2022 BMW iX detailed (inc. 0-100) review: Best interior of an SUV to date?

CarExpert

I’ve been eagerly waiting to get my hands on the 2022 BMW iX. Yes, the design is out there, but I reckon this interior is the absolute best in the business. How good is it? Paul Maric gets behind the wheel to find out!  Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE  More BMW content: https://www.CarExpert.com.au/bmw More BMW iX content: https://www.CarExpert.com.au/bmw/ix   Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior 01:08 Interior 06:40 Infotainment 09:43 Safety Tech 14:57 Practicality 17:35 Charging 24:56 On Road 25:49 0-100 km/h 32:27 Verdict 33:22  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  #bmw #ix #review

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. Now, BMW, I know they've been doing some interesting things with design lately,

00:05 and I want you to park the design of this to one side until the end of the review.

00:10 This is the all-new BMW iX, and look, to be honest, I'm actually really excited to drive it,

00:15 because on paper, this looks fantastic in terms of its specs. This is, of course,

00:19 a full electric vehicle. It sits on its own electric platform, so it's not just,

00:24 you know, an internal combustion BMW that they've popped an electric drivetrain into.

00:29 So, I'll run you through all those details shortly. Priced at just under $170,000 here for this one,

00:35 this is the xDrive50 spec, but if that's too expensive, the entire range kicks off at under

00:40 $140,000. Now, this competes with things like the Mercedes-Benz EQC, the Jaguar I-PACE,

00:47 the Audi e-tron, and there's a few other competitors now popping up in this segment,

00:52 too. Today, we're going to do a detailed review of this car, so if you do want to skip ahead to

00:55 other parts of the review, you can use those time codes on the screen, or if you're on YouTube,

00:59 scroll down and use the chapters below, and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our

01:03 channel, press the bell icon, because that's going to tell you every single time we drive one of

01:06 these things. Now, let's talk design. So, design is entirely subjective, so I'm not going to tell

01:13 you whether this looks good or it looks bad. That's entirely up to you, but I will tell you

01:17 that it comes with the choice of eight different colours, and they're all free of charge except

01:21 two metallic colours that are around $2,600. Now, let's talk about the design for a second. So,

01:28 you have seen in other BMW products, they've gone to town with the grille, so they've supersized the

01:32 grille, and I'll run you through some interesting things on this grille in just a second, but

01:36 because it is an EV, they only really require cooling down the bottom here, and this is where

01:40 they fit these louvers that allow it to open and close. When it is open, you're obviously cooling

01:45 things down, when it is closed, you're improving aerodynamics because you're not increasing drag.

01:50 Now, this. I'm going to read from the press release because I thought the way they described

01:56 this was really fascinating. So, it has a number of purposes, and I'll read verbatim here. It says,

02:01 "In order to guarantee the greatest possible precision when using the radar sensor mounted

02:05 behind the kidney grille," which is that thing there, "a nanoscale vacuum-based coating process

02:09 is employed in its manufacture. The two-colour finish and visible 3D effect are produced by

02:12 vaporization using laser technology and plasma-fired applications of the machine. The

02:15 combination of the laser-based method and the specific production of the kidney grille

02:17 is a way to ensure the highest quality of the product."

02:21 Now, the other interesting thing about this is that it's self-healing. So, it's a bit like a

02:26 human. If you cut yourself, it heals over its scabs and then you're back to normal. Well, with this,

02:30 if you do get a scratch or imperfection on this surface, all you need to do is apply some heat to

02:36 it, and within 24 hours, that will then close over that gash. So, I just think this is so cool.

02:42 They've taken what is traditionally a grille on an internal combustion car, but given it a brand

02:47 new application here with what is literally space-age technology. So, that's pretty cool there.

02:52 Then you've got your parking sensors down the bottom of the camera here, and have a look at

02:56 this. So, the bonnet doesn't open. So, it does open, but as the owner, you don't really open it.

03:00 There's nothing under there. But if you do need to fill your washer fluid, you hit that, and this

03:06 is where you fill it. So, it all just pours into there, and then when you're done, you close it.

03:09 So, never seen that before, and I think that is a very interesting application.

03:14 Over here, you've got a set of laser headlights, which are standard here on the 50i. Now,

03:19 keep in mind, we've done a comparison between headlight technologies, including the BMW's

03:24 laser headlights. So, click up here to watch that. I thought the results were really fascinating.

