Kiwi interest in the iX3 and iX, potentially arriving around October, is ramping up.

 TWO car brands last year took pride in having achieved putting 500,000 electric models into the market.

One was Tesla, the other BMW Group.

 The difference was in the time taken to get there. Twenty-20 was a year when Elon Musk’s crew achieved producing half a million cars in a year.

BMW Group took a longer route to achieve the same figure, and did so with battery-involved product beyond its sole fully electric car.

The i3, whose production dates back to 2013 and which broke the mould when it came on sale here in 2015, has actually recently clocked up 200,000 units.

No, the jelly and icecream ‘half-a-mill’ moment was for the entire BMW Group and reflected it having sold more than 500,000 electrified models – a descriptive that, of course, covers its plug-in hybrids as well as fully electrics - across the BMW and MINI brands.

That this has taken years is nothing to worry about. The pace has stepped up - by the end of 2021, BMW Group is confident it will have doubled its penetration – and so too the level of commitment.

Twenty-five electrified vehicles on the road by 2023 is one ambition; another is to build “a quarter of a million more electric cars than originally planned” between now and then. A target that’ll allow it to more than double the share of electrified vehicles in its sales from around eight percent last year to around 20 percent. Beyond that? It’s to sell 4.6 million fully electric vehicles and almost as many plug-in hybrids within the next 10 years.

The i3 as we know it now will continue to contribute. Plans to kill it off last year were rescinded. It’s hard to say how long the stay of execution will last; some suggest it will continue to be manufactured until 2024.

This is ‘Power of Choice’; a strategy that BMW New Zealand is very energetic about. In a briefing today, managing director Karol Abrasowicz-Madej, and product manager Tim Michaelson, have made clear NZ will benefit from the global roll-out.

‘Electrified’ means more than full-out electric. ‘Power of Choice’ calls for up to four different powertrain variants – petrol, diesel, plug-in hybrid and pure-electric – in each of its main model lines to be built on the same production line.

Even so, it’s a big move for a make whose electrification plans – and the pace surrounding the subject - has varied wildly, between pioneering and glacial, over the last decade.

Cars like the i3 and i8 sports car were way ahead of their time when new but they were hugely costly for Munich to develop and sell. What’s followed has been a series of plug-in hybrids and arguably little else.

Kiwis have already experienced all of the above (in X3, X5, 3, 5 and 7 Series), and notwithstanding BMW NZ having achieved success with some, activity – and consumer interest – will surely ramp up all the more with two additional products arriving around the third, potentially fourth, quarters.

The iX3 and iX have both been subject of extensive coverage already.

The first is as the name says, a wholly electric version of BMW’s second-smallest crossover. It provisions in pure rear-drive form and is the make’s first product for us out of China. BMW NZ originally expected it at mid-year, but has held off to achieve a 2022 edition that takes some enhancements not meted early build cars. Michaelson says the tech doesn’t change; it’s all about extra specification and additional paint choices.

The iX, meantime, is BMW'S first electric SUV built from the ground up on a new EV platform.

BMW NZ has already begun an on-line campaign and it appears orders have been placed, regardless that pricing has not been announced.

In respect to that, and also in regard to potential allocations, Abrasowicz-Madej doesn’t want to give too much away.

However, he says there’ll be enough allocation to meet market demand and suggests it might feasible to imagine an iX3 could cost similarly, or perhaps a touch more, than the X3 30e plug-in hybrid that is a $120,000 ask here.

As to who is expected to buy-in? His hope is that both cars will attract conquest customers as well as existing brand loyalists. “It’s going to be interesting to see how that eventuates.”

He doesn’t expect these to erode the sales performances of the X3 and X5, his two best-selling models, though in terms of flavour the newcomers are probably not going to be entirely different to those orthodox SAVs.

“But (with iX) we are still talking about differences in size, in design and in many other factors.”

Abrasowicz-Madej says the local interest is a positive; notwithstanding BMW’s deep dive into EV-dom, many customers are still coming to grips with understanding the technology. “It is an education process. They are still learning about the technology, recharging, the driving.” However, he agrees it is easier to talk about the benefits of electric driving now than perhaps has been in the past.

Michaelson, meantime, is calling iX an especially exciting product.

It shares exterior dimensions of an X5, is as tall as an X6 and has the wheelbase of an X7, with very high specification and plush appointments in two levels of bodywork, a standard look and a sport enhancement with more rakish styling elements.

The iX3 is likely to settle in nicely, but it will be no surprise if it is utterly overshadowed by iX; the latter will be a far pricier proposition, but it will also be more premium and reaches further in design and technology.

The car’s bold roadside impression carries into a cockpit that uses a lot of inspiration from the iNext, a concept car that has become important to the whole BMW electric strategy. The iX takes the design study’s hexagonal steering wheel and vast curved digital displays for the driver and front passenger.  

It also features BMW's new ‘fifth-generation’ electric powertrain tech. We are told that the car will be powered by two electric motors (with no rare earth elements), producing 'more than' 370kW, which comprehensively beats the 300kW Mercedes EQC and Audi e-tron 50 and 55 (respectively 230kW and 300kW).

Apparently the iX will do 0-100kmh in under five seconds, but of greater importance is the efficiency and range between charges. BMW expects the car will average 21kWh per 100km on the WLTP cycle, resulting in a range of more than 600km from its 100kWh battery pack.

Recharging times are also impressive … when the right hardware is in place. The iX can be DC fast-charged at up to 200kW, allowing 10-80 percent charging in under 40 minutes, or 120km range for 10 minutes of charge.

