The Fully Electric BMW iX3 Ushers in a New Era for the Brand | 2027 BMW iX3 First Look
CLINT SIMONE: This is the most
important electric vehicle that BMW has ever made. And it’s arguably one of
the most important cars that BMW has ever made. You’re looking at the new iX3. And this is the future of BMW. We’re Edmunds. And we test hundreds of
cars each year on the road and at our private track so you
get the most trusted reviews. If you want to know which car,
truck, or SUV is the best, then stick with us. So you know the BMW X3. It’s their small
crossover that sits right in the heart
of the vehicles that Americans love to buy. That’s why it was
so important for BMW to do an electric version
of this car as well. Now, it will eventually do
battle with other competitors like the Mercedes GLC electric
vehicle and the Audi Q6 e-tron, among others. So BMW has a lot riding
on this for a few reasons, the biggest of which
this is a clean sheet redesign that brings us
directly into the future of BMW. The technology you see in
this car, the way it looks, all of that is eventually going
to roll out into every car that BMW makes. And to put it another way, this
is the biggest single investment the company has ever
made into a new vehicle. And new car means we have
a brand-new BMW grille for you guys to complain about. I actually kind of like it. And I don’t just
mean the grille. I mean the entire SUV. Now, BMW styling has been
the punchline of many a joke for the last few years,
and that’s for good reason. But the iX3 is pointing
things in the right direction with a fresh design that, at
least in my humble opinion, really works. Oh, and that’s just the outside. So welcome to the
future of BMW interiors. And the crown jewel of that is
the brand-new iDrive system. We’ve gotten used to the
side-by-side screen thing that they’re doing in all
of their cars on the road right now, and this is a
complete rethink of that. Now we have one touch
screen in the middle. It’s an 18-inch display, and
it’s inverted just like that. Looks like somebody messed
with it in Photoshop. But if you thought,
hey, that’s actually restrained for all the screens
that cars are getting right now, you’d be wrong. Because right behind
the touchscreen is a huge display that spans the
entire windshield of the car, and they call that
panoramic vision. So the goal with that is to take
the information here and put it higher up on the dash so
that your eyes are actually on the road. Now, the first thing I can
say about this display, even interacting with it
for five minutes so far, is just how quick
it is to respond. BMW already makes a good
infotainment system. It’s one of the better
ones in the industry. But this is a huge step forward. The colors, the graphic– everything here looks fantastic. When it comes to the information
you can put up there, if I swipe down here,
hit this button, you can see that it’s
super configurable. So I tap here. I can delete all of these
different little widgets, and I can add
anything that I want. So you can have your
navigation, your music, even this weird little
virtual assistant up there, which, by the way, I can
activate that as well. Navigate me to Berlin. AUTOMATED VOICE: OK, Berlin. CLINT SIMONE: You can see
even the response time on that is quick. And when I select it, the
navigation will come up here. Or I can put it in front of me
on the head-up display as well. This is all very
clever, this information you can put in the touch
screen or in front of you as the driver. How useful it is, well,
we’ll test that a lot more and let you know. And then we have a brand-new
steering wheel as well. Now, the design itself is crazy. The spokes are actually at
the very top and bottom, which is a little bit different. But as you get
used to it, I like the way it looks, to
be honest with you. One thing I’m less
sold on so far is these buttons on
the steering wheel. They are haptic feedback,
and they’re also just small. I’m sure it’s one of
those things where as you work with it a little
bit more, you get used to it. But this tiny,
little arrow right now is controlling
way up on the dash. BMW says the reason they went
with these haptic feedback buttons instead of
real clicky buttons the way we like it is
because it will change what is available
to you depending on driving circumstances. So all the driver
assistance stuff over here, for example, well, now it
will let me automatic park. But if I’m driving 60 miles
per hour on the freeway, that button will go away
and not give me the option. So they’re trying
to figure out ways to give you the most important
information at the right time. Now, once you’re done figuring
out all the technology in front of you,
you can actually drink in the details around you. And first impressions