03:28 Whip around to the side. Down here, you've got a set of 22-inch alloy wheels. I mean,

03:35 when is it going to stop? I think it was the Maybach, the GLS. So,

03:43 these are enormous wheels, but they have a special design here that helps them stay flat,

03:47 and that means that you're getting better aerodynamics, and I guess less wind resistance

03:51 while you're driving the car as well. And then it sits on a fairly low-profile tire. So,

03:56 we're talking about a 40 profile there. That's going to mean that this needs some proper damping

04:00 and I guess good body control to make sure that it doesn't feel rough inside the car. So,

04:04 I'll be keen to see how that works out and exactly how it feels behind the wheel.

04:08 Now, in terms of the dimensions of the car, this sits on a 3-metre wheelbase,

04:11 so it is a pretty long wheelbase there, and on dimensions, it's slightly longer than an

04:15 X5, so that should give you a bit of an idea of how big this is. It is quite a large vehicle.

04:19 Now, up the top here, you have an indicator built into that wing mirror. You've also got a camera

04:25 built into there as well. Now, this is used for the 360 camera. It's an ultra-wide-angle camera,

04:30 and then there's nothing beneath there. Now, the door handles are interesting, so

04:34 we were joking because where we're filming this at the proving ground here, it's like Huntsman

04:40 Central, and Huntsman is like this enormous Australian spider that scares the living

04:45 shit out of everyone that ever sees one. So, this guy looks quite imposing, but then,

04:52 have a look at his mate down here, who I think is dead, but I don't want to get too close.

04:57 So, in other good news, the spider that I thought was dead has now vanished. So,

05:03 yep, and there's another one over here, just on the door. And this is probably the last type

05:10 of door handle you want in Australia because Huntsman like to tuck in under there. So,

05:15 there is a good chance that when you go to open your door handle here in Australia, you'll get a

05:19 little bit of furry response under there, so keep that in mind. You lock it by swiping over this

05:24 section here, and just beneath that handle, it has a little release, and then that opens the door for

05:29 you, and this comes standard with soft-close doors. Come around the back. Now, the back, to me, is my

05:36 favourite part. So, I did mention before, styling is subjective, but to me, I think the back looks

05:40 fantastic. So, obviously, no exhaust pipes. They do have that bottom diffuser down there,

05:45 plus some reflectors down the bottom, but have a look at these sleek LED taillights.

05:49 It's got that frosted finish to it, and I think that looks really cool, and then an indicator

05:54 section up the top there. You've got xDrive50 there indicating which variant this is. This is

06:00 interesting as well. So, similar to the front where you fill up that washer fluid by popping it

06:04 open, this actually pops open to clean the camera. So, I think it is just another cool, innovative

06:09 feature there that you really don't notice until it is actually working in action there, and then

06:13 you have an iX badge here, along with on that side as well. So, let me know what you think about the

06:19 design in the comments section below. Is it too much, or do you think this is a good-looking

06:24 vehicle? I'm really keen for your feedback. Oh, and just on the flies, in our last couple of

06:27 videos, the i20 and the Kona, where they were literally mauling me like they are today, you

06:31 all suggested that I use like a, you know, fly screen type thing. Trust me, it is layered on,

06:36 they are just ignoring it. So, I will be doing a whole lot of spotting in this video.

06:40 So, we are inside the BMW iX. Let's start off with the key. So, new-looking key here for BMW.

06:47 So, you have got the lock button here, which is the BMW logo. Then, on the sides of it, you have

06:52 unlock, boot, and then a configurable diamond button there. And then, look at these metallic

06:57 finishes as well. So, very cool-looking key. Very light as well, which I think is pretty nice.

