is also a better handling electric SUV.
Even with all that competition factored in, the balance of daily usability, sophisticated dynamics and general desirability that the BMW iX3 delivers is hard to fault. If you’re shopping for a posh, electric family SUV, this should be right a the top of your list.
What is the BMW iX3?
The BMW iX3 is a mid-sized, pure-electric family SUV that offers an official WLTP range of 285 miles courtesy of an 80kWh lithium-ion battery. It’s based on the same platform as the standard BMW X3, which can be had as a petrol, diesel or plug-in hybrid, only this one only has batteries and an electric motor delivering 282bhp to the rear wheels for a 0-62mph time of 6.8 seconds. There are currently no confirmed plans for a four-wheel drive version of the BMW iX3; if you want greater performance or all-wheel drive, you’ll have to look to the Jaguar I-Pace, Ford Mustang Mach-E or Tesla Model Y.
You can instantly tell the BMW iX3 apart from its combustion engine equivalents, due to that blanked-off kidney grille, not to mention the badging and lack of tailpipes; other than that, it looks and feels very familiar. There’s none of the deliberate weirdness and unconventional styling that some electric vehicles have made de rigueur for EVs, BMW’s own i3 being a prime example. In fact, one of the iX3’s strengths may well be the familiarity it delivers. In every way other than the seamless build of power, and the fact that you have to plug it in rather than fill it up, it feels just as comfortingly versatile and secure as any BMW X3.
How practical is it?
The BMW iX3 is very practical, even if perhaps not as roomy as some rivals. There’s plenty of space up front for even the tallest of drivers to find a natural driving position, and rear passenger space is also very generous. There’s no less space in the iX3 than there is in the standard BMW X3, so a couple of tall adults will be very comfy, and they can recline the seat backs if they wish. Anyone sat in the middle will have to straddle a raised hump in the floor, though, which they won’t in the Tesla Model Y or Ford Mustang Mach-E. The rear seats also split in a 40/20/40 fashion, too, making through-loading a long item easy even if you’ve got people in the back seats.
The 510-litre main boot space in the iX3 is also unaffected compared to the standard X3, but there’s no underfloor storage as the batteries take up that space. Sadly, there’s no storage in the nose of the car, either, so while the boot is more than big enough to take a couple of bags of golf clubs, or a chunky pushchair, with room to spare, there are more practical alternatives. The Tesla Model Y and Ford Mustang Mach-E both offer a ‘frunk’ under the bonnet for cable storage, as well as similarly-sized boots and slightly better rear legroom, for instance, although the BMW iX3 is certainly roomier than the Jaguar I-Pace.
You can’t quibble on the perceived finish and build quality in the BMW iX3, either. The switches are beautifully damped, the materials feel dense and classy, and it feels every bit the high quality vehicle that you expect at this price. Maybe the Mercedes-Benz EQC and Jaguar I-Pace have more flair to the interior design, but the BMW's is a more logical layout and feels exactingly built.
What's it like to drive?
The BMW iX3 is one of those electric cars that feels totally, reassuringly ordinary even if you’re never driven an EV before. Of course, there’s the eerie lack of engine noise and the direct-drive automatic gearbox, which delivers an uninterrupted stream of acceleration that you’ll find a bit unsettling initially if it’s your first battery car experience. But otherwise it really is business as usual for the BMW X3.
Don’t worry about that rear-wheel drive powertrain; there’s plenty of traction even in damp conditions, and the iX3 feels appealingly planted and confident whether you’re in Sport mode and swinging through some fun bends, or just muddling through a depressingly mundane commute in Comfort mode. In fact, the well-weighted steering and general sense of connection in the BMW iX3 makes this one of the best cars in the class to drive.
Adaptive suspension is standard, which helps to make the BMW iX3 comfortable over scruffy roads despite the additional weight of the battery that lies along its floorpan. And, while the BMW iX3 doesn’t have the sort of voracious acceleration that the Jaguar I-Pace, Tesla Model Y and top-spec Ford Mustang Mach-E variants can offer, it’s still got more than enough urgency when you want it. In fact, from a standstill this feels every bit the sports SUV, and even in a mid-range sprint onto a fast motorway it's got all the muscle that you need.
Overall, it’s not as engaging to drive as the Jaguar I-Pace, but it is more comfortable; a brilliant motorway cruiser or about-town family car, and also one of the most enjoyable cars in the class when you find a good road.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
There are only two trims available on the BMW iX3, M Sport and M Sport Pro. Even the cheaper BMW iX3 M Sport model gets a high specification including a panoramic glass roof, leather upholstery with heated and electrically adjustable front seats, climate control in the back seats as well as the front, adaptive LED headlights, reversing camera, and parking sensors all round. You really don’t need the higher spec M Sport Pro, but since it ups the alloy wheels from 19 inches to 20, adds keyless entry, a head-up display and a Harman Kardon sound system, plenty will choose to do just that anyway.
Every BMW iX3 gets the same great infotainment system, which centres on a large touchscreen that can also be controlled with a rotary selector on the centre console. Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, satnav, wireless phone charging, voice control and even gesture control – where you can skip tracks and change the volume by waving your hand in the air in front of the screen – are all included. Let’s face it, gesture control is something you use once to show off to your friends and then never bother again, since the steering wheel buttons are far easier, but it’s cool nonetheless. Also cool is the ‘eDrive’ exterior sound (composed by Hans Zimmer, of movie soundtrack fame), which alerts pedestrians to a passing electric car. Zimmer also composed the soundtrack that gets piped into the cabin on the iX3 when you put it in Sport mode, for a rather existential, spaceship-style hum to encourage a bit of enthusiastic driving.
