My love affair with the BMW iX started in Munich, Germany, in 2021. It ended in July 2024, about a block from my house in San Diego, when I hit the first bump in the road. Oof.
Back in 2021, I was at the first-drive event of BMW's then-new flagship electric SUV. Writing for Road & Track at the time, I said the iX was great, and a meaningful step into the future for the brand.
There was only one notable caveat. I noted that there was little tire noise and that the iX had a "positively lush" suspension, but that "perfectly paved German roads mean that observation may not translate to our shores."
How right I was. Driving an American-spec iX xDrive50 in California, I found the SUV overly firm and crashy over bumps. It shattered my faith in the iX as the perfect electric daily driver. The good news, however, is that BMW has a solution: A two-axle air suspension, available as a $1,000 standalone option on the xDrive50 and standard on the quicker iX M60. It makes the SUV noticeably softer.
I wouldn't buy an iX without it.
Gallery: 2024 BMW iX Review
I'd also get the smallest wheels possible, to make the ride extra soft. Because this is not really an Ultimate Driving Machine.
(Full Disclosure: BMW loaned me an iX for a week. It arrived with a full battery.)
Yes, the iX corners extraordinarily well for a two-and-a-half-ton SUV. But BMW's fooling itself if they think people are spending $89,000 on a family SUV to take it to the canyons. The iX also rode perfectly well at 130 mph on Germany's autobahns.
Yet, this, too, feels a bit silly. Sure, German buyers may care, but American buyers won't be taking their iXs into the triple digits with any regularity. They shouldn't. And in order to have such flat cornering and high-speed stability, BMW has had to stiffen up the springs on the conventionally suspended iXs. The tradeoff isn't worth it.
This is a luxury product, and a damned fine one. Step into the iX and you're greeted by one of the most unique, high-quality and advanced-looking interiors you'll find anywhere on the market. My tester had incredible blue wool seats, a daring move in a segment that always trends toward the same drab black leather.
The blue interior with golden bronze accents was stunning in the light, and peaceful at night. The seats were comfortable, though the position itself took some adjustment. Sitting up high and pushed toward the giant windshield, I felt more like I was driving a glassy pod than a conventional SUV.
The technology, too, looked better than anyone else's. The graphics are clean and attractive, with minimalist icons and a unified, modern design theme for everything you see. Nothing feels cartoonish. Everything is sharp.
Yet while BMW's system looks better than Mercedes' MB.OS, the Benz's system is easier to use, and more capable. BMW still stuffs the app menu with too many one-off functions you'll never use, and BMW's software suite just can't do things that we've come to expect from modern automotive software. In a Mercedes or Cadillac or even my Chevy, I can say "Hey Mercedes/Google, play the album 'Jubilee' by Japanese Breakfast" and the car will queue it up on its native music streaming service. In the BMW, you're left using CarPlay for that.
Yet if you're using CarPlay anyway, you'll find no more peaceful vehicle than an iX at cruising speed. Mercedes and Teslas are always beeping at you or forcing you to deal with their clever software. The iX mostly fades into the background. There's a great stereo, a pleasing cabin, a trick panoramic sunroof that can go opaque at the touch of a button and a rich head-up display, but these are things that fill out the background. Nothing demands your attention, or tries to impress you with its cleverness. I could spend hours in the iX.
I'd rarely have to charge, too. BMW made a big point about using home-grown electric motors in the iX, and the payoff is clear. The iX offers stunning efficiency despite its 5,659-pound curb weight and a giant cabin. I averaged 3.3 miles per kWh over 140 miles of mostly highway driving, with sustained cruising around 75 mph and occasional traffic. The iX is officially rated by the EPA to go 324 miles on a charge in mixed city/highway driving. But apply my energy consumption to the 105.2-kWh usable portion of the battery and you see why BMW is known for underpromising and overdelivering. At an efficiency of 3.3 miles per kWh, the iX can go 347 miles on the highway.
Now, I did have some traffic, which can help EVs. They're more efficient at slower speeds and around town than at 75. But I was also using the air conditioning and going 75 mph. It's not unrealistic to say the iX could go even further on a charge, and I'm certainly confident that even a lead-footed fool could eek 300 miles out of it in the dead of winter.
When you do need to top it off, the iX can accept 195 kW charging speeds. That's nearing the maximum we see of any 400-volt-based system. A Mercedes EQS SUV can handle 200 kW, a Rivian R1 about 220. The iX took about 41 minutes to charge from 10% to 80% in freezing conditions during our earlier charging test, a solid if not exceptional performance for a big-battery EV. With such solid range and efficiency, though, I doubt owners will have to do many extended fast-charging stops.
You'll just have to find the fast chargers yourself. The iX's built-in charger locator is useless. It makes no distinction between private-access Level 2 chargers and public DC Fast Chargers. In my case, the first DC Fast Charger was buried under 15 slow chargers, many of which I couldn't legally access. The nearest Electrify America station—not a new one—wasn't even on the list at all. You can apparently filter to only show stations above with speeds above 150 kW, but if the car knows the charging speed I'd expect it to show me by default.
This is one in a series of baffling decisions. The cupholders are awful, as Tim Stevens noted in his long-term review of the iX he leased. I banged my hand against the top console while grabbing a soda and spilled it everywhere. Plus, the iX turns itself off automatically but requires a button-press to turn on, a bizarre half-step between internal-combustion logic and Tesla's approach.
So I ended up being confused by the iX. In some specs, it is a daring, brilliant design. In white with the "Sport" pack that adds those weird black triangles to the front fascia, it looks awful. It is a plush and delightful luxury vehicle, so long as you don't get the one that's uncomfortable. It's thoughtful and well-executed, except when it's infuriating.
It's equal parts brilliant and baffling. A sign that BMW has the right approach to EV design and production, but is still ironing out the kinks. With a few updates—and standard air suspension—the iX could win back my love. But for now, I'll try to remember our European honeymoon, before life got so messy.
Contact the author: Mack.hogan@insideevs.com