07:03 The great thing about this car as well, so yes, it is a proximity-sensing key. You have got your

07:07 start/stop button just there. You can actually configure your phone to be a digital key,

07:12 and that is now native to the Apple operating system. The other cool news is as well,

07:17 if your phone runs out of battery, Apple has a tiny bit of reserve that still allows it to act

07:21 as a key, which I think is a really clever innovation. Now, what about the design? So,

07:28 I mentioned earlier when we were talking about the outside, just hold your judgment until we

07:32 get inside the car and take it for a drive, because to be honest, I did not love the look

07:36 of this car in pictures. It does look a little bit better in person, but ultimately, when I

07:40 opened the door and sat in here, I thought, "Holy crap, this looks absolutely incredible." When I

07:46 think of EVs and I think of the future, this is what I think. You know, when BMW released the i3,

07:52 it was kind of a big step forward in terms of design and the way that it really sort of

07:56 presented itself. This, I feel, is the same, but in the modern EV form. So, where do I start? So,

08:02 have a look at this giant screen up the top here. So, you have got a big infotainment system and

08:06 then a screen here ahead of the driver. That's all floating with this metallic back on it as well,

08:11 with a bit of clear space there between the screen and the dashboard. You've got these gold highlights

08:17 and I just love this. So, this is open-pore wood that they've attached to here. Sustainable as well,

08:23 whatever that means, but you can also get different materials here if you want to.

08:29 Glass on the iDrive controller here. It really is just beautifully presented and I think this

08:35 feels like it's worth a whole lot more than its price tag suggests. So, love the way that this

08:40 looks and I love the way that it's designed. Not sure if I love things like this. It looks a tiny

08:45 bit cheesy having those glass elements here for your seat controls and on the seats as well. They

08:50 are literally like giant armchairs. These are enormous. You've got these sections in the centre

08:55 here, fully perforated as well with this diamond stitching on them. I'm a little bit concerned,

09:00 though, how this will go with kids because this interior looks way too nice to have kids in it. So,

09:05 probably just something to keep in mind. Now, what about your touch points? So,

09:10 really soft there and very soft over here on the door. How soft are they? Well, we've got

09:15 our durometer. We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin. If you want to see how this car

09:20 compares to other cars that we've tested before, have a look at the link in the description.

09:24 Now, build quality. What's that like? So, let's have a little play around with this. That is all

09:30 incredibly solid. It feels really solid to me. And door sound. The door sounds really tinny and

09:38 hollow as well, which is a little bit disappointing, I reckon. Now, let's talk infotainment.

09:45 There's a fair bit to get through here, so just bear with me. And if you're not interested in any

09:49 of this stuff, you can just skip ahead as usual. The main infotainment screen is almost 15 inches

09:55 in size, so it is absolutely enormous. It can be driven down here by the glass iDrive controller.

10:01 Alternatively, it's a touchscreen, so you can drive it like this. Or, alternatively, again,

10:06 it has gesture control. So, if you do want to turn up the volume, you can do stuff like that.

10:12 Gesture control, I think, ultimately is still a gimmick. I don't find it all that useful,

10:16 but it is here just in case you need to use it. So, on this main home screen, you can move these

10:21 cards around, so they are designed to be configurable. So, just by pushing and holding,

10:25 you can then shift those into different positions if you need to. And then you can also add

10:29 additional widgets to that home screen as well. So, it just means that you have all bases covered

10:34 in terms of exactly what you want to use. And then you have clever functions like your weather

10:38 and then all your trip computer information. There is a personal assistant attached to the car.

10:43 So, I'll do this once because every time I say this phrase, it's going to pick up and

10:48 annoy us. So, "Hello, BMW?" "Louder." "Sure, I will turn the volume up."

10:56 So, I can hear there that it will then adjust the volume as required. So, it is kind of your

11:04 personal assistant. So, you just talk to the car, it will do whatever you need it to do. It's pretty

11:07 intelligent. And given this car has such a big breadth of over-the-air updates, it means that

11:12 it will get smarter over time as well. So, that's a pretty decent setup. In terms of telephone,

11:17 you have both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Both of those are wireless. I'll show you that

11:21 in just a second. On the radio front, you have AM/FM, DAB+ digital radio. Now, depending on which

11:28 spec you choose, you can go all the way up to a 30-speaker Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Surround

11:34 sound setup. So, it's pretty insane in terms of the speaker quality that you have there. You have

11:39 inbuilt satellite navigation as well. Climate control, you may be wondering, "Where are all

11:44 the buttons and all that sort of stuff?" Well, there is a climate menu down the bottom here that

11:47 you can access from anywhere within the infotainment system. Then, in addition to that,

11:52 with I guess every BMW I can remember in the past sort of decade, you've had shortcut buttons down

11:57 the bottom that you can assign to different functions within the car. That all now lives,