BMW iX3 running costs
The electric BMW iX3 will be far cheaper to run than any equivalent petrol, diesel or even plug-in hybrid alternative because electricity is a much cheaper energy source. Assuming you’re on a standard domestic electricity tariff, the BMW iX3 will cost around £12 for a full charge, or you could pay half that if you make use of off-peak tariffs, which is easy to do as you can set charging time parameters via the car’s screen or on the associated phone app. You just plug the car in when you get home and it will delay charging until your chosen late-night time slot.
Even if you don’t use cheaper overnight tariffs, this still means that the BMW iX3 will cost around 5p per mile in fuel, roughly a third of what an efficient petrol or diesel car costs in fuel.
However, the BMW iX3’s low running costs will be very similar to most of its electric rivals, and electric cars remain more expensive to buy. Given that the iX3 costs around £60,000 and up, you can have the plug-in hybrid BMW X3 xDrive30e, for some £6,000 less, while the xDrive20d is around £13,000 cheaper. Mind you, the iX3 is usefully better equipped with panoramic glass roof, adaptive dampers and various other extras that cost thousands extra on the other M Sport variants, so the difference in price spec-for-spec is substantially less than list prices suggest. You’ll still pay less to buy any of the ‘normal’ X3 models instead of the pure electric iX3, whether you’re buying on finance or outright.
Still, those low running costs and the fact that the iX3 is likely to retain its value extremely well does go some way to making up for that. Just make sure that the BMW iX3 justifies its price over alternative pure electric rivals like the Tesla Model Y, Volkswagen ID.4 and Ford Mustang Mach-E.
BMW iX3 reliability
The BMW iX3 is too new to have any specific owner feedback or reliability data yet, but electric cars are typically more reliable than combustion-engined cars as there are far fewer moving parts in an electric motor than in a petrol or diesel engine. Still, ancillary electrics, charging hardware and software issues can still cause problems in EVs, but BMW does offer a three-year, unlimited-mileage warranty on the iX3, while the high- voltage battery is covered for eight years and 100,000 miles.
BMW as a brand came a respectable - if underwhelming - 13th overall out of 30 brands surveyed in the 2021 What Car? Used Car Reliability Survey, while it finished a disappointing 21st out of 29 marques included in the Driver Power owner satisfaction survey.
- One of the best aspects of the iX3 is its real-world range. Often, electric cars fall a long way short of their official range estimates, but the iX3 will probably get very close to its WLTP range figure of 285 miles in the summer, even if you do a bit of motorway driving. Our test drive was in middling autumnal temperatures and mostly on the motorway or faster country roads, yet we still managed a realistic 240-mile range. Given that every electric car is less efficient at high speeds and in cold weather, that’s impressive, especially for a big, fairly powerful SUV. As a result, we’d expect the range to drop further in very cold weather to around 220 miles, while it seems likely that the iX3 will match or surpass its claimed range in the summer.
- The BMW iX3 charges up via a Type 2 and CCS socket located in the rear wing, where you’d typically expect the fuel filler to be. These are the same sockets as used by almost every other new electric vehicle, and are compatible with the vast majority of public charge points. Peak rapid charging speeds top out at 150kW in the BMW iX3, which is better than the Jaguar I-Pace and matches the Audi E-tron, although it falls short of what the Tesla Model Y can deliver. It’s fast enough for just about anyone, even those doing high mileage, as it’ll get you a 100-mile top-up in around 15 minutes or less from a 150kW ultra-rapid charger. An 80% top-up will take under 30 minutes. Plug into a 7kW home wallbox and you’ll have a full battery in around 12 hours.
- Regenerative braking is the system that brakes the car when you lift off the throttle, in order to gather energy and improve your driving range. In the iX3 it has three modes, but you have to access them via the touchscreen so it’s not at all easy to change while you’re driving. There’s no one-pedal driving mode, either. Still, the brakes do bleed in smoothly and are easy to judge regardless of which mode you’re in.
- If you want the best value: The BMW iX3 M Sport is the best value in the range and, while not a cheap car, the level of standard equipment still makes it cheaper spec-for-spec than alternatives like the Jaguar I-Pace, even if you can argue that the Tesla Model Y and Ford Mustang Mach-E make it look a tad expensive. Regardless, if you want the best value iX3, the M Sport model is the one to go for.
- If you want the sporty one: There is only the one powertrain in the BMW iX3, but going for M Sport Pro gets you bigger wheels and a dark anthracite finish on the exterior trim and roof rails, so it’s certainly a bit more sporting to look at. You can also add the ‘Phyton Blue’ metallic paint to M Sport Pro, which is the only bright colour available on the iX3. All the others are free of charge, and metallic, but also in any shade you fancy as long as it’s black, grey or white.
- If you want the best family one: Again, the BMW iX3 M Sport is the best value and does pretty much everything you’d want or need of a family car. The only frustration is that you can’t add keyless entry, which is always a great feature if your hands full with young kids or shopping. You have to go for the M Sport Pro, which is £3,000 more expensive but gets it as standard.
- If you’re a company car user: Benefit-in-Kind company car costs are so low that even an electric car as expensive as the BMW iX3 and its rivals will cost only a few hundred pounds each year in BiK tax, so you may as well go for the high-spec M Sport Pro if your company will allow it. If you’re leasing through your company, the M Sport is likely to be usefully cheaper on monthly payments so is likely to be the better option.
