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"XX (model) is first of all a XX (brand) and then an electric car." ——Almost every traditional luxury brand's electric car talk selection book, this sentence can be ranked in the first few lines.
There is no need to say what the iX looks like, when we drive a team of BMW iX out of the parking lot, it is difficult not to have a gaze that has never been grabbed by the large nostrils of the ancients. The iX is shaped by Li Tianyuan, a Chinese designer who once worked for BMW, and just a few months ago, he appeared in a photo of the founding team of Xiaomi Motors.
If you settle down, it's not hard to see that iX is special beyond your nostrils. It's a large SUV about the length of the X5, but from any angle, it's completely out of the "classic BMW" look. If you have to find a close relative at home, it is easier to think of the little guy in the obscurantist period of the BMW i series, bmw i3.
This association is not out of thin air, BMW broke the ground in the i3 city car, the use of specially customized carbon fiber composite body, is still the cheapest "all carbon" model on the market. After the first round of testing of the i3 and i8, BMW did not play the idea of a pure electric platform for several years, and the iX3 and i4 were based on the CLAR platform of the oil and electricity general - until today, this BMW iX (chassis code i20).
The pure electric platform also means that iX will no longer have a "universal platform" that can be used as an alternative excuse, and all its performance will be recorded as the real strength of "BMW electric vehicles".
Coincidentally, the latest issue of the Hong Kong edition of TopGear, January 2022, also gave the iX stamp to identify the "i3 successor".
Bold and unconventional
Of course, the "successor" we are talking about here is not the vertical replacement at the product level that we usually refer to, but the spiritual inheritance at the technical level.
From i3 to iX, you can understand that BMW used the accumulation and lessons of the original i3 to build a large pure electric SUV of X5 level. To use the outside example, the i3 is much like the Audi A2 with an all-aluminum body in 1997: the same cost is high and the applause is not popular, but it has made the way for the wider application of the later Audi ASF all-aluminum frame.
Let's put aside the harder ones and let's talk about what can be seen first. BMW gives the iX a fairly high degree of proportional freedom, the slender dash-to-axle (front wheel axis to front door column) of traditional longitudinal fuel luxury cars (such as the X5) is shortened, and the long wheelbase of 3 meters is left to the rear crew compartment to the maximum.
After pulling the car door, the "abnormality" is more obvious, and the wide and large central handrail area of the traditional luxury car only provides the "rear half" here in the iX. The armrests are still wide and the iDrive control area is within reach, but the front is no longer connected to the center console, but like the i3 of the year, there is no space to extend down to the floor.
The reason is naturally that the central tunnel that houses the drive shaft on the fuel vehicle has disappeared, on the one hand, it is easier for the main driver to move to the co-driver in the car, and the "reverse advantage" that is only available on tens of thousands of vans has a high level; on the other hand, when the front row is full, the backpack no longer needs us to turn around and throw it to the back row.
It's not too cool to pick up and put your backpack away
But this arrangement also places high demands on the interior design - if you don't get it right, it really looks like a van. You know, the wide armrests that were originally caused by physical restrictions have in turn become an important embodiment of the luxury body price. Therefore, there are already many luxury cars on pure electric platforms today, but not many dare to play like this.
The approach of iX is to use macroscopic simplicity and embellishment with microscopic magnificence to create a more modern aesthetic of exquisite luxury.
The one-piece dual screen, now presented in the suspended surface of the hidden bracket, although the curvature is not amazing, allows the central control screen to tilt to the driver at 6 degrees, reproducing BMW's "driver-centered" tilting central control design in the digital age. In addition, the entire front center console is a large package of olive leaf tanned leather.
Gorgeously reflected in the details, the iDrive central knob is now crystal clear, the touch-like wooden panel below hides the physical press buttons, and the seat adjustment controls are moved to the door panel position, which is also a radiant crystal glass texture.
Bavarian obsession
To really get started with "moving", the hexagonal shaped special-shaped steering wheel takes a little time to get used to. The emptiness of the lightweight interior styling is also a bit fresh at this price point. BMW will give the iX the advantage of the space flexibility of the electric car, without reservation. This line of thinking was once reflected in the i3, but at the price of the iX, it takes some courage.
Now that you've come to this price point, the iX's chassis hardware configuration is basically full: front double wishbones, basic suspension structure of rear five linkages, front and rear air springs, 3.2° rear wheel steering system, and 17-inch large-size brake discs.