12:01 I think the gesture control is picking up me moving my fingers, that all lives down the top

12:05 here. So, you just swipe down from the top and then you can assign those different functions to

12:08 the vehicle and it will take care of that. And then in the menu here, you have the rest of the

12:13 functions within the car. Let's have a quick look at your smartphone mirroring and we'll start off

12:18 with Apple CarPlay. Look at this, entire screen integration and it is very sharp, very fast as

12:27 well. So, quite an impressive setup there. And this is what Android Auto looks like. So, look at that,

12:32 so again, full screen integration, that's nice and fast as well. And finally, they've put to use the

12:38 left-hand side of the menu, so I quite like that setup there. So, in addition to your smartphone

12:44 mirroring, if you go over here to the menu, continuing the theme of button reduction,

12:48 you actually control your interior lighting from this menu as well. So, using this, you can actually

12:53 set up what the interior lights are doing. I just think it's a better way to get rid of all the

12:58 buttons. So, assuming this all stays working fine, I think this is a good way to go. Now,

13:03 have a look at this, you have the ability to connect your phone to the BMW app and the BMW

13:09 app is quite intelligent in the way that it works. Once you're in there, you can see your vehicle,

13:13 you can see the state of charge, that's all pretty straightforward stuff, but I love this,

13:17 you actually have remote cameras. So, when you're not near the car, what you're able to do is get

13:23 it to take an image of outside the car, so you can see everything that's around you.

13:29 And then on top of that, you can take an interior photo as well. I've always wondered,

13:35 you know, when your car is sitting there, what's going on around it? And this is a really quick

13:39 and easy way to do that. And then this, of course, comes with the rest of the features you'll find in

13:43 most other apps that are car connected, which is satellite navigation, figuring out where your car

13:48 is sending destinations to the car, honking the horn, unlocking the car, all that kind of stuff.

13:52 So, really impressive setup from a technology standpoint. And OS8, which is what this

13:58 infotainment system is now, really pushes the game further in terms of connectivity and the

14:02 way that it's presented. I think this is like above and beyond the best infotainment system

14:07 on the market. They've done such a good job with it. Let me quickly run you through the screen

14:10 ahead of the driver here and the head-up display as well. The screen measures a little over 12

14:14 inches in size, and it comes with a whole host of configurability options. So, that's the standard

14:20 view there. You can see we've got a warning about the door being open. If I press the settings

14:23 button, I can change the content in the centre of the screen to display anything else I need

14:28 to display. You can then slide over to the right to change layout. You can see there that the layout

14:34 changes depending on what you want. And then finally, you can configure the head-up display

14:38 to give you a number of different views. The head-up display itself is absolutely enormous.

14:43 I don't think I've seen one this size in a car before. So, it is good that you can really take

14:47 control of what's visible over there as well. So, yeah, love this setup. And like I said,

14:53 I think this is really state-of-the-art stuff in a modern car today. Moving on to safety technology.

14:59 So, you have autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection. You have a

15:03 blind spot monitor built into the wing mirror. You have a lane departure warning and a lane

15:08 keeping assistant. You also have radar cruise control with a self-steering function. I was

15:12 playing around with this this morning. It actually works pretty good. It sort of kept the car sort

15:16 of centred in the lane and did corners and stuff like that. But once you get onto roadwork sections,

15:22 it kind of is all over the place like a lot of these systems. In addition to that, you have both

15:27 front and rear parking sensors. You also have a 360 camera. I'll show you what that looks like.

15:33 The quality of this is fantastic. It's really high resolution there. But in addition to all of that,

15:37 you can set auto views. So, it will basically determine which camera angle to show you on

15:42 the screen. Or you can manually select the views as you go. But the most fascinating thing here

15:48 is the reverse assistant. So, we actually shot a video demonstrating how this works. You can click

15:54 up here to watch that. But it effectively remembers the last 50 metres of your journey.

15:58 And then by pushing that button, it will start sending you back the exact same way that you came.

16:02 Now, this is handy if you go down a narrow one-way street or something and you need to get back and

16:07 you're not all that confident with reversing. This will do it exactly how you need it to do it.

