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The first Neue Klasse BMW is a stark-looking electric SUV with punchy numbers and heaps of tech
‘A new era for BMW.’ Stark words, straight from the mouth of Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the BMW Board, as the new iX3 launches. This isn’t merely a new electric SUV – it’s the beginning of a whole new chapter.
‘Neue Klasse’ is a phrase familiar to BMWistas from a whole new chapter of the company’s history launched in the 1960s. Six decades on, it’s time for Neue Klasse 2.0 with this reborn iX3 as its first product. Because why wouldn’t you start a whole new revolution with a big-selling SUV?
It’s a pretty aerodynamic one, too. Its butch, upright appearance may play usefully to modern crossover tropes but its drag figure matches the current BMW i4 sedan, enabling some pretty punchy headlines – chief among them a WLTP range figure of 805km.
BMW tells us this car has skipped a generation across the board, so big are the Neue Klasse tech leaps, and a near doubling in range over its predecessor may win round many electric car sceptics. Indeed, the product folk reckon plenty of people will be clambering into their first BEV here.
We suspect the styling may light debate up most, but whichever way you swing it, at least this will stand out in a busy electric SUV crowd. And bravo BMW for sticking to the design guns of the original concept car.
It debuts the new face of BMW X models, its kidney ‘grilles’ more vertical than the sedans and wagons to follow and a clear visual nod to the first Neue Klasse models over 60 years ago – now highlighted via illumination rather than chrome.
Its slim glasshouse contributes to the monolithic look while also helping carve out its neat aerodynamics and headline 0.24 drag coefficient. Flush door handles complete an unmistakably electric look. Though thankfully it retains regular mirrors…
The car launches in punchy iX3 50 xDrive spec, which puts 345kW through all four wheels to enable 0-100km/h in under five seconds. It’s underscored by 108kWh of useable battery and 800V charging architecture, which allows up to 400kW of rapid DC capability.
BMW claims a 372km top-up is possible in 10 minutes to ebb away any lingering range anxiety you may have. Combined efficiency peaks at 15.1kWh/100km.
Beneath it all is a more sustainable car full-stop; BMW’s sixth-gen eDrive technology is lighter, cheaper to produce and suffers less energy loss in operation, while around a third of its materials are classified as reused matter.
They claim a third-smaller carbon footprint than its forebear, though you’ll still need to drive around 20,000km before that footprint shrinks over a petrol X3.
Inside there’s revolution, too, the cabin staying nearly as true to the concept car as the outer panels. Front and centre is a wraparound projection, stretched between the front pillars and taking the place of a traditional instrument cluster.
It’s complemented by a 17.9-inch touchscreen, angled at the driver and with key functions an easy finger stretch from the curiously shaped steering wheel.
A 3D head-up display is optional. There’ll be lots to get our head around once we drive the new iX3 – but BMW promises it’s worked hard on useability on the move, and an initial poke around in the studio feels good to us.
While there’s no longer a traditional starter button – a la certain Californian EV makers – you still flick on your indicators and wipers in the regular BMW way while a physical volume dial remains ‘vital for high quality audio,’ according to the engineers we spoke to. Phew!
Beneath the skin, new software architecture deploys four high-performance computers for 20 times the processing power of BMWs before it, headlined by the chintzily named ‘Heart of Joy’ system which draws all the dynamic systems together to – hopefully – ensure this car can still put a smile on your face like the decades of BMWs before it.
The active safety systems are designed to work with you, rather than against you, via something called ‘symbiotic assistance’ which provides a lighter touch if the car knows you’re wide awake and actively engaged in driving.
The suspension gains hydraulic bump stops but no air spring or adaptive damping options, nor is there four-wheel steer (it’s reserved for larger models). Though the new iX3 weighs a portly 2360kg, its 49/51 front/rear weight split shows promise for natural handling and balance.
This car measures 4.8m long and possesses a 2.9m wheelbase, its bespoke EV platform pushing the wheels to each corner to make the iX3 not only look sharper, but offer more room inside – legroom supposedly matches the larger X5.
Boot space is a mite better than the outgoing iX3, starting at 520 litres, though this time though there’s also a frunk; it offers a modest 58 litres but the product bosses say it’s essential to tell customers ‘this is an EV’. Its hidden location ensures it goes heavy on the recycled materials, too.
Extra flexibility comes from bi-directional charging and thus vehicle-to-load capability – turning this into a power bank on wheels – while some markets can pipe energy back to the grid or power their home during storms.
Production begins later in 2025 in a Hungarian factory fed by renewable energy, with Aussie sales touted for mid-2026. No word on pricing just yet, but in Germany it starts at the equivalent of $120,000 and sticks close to the iX3 before it, despite such quantum leaps (or claims thereof…) in every area. Cheaper and perhaps more efficient rear-drive versions will follow too.
Don’t quite like what you see? An i3 sedan will follow, mimicking the Vision Neue Klasse concept, alongside the replacement or update of 40 – yep, forty – BMWs with Neue Klasse styling cues and tech in the next two years, regardless of their powertrain.
It’s a new era, alright…
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