With a total of 523 hp, the front and rear dual motors accelerate the iX xDrive 50, which weighs more than 2.5 tons, to 100 km/h in 4.6 seconds. It is said that there will be an M Performance version of the iX M60 soon, and it is hard to imagine what is not to be satisfied with such a power.
If powerful performance is only the basic operation of today's high-end electric vehicles, then BMW's drivability for the iX is the foundation of the "BMW electric vehicle". The iX has a center-light, but with a noticeable steering feel at both ends, it's not noticeable in the distinction between Sport and Standard mode, and it doesn't have a very significant angle-dependent gain like the iX3, but you can feel a deliberate attempt to add a higher-end flavor than the iX3, while staying away from complete dullness.
Don't be confused by the harmless double-width steering wheel, and don't be disappointed by the fact that the movement mode is still light, just need to turn a corner at a large angle, and the professionalism of "don't touch me" in its bones will still be reflected in the feedback of linear gain at large corners.
The 111.5kWh battery pack currently equipped with the iX provides a range of 630km under the WLTP standard and 665km under the CLTP standard. In the high temperature weather of Sanya, the energy consumption of 19.7kWh/100km is easily run out of the high-speed road conditions, and the actual endurance running to more than 500km is not a problem.
The frame is worth half the fare
The moment you open the door, the large area of exposed carbon fiber is not just for you to show off. The 2014 BMW i3's carbon fiber composite monocoque (CFRP) body proved to be a beautiful mistake. Today's iX is a point-to-point: the carbon fiber material that can be seen is actually only on the outside of the door frame (and the buried pipe inside the top stringer, which is invisible), and the inside of the door frame is the more common high-strength steel body.
i3
Note the label on the inside of the B-pillar is purple
The iX is the spiritual heir to the i3, but the iX corrects the i3's excessive paranoia about body materials and adds what seems to be a more "correct" design idea today: one-piece molding of large cast aluminum parts. That's right, what Tesla is doing on the Model Y (Your Model Y, Being Pressed Out).
The bright green part of the picture above indicates the cast aluminum material. Although the iX does not cast the entire lower part of the rear body as the Model Y, the complex rear arch stringer is already cast aluminum, and the Model Y's approach is only a line away. The entire lower part of the body is also almost exclusively aluminum from other processes (gray-green and gray-yellow in the picture above).
Die-cast parts of the rear body of the iX on the left
In the front and rear windshield beams, BMW also used composite materials for the first time, resulting in a 5kg reduction in the top weight (source: Automotive Circle), and a reduction in weight while also reducing the center of gravity. The A/B pillars and door frames are made of high-strength steel, and the outside is reinforced with carbon fiber (the door is visible). While maintaining crew compartment strength, the large thickness of carbon fiber also contributes significantly to the stiffness of the body.
I don't know the exact number of torsional stiffness of the iX body, but its good NVH performance on the finely fragmented road surface in the above picture, as well as the quietness at high speeds, are impressive. Similar to steering, BMW has a limit on the iX's comfortable shift, and the suspension system is by no means soft to the end, such as the slightest undulations during fast driving that will not be isolated. At medium and low speeds, through the fine brick road, the common continuous subtle tremor is completely suppressed by iX.
The iX is BMW's "summary full text" of the previous seven years of the BMW i series, and it is also an "advance notice" for the next new pure electric platform.
Next, we will also see the pure electric "new i3" based on the 3 Series, and we will also see the new pure electric flagship sedan (i7, or the same platform as the iX). By 2025, BMW will usher in the true sense of pure electric platform New Class. The name is taken from the 1962 BMW Midsize New Class: before it, it was the POST-war "egg car" Isetta era of BMW; after it, it was the 3, 5, and 7 Series as we know it today.
Bmw New Class of the year
Today's iX will also play such a role, the current iX platform is a pure electrical configuration, but it is not enough to meet the needs of low prices. Most of the body aluminum + a large number of carbon fiber + new composites, 800,000 level iX can afford, does not mean that the 3 series level can also afford. So BMW also needs the New Class platform for having more children in large quantities, and of course it will learn from the iX.
iX certainly has some improvements. For example, the driver's assistance maintains BMW's usual low profile but high level, and the distance with the car can only be adjusted in the large-screen menu; for example, the reaction speed of the iD8 car machine still has some room for improvement.
On the bright side, the iX boasts some of the best driving performance in today's electric vehicles, the right handle on handling feedback and NVH balance, thoughtful interior space arrangements, and a series of surprise eggs such as a self-healing front grille and up to 30 hidden speakers.