16:12 You can then go to the panorama view. So, by selecting that, it gives you that wide-angle

16:15 view of the rear. You then have a 3D view which you manually control with gesture control by using

16:21 the pinch function there. You also have a car wash view. Car wash view is there so you don't ding your

16:27 wheels as you're trying to get inside the car wash. And I showed you this earlier, but it's the camera

16:32 cleaning function. You can blitz the front and rear cameras if they are getting a little bit dirty

16:36 there. So, yeah, pretty cool setup. And I think this is probably the most advanced parking feature

16:41 system we've seen in a new car today. Oh, there's actually one other thing I forgot to mention.

16:46 This has a safety exit assistant. So, on the door here, each door has these LED panels that run all

16:52 the way along the door. They act as ambient lighting at night time when it's dark and you

16:57 can set it all up inside the car. But more importantly, if you are getting out of the car

17:01 and there's another vehicle, cyclist or pedestrian coming, you've got to push the button here to open

17:05 the door. It will all start flashing and prevent you from opening the door if there is another

17:09 vehicle coming. So, love that feature and it means you will prevent unnecessary accidents like opening

17:15 doors into cyclists or cars or other things that are flying past you in traffic. Oh, by the way,

17:20 if you do want more information on the BMW iX, we actually have a BMW iX showroom on our website

17:26 and that has more information on the car's specs, prices, features and all of our detailed reviews

17:31 as well. So, click up here to check that out. Let's talk about practicality and we'll start off

17:38 with your connectivity options. So, down here you've got two USB-C ports and a 12-volt outlet.

17:44 You also have a wireless phone charger. Then in terms of storing your phone, it can live down

17:48 there on the wireless phone charger or, well, kind of in your cup holders a little bit. I think that

17:55 middle section actually comes out, so yes, you can pop it in your cup holders if you need to.

17:58 Now, tiny coffee. I've got a bit of an issue with this because, look, it fits down here okay,

18:04 and obviously the lid catches on the side, so you might spill it when you go to grab it.

18:08 It's more an issue grabbing the coffee. While you're driving, you have to go all the way down

18:12 here, awkwardly put your arm around this centre console and lift the coffee up. It's really not

18:18 a very good placement of cup holders for the purpose of hot drinks, so it is worth keeping

18:24 in mind. And then in terms of our water, it fits into there and you've got your teeth holding it

18:28 into place. Also fits inside the door. There's a fairly decent pocket there for water. Let's try

18:33 a big bottle. I don't think it fits in the middle there, but in the door, there you go, fits in

18:39 without any dramas at all, so that's pretty good. Other storage. So you've got this tiny little slot

18:44 up the front here for your key. I think your phone can actually, there you go, your phone can live

18:50 in there as well. That's pretty cool. You have a centre console here with a coin tray at the top

18:54 and then a deeper storage section in the centre. And then finally you have a glove box here that is

19:00 actually quite small. I thought that would be a little bit bigger given you have a whole lot more

19:05 space here to work with as an EV. And now talking about comfort. So up the front here you have dual

19:12 zone automatic climate control. You have another two zones of climate control for the second row.

19:17 You'll also find here your heated seats. The seat controls are on the door, so instead of being on

19:24 the side of the seat, because the seats literally bulge all the way around, they're now fitted on

19:28 the door just like a Mercedes-Benz. So you can go forwards, backwards, you can put the bottom up,

19:34 and then you can put the back forward, backwards. Over here you've got memory for the driver and

19:39 also the passenger, and each of those also has this button down the front which accesses

19:43 the massage function. So once you've got that operating, it'll give you a nice back massage

19:49 while you're wafting along in silence. Then in terms of seat comfort, the seats are supremely

19:56 comfortable. I mean just have a look at it, it literally looks like a lounge chair. Hugs you in

20:00 beautifully and they're just very soft as well, so excellent for long distance driving. Let's talk

20:07 about the steering wheel. So it offers both tilt and reach adjustment. It's electric in the way

20:12 that it does that, but why is it like this? I just don't understand why it can't just be a normal

20:19 steering wheel. Tesla with the latest Model S and Model X have this sort of silly sort of F1 style

20:25 steering wheel and this is kind of the same. It just doesn't provide you progression as you're

20:29 moving around that wheel motion, so I just wish they would keep that stuff normal. And finally,

20:33 on our reach test, all of this stuff is easy to reach. There's that gesture control while you're

