“Our order backlog far exceeds expectations. Looking solely at the European market, the current orders have almost covered the entire production capacity for 2026.”
At the BMW Group’s Sustainable Development Dinner in December 2025, Massimiliano Di Silvestre, the CEO of BMW Italy, revealed the order situation of the new-generation iX3. As the first all-electric vehicle on BMW’s new-generation platform, the new-generation iX3 with the internal code NA5 made its debut at the Munich Auto Show in Germany in September 2025 and is scheduled to start deliveries in the European market this spring.

According to the CEO, if a European consumer places an order for a BMW iX3 now, they may have to wait until 2027 to take delivery. Looking at the global automotive market, the last model positioned in the mainstream price range with a delivery cycle measured in years was, as far as one can remember, the Xiaomi YU7.
However, it should be noted that the market volume in Europe is significantly smaller than that in China. Taking the current fuel-powered BMW X3 as an example, some institutions estimate that its sales in Europe in 2025 were between 120,000 and 150,000 units. Additionally, data shows that the Debrecen plant in Hungary, which produces the new-generation BMW iX3, has an annual production capacity of 150,000 units. This plant will also produce other all-electric vehicles on BMW’s new-generation platform, such as the iX4 and i3, in the future.
For reference, the cumulative sales of the Xiaomi YU7 from June to November 2025 were approximately 115,000 units, and its monthly sales have been stable at over 30,000 units.
A source close to BMW Brilliance told Yuan Auto that the Dadong plant in Shenyang has already started trial production of the domestically produced new-generation iX3, and the vehicle is scheduled to be launched in the market this summer. How to extend the popularity of the new-generation electric vehicles to the Chinese automotive market will be BMW China’s top priority this year.
In terms of product strength, the new-generation iX3 customized specifically for the Chinese market will have the largest interior space and the highest level of intelligence globally.
On the one hand, the wheelbase of the new-generation iX3 will be lengthened after localization. On the other hand, the vehicle will be equipped with an assisted driving solution provided by the Chinese supplier Momenta and will also cooperate with local suppliers such as Huawei, Alibaba, and DeepSeek in the field of intelligent cockpits.
As for the price, it is believed that the new-generation iX3 produced by BMW Brilliance will also be the most affordable iX3 in the world. In Europe, the starting price of the BMW iX3 often exceeds 65,000 euros, equivalent to approximately 530,000 yuan, while the official guide price of the previous-generation iX3 in China starts at 399,900 yuan.

Considering BMW’s recent move to actively lower the official guide prices of new vehicles, it is believed that the domestic price of the new-generation iX3 will only decrease compared to the previous generation.
However, these strategies are only basic operations in the highly competitive Chinese new energy vehicle market, which can be described as having “hellish difficulty.” In 2025, both Mercedes-Benz and Audi tried to gain a foothold with such “basic moves,” but the results so far have fallen short of expectations.
In November 2025, Beijing Benz launched the all-electric CLA built on a new electric platform. The vehicle features the Momenta assisted driving system, the Doubao AI large model intelligent cockpit, and other selling points, and is priced from 249,000 yuan.
The all-electric CLA sold 1,369 units in its first month on the market, which is not outstanding among vehicles in the same price range. Instead, it has served to highlight another all-electric sedan from Beijing Benz, the EQE. The latter has a higher guide price and is about to be discontinued, but its sales increased by over 1,000% month-on-month after the launch of the all-electric CLA.

If the current underwhelming sales of the Beijing Benz all-electric CLA can be attributed to the production ramp-up period, then the FAW Audi Q6L e-tron, which was launched in August 2025, has no such excuse. The vehicle is equipped with the Huawei assisted driving system and is built on the PPE luxury all-electric platform jointly developed by Audi and Porsche, with a starting price of 369,800 yuan.
The Q6L e-tron sold 1,200 units in its first month on the market, and its monthly sales have continued to decline since then. By November, its sales had fallen below 500 units.
It is evident that for the new-generation iX3 to achieve a successful launch and draw a positive sales curve, BMW cannot solely rely on the support of local suppliers and the vehicle customization strategy represented by the lengthened wheelbase.
If we simply compare product strength, both the new-generation BMW iX3 and the Beijing Benz all-electric CLA and FAW Audi Q6L e-tron mentioned above have caught up with Chinese new energy vehicle brands in the same class in areas such as electrification and intelligence, which were previously their relatively weak points.
If the German luxury brands (BBA) still cannot regain sales, perhaps there is a problem with their flow channels. In this regard, GAC Toyota, which launched a hit all-electric vehicle in 2025, and NIO, which is expected to achieve quarterly profitability for the first time, have something to say.
As the biggest surprise among joint-venture new energy vehicles in 2025, the GAC Toyota bZ3X had cumulative annual sales of over 70,000 units and has become a hit with monthly sales exceeding 10,000 units since the fourth quarter. The reasons are twofold: on the one hand, the product offers excellent cost-performance, and on the other hand, GAC Toyota has adopted a different marketing style from the past.

“GAC Toyota was the first to promise to directly assume responsibility for electric vehicle spontaneous combustion and intelligent parking accidents.”
At the GAC Toyota bZ3X User Conference in August 2025, Peng Baolin, the deputy general manager of GAC Toyota, announced the “dual responsibility” policy that directly addressed the pain points of industry competitors. Subsequently, in November, the company further strengthened its policy of assuming responsibility for issues related to the winter range and battery degradation of electric vehicles.
In an era when selling cars was not a problem, GAC Toyota rarely took such actions that broke industry conventions. Looking at the sales curve of the bZ3X, its sales did increase after the introduction of these responsibility policies.
As for NIO, its rapid rise this year began in April when Shen Fei was appointed as the head of its sub-brand, LeDao. Different from the relatively mild personalities of NIO’s founder, chairman, and CEO, Li Bin, and the previous head of the LeDao brand, Ai Tiecheng, Shen Fei enjoys surfing the Internet intensively every day and is not afraid to directly refute voices that speak negatively about NIO and LeDao.

For example, around the critical launch period of the highly anticipated new LeDao L90, in response to a competitor’s executive’s suspicion that LeDao had hired online trolls for new vehicle promotion, Shen Fei directly replied on his personal Weibo: “I suggest you call the police directly.”
As soon as the two sides’ remarks were made, the popularity of the LeDao L90 immediately reached a new level. Subsequently, when the truth came out, Shen Fei and LeDao even gained many “casual fans,” laying a foundation for the vehicle to quickly exceed 10,000 units in sales after its launch.
It is evident that for BMW, launching “marketing bombs” at the brand level or discovering star executives are marketing strategies worth considering. By taking the initiative, BMW will not waste the valuable opportunity presented by the new-generation iX3.
This article is from the WeChat official account “Yuan Auto”. Author: Yuan Meihui. Republished by 36Kr with permission.
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