The less said about the woeful Alexa assistant, the better, which pipes up when it’s not supposed to and often ignores you when you want it. It falls over at anything beyond the simplest requests. I asked it to move the map nav from the cabin screen to the Panoramic iDrive display. What it did was instead cancel the navigation entirely, without checking it is was OK to do so, then set a new destination some 500 miles away. Not helpful. When the system gets upgraded to Alexa+ next year BMW claims it will be much improved. We’ll see.
Thanks to that Panoramic iDrive, however, BMW has managed to get rid of the driver display, and so has had fun redesigning the steering wheel options for the iX3. One has the spokes at 12 and 6, rather than either side, specifically because this is now possible as you don’t have to look through the wheel to see any data. To be honest, I’m not sure I prefer this look, but I applaud BMW for at least trying to shake things up a bit when the opportunity arises.
More Than a Car
BMW chairman Oliver Zipse has said Neue Klasse “is redefining the BMW brand,” and this gives you more than an indication of how proud the company is of its new EV platform, and you can see why. The ride is simply great. The exterior design is improved, though I’m still not keen on the rear. The computing power under the hood has been massively improved, as has the battery and charging capabilities.
Range is the killer battleground, of course, and starting at 99 percent after 4.5 hours of driving and 155 miles, I was left with 55 percent charge and 3.3 mi/kWh efficiency. This means a real-world range with normal rather than careful driving of more than 350 miles, so not that far off the 400-mile EPA figure.
What’s more, this range is mighty competitive against rivals such as the Audi Q6 e-tron, Cadillac Lyriq, Porsche Macan Electric, and revised Tesla Model Y—and, by the time it arrives next year, it should best the Volvo EX60, too.
BMW has made the iX3, and the Neue Klasse platform, not only drive like a BMW, but a very good BMW. It bodes very well for the next five cars, including the i3, which is coming right after the iX3.
But here’s the problem that all Western auto brands are wrestling with: Is it enough to take on the China EVs coming in cheaper than BMW, and with much better autonomous tech than this brand new platform? I’m not sure. They likely won’t be able to beat BMW’s driving dynamics wizardry, though. Yep, a lot is riding on the Neue Klasse’s ride.