20:38 driving. So second row of the iX. Look, in terms of room, stacks of room here. Look at that, heaps

20:45 of knee room, toe room is pretty good and headroom is excellent. Now that brings me to this right

20:51 here. So this is the biggest panoramic glass roof in any BMW product ever. It is a meter wide and it

20:59 covers the span from front to back, but it has an incredibly cool function. This is filled with

21:06 liquid crystals and then at the push of a button it goes from being see-through like that to being

21:11 not see-through and it does that by applying a voltage to those liquid crystals and they scatter

21:17 immediately to give you that sort of vision where you can't see out the top. So love that technology

21:22 and I love that it's standard here in the xDrive50 and I think that will provide hours of amusement

21:28 as at the push of a button. In terms of other creature comforts, in the back here you have

21:32 four USB-C ports. They're attached to the back of each of these seats and also a slot here to hold

21:38 your devices. Down here you have the climate controls for the third and fourth zone, air vents

21:43 here, mat pockets there and also air vents inside the doors. It is worth pointing out as well the

21:48 BMW gives the option of going leather, a non-leather product or a cloth product for the seat,

21:54 so you can choose whatever you like there in terms of your seating material and I love the fact that

21:59 these corners are padded as well so you can literally just go to sleep on the side here.

22:03 It's a really sort of nice and comfortable place to be seated just like the front.

22:06 You've got a centre armrest here with two cup holders, see how that holds our bottle,

22:11 no dramas there and then this fits inside the door as well. ISOFIX, so you've got two ISOFIX

22:17 points on the outboard seats but I love the way this feature works. You pull this up and then it

22:22 exposes your ISOFIX points so in a lot of cars you have to remove plastic covers there and they get

22:27 lost and you never see them again so really good innovation there and just a clever way of concealing

22:32 the ISOFIX points when you're not using them. So yeah, really impressed with this back seat area

22:37 and I think they've done an excellent job giving you that super luxurious feel. I just wonder what

22:42 it will be like with kids and this seat material here, that is a lot of perforations. Oh, I forgot,

22:48 window, let's see how far that goes down. So it's an auto down.

22:52 What the hell? What's the point of having a window if it only goes down halfway? I don't

23:00 know if that's a setting in the car or if it actually only goes down halfway. If it does

23:05 only go down halfway that is pretty disappointing. Now let's talk cargo space. One of the big

23:12 advantages with EVs is that you can actually load more in because you don't have a fuel tank, you

23:17 don't have all the other stuff that traditionally gets in the way of your cargo space. So just in

23:22 its standard form you've got 500 litres of cargo space available here and then under the cargo

23:27 floor you have plenty of subfloor storage for things like cables and odds and ends and then

23:32 you can also lift this up a little bit further to give you even more storage that is away from

23:37 prying eyes under there. Down here you'll also find a compressor to fill the tyres with the goo

23:43 that you can put in there. Now this is the interesting thing about the iX, it's built on an

23:47 aluminium space frame but it also has elements of carbon fibre. So this carbon fibre is used

23:52 throughout the car to reduce weight but also increase the amount of strength and you can see

23:57 it here open on display. You can also see it inside the doors as well and I think this is a really

24:01 cool thing and it shows you how much effort BMW has put into this car. Yes it is still heavy,

24:06 it's around that two and a half tonne mark but it has 111 kilowatt hour battery so it is actually

24:12 pretty decent in terms of weight when it comes to all the features they've added to it and then

24:15 these lights are here just in case you do have your boot open and you've got people driving behind

24:20 you they can see exactly what's going on. Now if you do need more space you can drop that second

24:24 row. I'll show you what it looks like with our bags in there first. So laptop bag there and our

24:29 big suitcase goes in just there so that gives you an idea of how much room there is. I reckon the

24:36 boot could be a little bit bigger, it is surprising how little it is when you look at the size of the

24:40 car so yeah a little bit disappointing there in terms of boot space but if you do need a little

24:44 bit of extra room you flick these switches here on the side and that increases the boot space to

24:49 around 1800 litres and then on the side as well you've also got hooks and a 12 volt outlet as well

24:55 just to store things. Now let's talk EV charging before we go for a drive and I'll run you through

25:00 the key specs. So it has a 111 kilowatt hour battery around 105 kilowatt hours of that is