are really good here. BMW interiors right now,
there are colors and patterns, and shapes, and shiny things. You look all over the place. It’s information overload. This is a very
different direction. I have a simple dash layout
with just one material over it. The seats are
actually really nice. I’ve been sitting
in them for hours now as we’re doing
this film right now, and I’m really liking the
support that they offer. Even the controls to
move the seats backward and forward are simple. There’s just two
buttons to pick from. I like this direction
that they’re taking, where less is a little bit more. And if you’re interested
in this BMW iX3, a regular gas-powered X3,
or really any other car, head over to
edmunds.com, where we have the tools to help you
find the right car for you. Second-row space in
the iX3, not bad. Edmunds just bought an X3 to
add to our long-term test fleet. That’s the gas-powered one. And I can tell you
right off the bat that this second row is a
much nicer place to hang out. The legroom is better. The headroom is better. Now, why that’s the
case is because this car doesn’t have an engine. They were able to stretch out
the wheelbase a little bit and donate all of
that extra room to those riding
in the second row. In terms of amenities, I have
two air conditioning vents back here. I can control the temperature
in the second row. And I have two USB-C
ports to charge phones. Two things I feel
like I am missing– I don’t have any heated
seats in the second row. There’s also no pockets
behind the seats. That’s a little bit strange. So back here we have a pretty
decent sized cargo area. And you do have the ability to
split fold down the seats 60/40. You can’t do it from
the trunk, but if you go around the sides of the car
you can do it with the tab. Now, one thing that the iX3 does
that the combustion-powered X3 does not is give you a little
bit of space up front as well. The iX3 is going to offer
a more advanced driving experience compared to other
BMWs on the road right now. I know advance is
a weird word to use to describe that sort
of thing, but that’s exactly what it’s going to be
thanks to some insane computing power. The iX3 has four superbrains
running all of its technology. Yes, that word sounds
really dramatic. And yes, that’s what
BMW actually calls them. Now, one of these
brains is dedicated completely to driving dynamics. And it is called– wait
for it– the Heart of Joy. Listen, I just report
the information. The Heart of Joy, in
actual human being speak, will do lots of things to make
the car’s driving experience better and more efficient. One example of this is that BMW
says 98% of the car’s braking can be done with regen,
without needing to touch the physical brakes at all. So let’s talk about
the powertrain. This is the iX3 50, a.k.a.
the dual-motor setup. So you got one motor on
the front axle and one on the rear axle. This car also has a usable
capacity, the battery of about 108 kilowatt hours. It makes 470 horsepower,
which BMW says is enough to get it from
0 to 62 miles per hour in about 4.9 seconds. But more important is the range. They say that this should
be good for up to 400 miles of range when it
hits the US market. Now, for comparison,
the furthest-driving BMW that Edmunds has ever
tested did 377 miles. So things are moving
in the right direction. Do you like what you see
here on Edmunds channel? Do us a favor– like and subscribe. So the new iX3 is going into
production later this year, but it won’t arrive
into the US market until middle of next year
as a 2027 model year. And when it does, BMW says the
iX3 50 will start at around $60,000. That’s actually
better than I thought. The BMW iX, which
is already on sale, has less range and older tech,
and that starts at $15,000 more. Now, I want to
know, do you think this is the right
car for BMW to make, and do you think it’s
at the right price? Let us know in the comments. And as always,
thanks for watching.
Meet the 2027 BMW iX3, the first vehicle to ride on BMW’s fully electric Neue Klasse architecture. White it may share nomenclature with the gas-powered X3, the iX3 is a completely different vehicle from the ground up — one that BMW hopes will kick off a new era of electrified performance and luxury. In this video, Edmunds’ Clint Simone gives you the rundown on the iX3 and what it means for BMW’s future.
00:00 Intro
00:36 Segment Comparison to X3, GLC, Q6 E-tron
00:56 Clean Sheet Redesign
01:19 New Styling
01:46 iDrive & Panoramic Vision
03:40 New Steering Wheel
04:36 Interior Details
05:32 Second Row
06:19 Cargo and Frunk
06:36 Advanced Driving Experience
07:28 Powertrain
07:52 Range
08:14 Edmunds Take
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