BMW unveils new iX3 electric SUV as first ‘Neue Klasse’ model with 800km range
The all new BMW iX3
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BMW iX3 |
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Rating |
yet to be decided but expect a stellar outcome |
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Price |
from €73,925 on the road |
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Power |
0-100 km/h in 4.3s and top speed of 210km/h |
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Range |
800km |
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The Spec |
yet to be finalised but expect it to be pretty special |
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Verdict |
it looks like the real deal, but we’ll know more when we get our sweaty mitts on it |
As a hack, it is very hard to keep your trap shut or your typing fingers still when you come across something of a scoop.
So it was back in July when I made a rare excursion from my West Cork lair to travel to Munich at BMW’s behest to see the unveiling of the company’s new iX3, the first model in the company’s much-vaunted ‘Neue Klasse’ series of revolutionary electric vehicles, of which there will be dozens in the coming years.
Now, motoring correspondents are not usually slapped with embargoes of any sort and when you see a new product, generally you can write about it straight away.
Not this time. As we were ushered onto a sound stage at the famous Bavaria Filmstadt Munchen, just outside the city, where Hitchcock made his first film and where such as , were made too, as well as Wolfgang Peterson’s great anti-war movie , our telephones were taken away so there would be no sneaky spy shots.
The embargo eventually ran out yesterday, so we can now reveal why BMW were insistent on such secrecy for the first unveil of a ‘Neue Klasse’ car.
But first, a little bit of history. Back in the 1960’s BMW was in danger of going broke and needed something fresh and new to put the company back on track. In 1962, it launched the 1500 model (a forerunner of the current 3 Series) as a four-door compact executive car which came in saloon and coupe variants.
These were the original BMW ‘Neue Klasse’ vehicles and they set the company on a path where it hereafter be immediately identified by the public as the manufacturer of luxury sports sedans.
These cars transformed BMW not alone in the eyes of their customers but economically as well and they ushered in a period of profitability and growth not seen in the company for years. Indeed. By 1963, just two years after the new era was initiated, it turned a substantial profit and was able to pay dividends to shareholders for the first time in twenty years.
In 2020, realising the world was on the verge of a new era of technology, BMW once more set itself on the path to creating a new generation of ‘Neue Klasse’ vehicles and ushered in a four-year period of development for them.
Yesterday — appropriately at the Munich Motor Show — BMW officially unveiled the first of them, the iX3.
Joachim Post, the company’s Chief Technical Officer told us at Bavaria Filmstadt that these new vehicles would not only provide a new dimension in driving pleasure, but result in better performance, environmentally friendly manufacturing and massively increased levels of sustainability.
Some 150,000 BMW employees have been engaged in the ‘Neue Klasse’ effort, he said, all striving to take the company “to the next level of perfection.” With somewhere between 27 and 40 models planned in this latest push, every aspect of design, engineering, production and dynamics has been reappraised and revolutionized.
The electric motors which will power the cars feature 800-volt Generation 6 technology, which produces a 20% improvement in both range and power, while reducing CO2 emissions by 30%.
According to design chief, Adrian van Hooydonk, starting with the iX3, BMW has kickstarted the beginning of a whole new driving generation which will leapfrog the company from its starting point with EVs with the i3 and the i8 into a whole new era of efficiency and sustainability.
The Generation 6 tech has focussed on everything from range to aerodynamics to the efficiency of tyres and brakes with frictional losses being reduced by 40%; thermal efficiencies have been improved greatly and the whole idea of BMW’s iDrive has been recalibrated.
Cylindrical battery cells have also been invented to create 20% more in energy density and provide a jump of more than 40% in available energy. Calling the breakthroughs it has made on a variety of technological fronts, the BMW hierarchy were only too keen to herald a ‘whole new era of battery technology.’
Claiming a range increase of more than 300 km on any individual car, they also maintain the new cars will reduce energy consumption by 20%, will charge faster and go further (an 80% charge in just a couple of minutes) and also provide owners with a variety of charging and discharging options which they say is ‘revolutionary.’ In performance terms, the company also said the new iX3 will sprint from 0-100 km/h in just 4.3 seconds and have a top speed of 210 km/h. All that and an 800 km range and it seems nearly too good to be true.
On the sustainability front, BMW maintains it developed a 360-degree approach to everything from its supply chain systems, to production, product use and recycling.
This means that, with the iX3 for example, its production carbon footprint has been reduced by 34% with clever use of renewables, secondary raw materials and novel process options. In fact, one-third of the new car is made from recyclable materials.
In fairness, it all sounds really exciting, fresh and innovative. But, as ever, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating and it will be next year before Irish customers will be able to see for themselves exactly what BMW has achieved here.
For the moment, however, it seems that the technological breakthroughs we have been expecting from manufacturers when it comes to EVs, are finally beginning to unfold.
While we have consistently praised early-adopters for their enthusiasm and bravery in embracing the segment, we have also warned that technology would eventually pass them out and leave them with expensive and redundant vehicles.
If BMW comes good on its promises — and I have no doubt it will — the pressure on other manufacturers to come up with technology as good or better will be immense and it will be fantastic to see what gets rolled out.
Pricing is always going to be an issue with new technologies and BMW Ireland this week announced the car would cost €73,925 OTR and this compares favourably with the €68,900 German list price. It will hit the Irish market on March 7 next.
It has been something of a pain in the ass keeping all this under wraps for nearly two months, but we can only hope that the apparent vastness of the technological leap BMW has made here will ultimately soften that blow.
Now, while the Chinese appear to be making substantial technological breakthroughs themselves – while also leading the way on pricing – it will be interesting to see how the whole EV business evolves in the coming months and years.
For the moment, however, BMW appears to have the whip hand as far as European manufacturers are concerned and undoubtedly the Munich concern aims to maximise the advances it is claiming and turn that into sales volume and, most importantly, profitability.
The first of the ‘Neue Klasse’ cars is therefore a hugely important milestone in the development of vehicular passenger transport. From what we were allowed experience of the new iX3, it certainly seemed like it will be the berries, but we will have to wait a little longer to see if our expectation matches their ambition.