25:05 actually usable then you have both AC and DC charging that's all behind this giant port here

25:12 that won't close if those flaps are open. So in terms of AC charging you can charge it up to 11

25:16 kilowatts three-phase so it has a three-phase onboard charger and then on the DC front you're

25:21 able to charge at a peak of 195 kilowatts DC so it is fast charging not quite the fastest out there

25:28 and I would have thought given this is their latest and greatest surely you would keep up with

25:33 something like literally an entry-level Tesla Model 3 that will do with V3 charging something

25:38 like 250 kilowatts so it is a little bit disappointing they haven't offered a faster

25:42 charging option here when fast charging is well and truly available in the segment and on much

25:47 cheaper cars. So I've hit the road in the iX now this is all-wheel drive it means that it has two

25:56 electric motors one on the front axle one on the rear axle and they are I guess combined without

26:02 any driveline which is one of the big advantages of an EV. Now they produce combined in this xDrive

26:08 50 spec 385 kilowatts of power and 765 newton meters of torque so that is a fair chunk of power

26:17 and torque but it kind of needs to be because this weighs over two and a half tons in this trim and

26:23 it is partly due to that big battery 111 kilowatt hours it is one of the biggest batteries you can

26:28 buy in an EV today so it is a bit commensurate with the price as well given how expensive this

26:32 is. I'll also call out as well the power split between the front and rear motors so 200 kilowatts

26:37 at the front 250 at the rear that's how they get to that combined figure. What's the driving

26:42 experience like? So I have mentioned this in previous EV videos but yes if I do that it

26:48 pins me back in the seat just like every EV on the market so tick it does that sort of sick

26:54 inducing stuff which is great but what BMW has tried to do is make this more versatile as a

26:59 daily driver so down here on the screen as I roll out of the throttle it's got a little adaptive

27:04 section right now it's not slowing down at all it is just coasting and if I put my foot on the brake

27:09 it goes into that adaptive zone and starts using regen instead of the mechanical brakes to slow us

27:13 down. The reason it's adaptive is because it's able to sense other vehicles around you so if you

27:19 are slowing down for a set of traffic lights and you have a vehicle in front of you it will then

27:22 go into regen at the same pace as the car in front so you're only using regen when you need to. In

27:28 most other cars on the market when you do let off the throttle and it goes into regen you have to

27:32 then play with the throttle to reduce the amount of regen. In theory great idea in practice doesn't

27:38 really work that well because if the car in front of you comes to a stop this slows down to about

27:42 sort of 10 kilometers an hour but it doesn't actually stop so the first time I tried this I

27:46 was like holy shit I gotta stand on the brakes here because it wasn't gonna stop it's gonna hit

27:50 the car in front so I don't really love that. What I do like though is being able to flick the drive

27:56 switch down one more and it goes into B mode. When it's in B mode it acts just like any other EV so

28:01 as I roll out of the throttle it goes into its full regen mode and then it comes to I think a

28:07 complete stop let's see yes it comes to a complete stop so this very much feels like a Tesla for

28:12 example in the way that it will come to a complete stop and then hold until you take off again so it

28:18 is good that you're able to switch between those modes. One of the weird things I noticed as well

28:23 is as you're steering the car and it gets more pronounced in sport mode because this has four

28:28 wheel steering the rear wheels help you go around a corner so as you put in more steering effort

28:34 it starts tucking you in it kind of it feels like you're about to oversteer it's sort of that

28:39 initial progression into oversteer that you normally get in a rear-wheel drive car but in

28:43 this sense it's actually helping you track around that corner and at low speeds it reduces your

28:47 turning circle as well so without it it's 12.8 meters with it it is closer to that 12 meter mark

28:52 so at low speeds it is easy to park and the steering is super light as well so it's very

28:58 easy to park in and around the city especially with all of the driving aids that it comes with.

