BMW provided flights from Washington, DC, to Malaga, Spain, and accommodation so Ars could drive the iX3. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.
The new BMW iX3 is an important car for the automaker. It’s the first of a new series of vehicles that BMW is calling the Neue Klasse, calling back to a range of cars that helped define the brand in the 1960s. Then, as now, propulsion is provided by the best powertrain BMW’s engineers could design and build, wrapped in styling that heralds the company’s new look. Except now, that powertrain is fully electric, and the cabin features technology that would have been scarcely believable to the driver of a new 1962 BMW 1500.
In fact, the iX3 is only half the story when it comes to BMW’s neue look for the Neue Klasse—there’s an all-electric 3 series sedan on the way, too. The sedan will surely appeal to enthusiasts, particularly the version that the M tuning arm has worked its magic upon, but you’ll have to wait until early 2026 to read about that stuff. Which makes sense: crossovers and SUVs—or “sports activity vehicles” in BMW-speak—are what the market wants these days, so that’s what comes first.
The technical stuff
As we learned earlier this summer, BMW leaned heavily into sustainability when it designed the iX3. There’s extensive use of recycled battery minerals, interior plastics, and aluminum, and the automaker has gone for a monomaterial approach where possible to make recycling the car a lot easier. There’s also an all-new EV powertrain, BMW’s sixth-generation. When it goes on sale here next summer, the launch model will be the iX3 50 xDrive, which pairs an asynchronous motor at the front axle and an electrically excited synchronous motor at the rear for a combined output of 463 hp (345 kW) and 475 lb-ft (645 Nm).
The lighter the paint shade, the better you can see the surface detailing, like the bulging wheel arches. Credit: BMW
Energy to the motors is supplied from a 108.7-kWh (net), 800 V lithium-ion battery pack. BMW abandoned the pouch cell/module approach used in its fifth-gen EV powertrains in favor of new cylindrical cells, which measure 46 mm by 95 mm. Instead of modules, the iX3 uses a cell-to-pack design that saves weight, as well as making the pack cheaper to assemble. And the top of the battery pack forms the floor of the car, with the seats bolting directly onto the pack—this saves yet more weight and space inside the vehicle.