Different, technological, refined and at times disconcerting. The BMW iX is not just an electric car, it is the first of a new species for design and innovation. Bmw every few years undergoes a radical evolution, which disconcerts, creates doubts and parties for and against. It was as successful as the models designed by Chris Bangle and was also re-proposed with the i3, electric with 10 springs on its shoulders that still today is ahead of any competitor with its carbon body.
The iX, has unconventional shapes, which try to hide the size of this huge SUV that is almost 5 meters in length. No, it is not a sports car, not even in the powerful xDrive50 version, despite the questionable racing suit with which the now inflated parsley Chiara Ferragni advertised it on Instagram. It is not a sports car in the true sense of the word, unlike the i4 (always electric), but a car that still travels with an unusual panache, thanks to the frightening couple that deploys unrivaled performances for any thermal SUV and even many petrol supercars.
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We got to know the iX in Bavaria, on the roads leading from Munich to the Dolomites. And we have, in particular, tried the BMW iX xDrive50 version, the more powerful of the two offers at the launch expected in November. The car has four-wheel drive, as can be seen from the name xDrive with an axle motor and a total power of 523 horsepower (385 kW) and a torque of 765 Nm. The front electric motor delivers 190 kW and the rear 230 kW. The declared autonomy is 630 kilometers. These are the numbers of the iX iDrive50, while the xDrive 40 variant deploys 326 hp (240 Kw) and 630 Nm of maximum torque. The front engine that always delivers 190 Kw while the rear 200 kW, all with a range of 425 km. The battery differs in capacity and chemical structure: 111.5 kWh in the 50 version and 76.6 kWh in the xDrive40.
The engines are developed and produced by BMW internally. After all, BMW means Bayerische Motoren Werke, an engine factory in Bavaria and certainly could not abdicate its DNA even in the era of the electric car. The units, the fifth generation of electric motors made in Munich, exploit ESM (electrically excited synchronous motor) technology where the excitation of the rotor is induced by a system of coils and not by fixed magnets. In this way, efficiency is improved and the content of rare earths, critical materials for environmental, ethical and economic sustainability, is reduced.
Style
At first glance, the iX shows all its distance from the typical BMW production. Here, in particular, only the (now increasingly large) kidney grille remains (which hides radar and sensors without resorting to ugly plates), the rest is a triumph of curved and soft lines with well-evident wheel arches that recall the concept of “Circe teams” seen years ago on the Fiat 500 L. A comparison perhaps undue (and which does not honor the Bavarian designers) but which gives the idea of how much the BMW iX with its large tailgate that closes at full width, is unusual and unconventional. It is a divisive car: of those you love or hate, but it is certainly original without ever overshooting as the rival (now elderly) Tesla Model X.