29:02 The other thing I've noticed too is how quiet this is it is incredible we're doing like 100kph

29:12 at the moment there is barely a whisper inside the cabin it is one of the quietest EVs I've

29:17 ever driven and that is absolutely saying something so really impressed with the levels of

29:22 noise vibration and harshness isolation inside the cabin here. Okay let's dial up the pace to

29:27 highway speeds here in Australia up to 130kph now we've got our sine waves here

29:33 yeah that's really impressive so lesser EVs especially lesser vehicles without adaptive

29:41 damping and air suspension like you do have in this case they kind of get really floaty and

29:46 unsettled over that stuff whereas this despite its weight at two and a half tons still feels

29:50 really nice and settled as you plow over those sine waves that are designed to really upset a

29:55 car as quickly and easily as they can. Now what about your drive modes so you select those by

30:00 clicking my modes you have personal, sport and efficient so what I'll do now is go to sport

30:06 as soon as I hit that we'll go activate I can already feel the ride is getting firmer we've

30:12 got our corner coming up here let's see how this feels

30:16 it is big oh yeah you really cannot hide its weight even to the point where it's I don't know

30:27 it's actually moving really quickly but it it's so hard to describe so it's moving fast but

30:33 it has a lot of body roll so it's it's kind of like driving a very fast bus like it's just

30:39 really fast and then through the corners it sort of gets into some body roll but for the most part

30:44 it's actually pretty good you can feel the effect of that four-axis steering it's sort of tucking

30:50 the rear end as you approach these corners you feel it more at low speeds but even here at high

30:54 speeds it's giving me a fair bit of communication through the wheel I am bumping the outer edges of

31:02 these steering wheel controls though as the speed picks up which is a little bit annoying

31:06 let's plow on the throttle here yeah look even at higher speeds once you get stuck into the throttle

31:11 it really begins putting on pace it is quick for such a heavy car yeah look I'm surprised by that

31:18 it's it's got me in two minds here it's it's sort of it is quite floaty and and has a fair degree of

31:25 body roll but it's very much controllable it doesn't feel like your typical BMW it does feel

31:30 a little floatier but pretty impressed with the way that it handles given its size and how much

31:35 space you have inside the cabin let's talk EV economy 23 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers

31:46 and how are we doing let's have a little sticky beak here we are currently sitting on 25.5 so

31:53 keep in mind I have been giving this a fairly hard time here at the proving ground but 25.5

31:58 is pretty impressive for a vehicle this size I'll quickly note the driving range as well because the

32:03 battery is so big it has a claimed driving range of 630 kilometers I've mentioned this previously

32:09 with EVs I always deduct about 100 k's because the I guess the computerized driving range is never

32:15 really quite on par with what you get in real life and even as real life that's pretty impressive for

32:20 an EV and that's going to suffice for pretty much all the driving that you're going to be doing

32:27 BMW claims a 0 to 100 time of 4.6 seconds this is how it went up against our stopwatch

32:33 now in terms of visibility so down the front there it is excellent this window is huge so

32:56 I have great visibility right through that the wing mirrors they're good but could be a little

33:00 bit bigger I reckon they feel really small but they do have a blind spot monitor built into them

33:05 and rearward visibility is pretty good the window is tall but quite narrow so

33:10 you do miss a little bit of those edges but for the most part it's fine

33:22 so the BMW ix I told you not to judge it by its design I think that if you put the design to one

33:28 side this car I don't know it seems to really set a benchmark in the segment for technology it is

33:34 right up there in terms of the standard inclusions it is lightning quick which you expect from an

33:38 EV but more importantly it has loads of room inside and I don't know it just feels futuristic

33:44 without sort of overdoing it in that sense so really impressed with what BMW has done in terms

33:49 of the negatives though it really doesn't handle and look a BMW is a BMW right it's the ultimate

33:55 driver's machine this doesn't really feel like the ultimate driver's machine it's quick in a

34:00 straight line but yeah so what any EV can do that through corners though it really does feel quite

34:04 sort of big and cumbersome so I don't know what it's going to like when they roll out the M60

34:09 which is going to be like you know the performance version of this hopefully they'll sort out the

34:14 body roll and all that sort of stuff by that point but if you put that stuff to one side you need a

34:17 cruiser that has decent amount of range and has an interior that you really just don't see in any

34:22 other car on the market today I think this is a really impressive proposition now let me know what

34:26 you think in the comments section below have you bought one of these or are you going to buy one

34:31 of these and if so what else are you looking at at the moment and which spec are you going to go for

34:35 let me know down there if you did enjoy this video please make sure you share it with your mates and

34:39 if you haven't done so already subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon every like and

34:44 subscription will buy me another can of air I guard so until next time take it easy

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