The car premieres a new aluminium space frame that supports an inner carbon cage fabricated from CFRP – for composite plastic and carbon-fibre-reinforced-plastic – covered with a body made out of a combination of aluminium and CFRP. The latter is a material BMW has become accustomed to working with as it features intensively in the i3 and now discontinued i8.

For the first time in a modern-day BMW model, the iX will feature a fixed clamshell style bonnet. A series of aerodynamic developments, including the blanked-off grille, minimal air ducting within the front bumper, flat underbody panelling, integrated door handles with an electronic opening mechanism and the tapered glasshouse, contribute to a claimed drag coefficient of 0.25.

Full LED main beams are standard, though buyers will also be able to specify BMW’s Laser lights as an option. At the rear, the iX’s narrow tail lamps receive LED functionality as standard.

The iX3 obviously takes a different approach; for a start everything about how it looks is very familiar, of course.

Yet it nonetheless represents an important step. It’s not just BMW’s first electric SUV, but also the first BMW to be available with either pure combustion, plug-in hybrid or pure electric power. 

The X3’s platform has been adapted with a new rear sub-frame that houses a single electric motor and an 80Wh battery pack that, BMW says, is 20 percent more energy dense than any battery it has used before.

Output is to the tune of 210kW and 400Nm and a 6.8-second 0-100kmh sprint is claimed. BMW says it’ll provide an impressive 460km range, as determined on a WLTP test cycle. Using fast-charging, the iX3 is capable of receiving 80 percent charge in 34 minutes. 

BMW is talking up the car’s adaptive energy recuperation system, which it claims automatically enhances efficiency on longer drives. Using location data from BMW’s latest cloud-based navigation system, the iX3 can autonomously change the level of braking recuperation on the move and according to the road ahead. For instance, if the car recognises that a stop sign is ahead, full recuperation will be deployed without any need for the driver to select it. 

Alternately, the driver can take manual control of the regenerative braking, with three levels of resistance availed. A ‘B’ position on the Drive selector enables high enough energy recovery for one-pedal driving around town, a trick the brand appears to have nabbed from Toyota/Lexus. 

The iX3 gets a unique tune for its standard adaptive suspension system with electronically controlled dampers. Alternately, buyers will be able to specify a sportier Adaptive M suspension setup. 

The front grilles are closed off for aerodynamic purposes and the bumpers have been reprofiled and it gets set of aerodynamic wheels styled to reduce the drag coefficient by around five percent compared with regular X3 wheels. 

So, these are the 2021 entries. What’s next? Perhaps understandably, that’s a subject BMW’s national representatives were reluctant to talk about, though that is hardly an inhibitor.

There’s been plenty said overseas, none of which has been denied by the parent brand, to cement the road map’s course. The following is based on what’s being said overseas.

Plug-in hybrids are set to be ubiquitous in Munich’s line-up. The X3 will be first to tick off the ‘diesel, petrol, phev and electric’ remit; others will follow.

Internationally, if not here, there will be multiple plug-in hybrids within different families to choose from; for the 5-Series, as example, BMW has revealed a 545e hybrid as well as a 530e hybrid.

As for the electrics?

The i3 as we know it now achieves another facelift and larger battery, but it’s just a see-me-out strategy with a new i3 to take its place – only this one will be an all-electric version of the familiar-looking 3-Series.

Meantime, an as yet unseen i1 model - an electric extension to the new 1 Series lineup - will take the current i3’s place. There’ll also be an iX1 crossover, with a raised seating position and relatively compact dimensions.

Still getting your head around the next car to bear the ‘i3’ badge being so different? Well, an all-electric 3-series is also a big change up, too. In addition to the sedan, there’ll be a four-door fastback called … you got it, the i4. It’s been seen in concept form and testing and the production edition is to be unveiled later this year.

Both run the vastly improved eDrive tech in the iX3 and the iNext. The new tech is around 30 percent power denser than the powertrain shown in the i3 we know now.

BMW talk specific to i4 has been to expect a range of 600km (WLTP), 390kW and a top speed of 200kmh. It’s gunning for the Tesla Model 3; the cited 0-100kmh sprint time of around 4.0 seconds is on pace with Beemer’s own V8-powered cars. 

Also en route are the i5, an electric version of the eighth-generation 5 Series, due in 2023. It will initially be a sedan, but a station wagon version could be offered in some markets.

The most famous Five will continue to be the M5. The next, arriving in 2024, will be a dramatic change from the current F90. Why? Because it’s expected to be the first M car to be exclusively electrified – either as a ‘Power PHEV’ or full-electric car. There’s that philosophy of powertrain choice.

BMW is openly working on the ‘power BEV’, using a 5-series mule. That model has three e-motors borrowed from the iNext/i4 powertrain. One drives the front axle while the rear wheels get a motor each. Numbers? 530kW and sub-3.0s 0-100kmh. 

The BMW iX5 is already in pilot-production at BMW’s Dingolfing factory. This is the SUV iNext truly points to. It offers a base range of 547km, rising to 740km with an optional 110kWh battery. It’s also planned to support level-three autonomous technology.

Its powertrain will be similar to that of the i4, so is promising a rough 600km range and all-wheel drive.

More? There’s strong talk of the i7; an EV flagship based on the next 7 Series sedan which is due next year. Suggestion it will share much of its mechanicals with the i5 and iX5 and achieve a range of up to 740km. Prototypes have been seen.

Also, an iX7. Overseas’ media say design proposals for a seven-seat sister to the iX5 have been pitched, with intent for release in 2025.

 And what about another i8? BMW teased with the Vision M Next Concept (below) in 2019. Back then it looked set to be a huge milestone for M division, ultimately paving the way for a full-electric M car. But it’s been cancelled.