Two years ago, at the Beijing Auto show, BMW introduced an electric crossover. Now on Tuesday, although this company was so late to do some SUVs from its companions, its iX3 is finally officially unveiled. This very first BMW’s SUV will be available in UK in 2021. BMW has good reason to be so late in this electrical market. This vehicle is mobilized whit latest motor, battery, electronics and charging technology and of course most recent eDrive technology. Let do a survey on BMW iX3.
Under this vehicles hood lays a full electric engine with the most high-tech technology. For building this motor, it is planed that all the transmition and electronics happen in a single housing without the interference of magnets. Its like current-excited synchronous motor. That means this motor is really environmentally friendly as no rare-earth material is used.
This engine is 30 per cent denser than other BMW existing Group motor and as the same time 93 per cent more efficient. The top speed of this engine is 112 mph and 295 lb-ft and very stable at high revolutions. Just in 6.8 sec, 62 mph velocity is achievable, which for a electric car is a good record.
The battery which is used is again denser than anything before. It consists of 118 prismatic cells which give an output of 74 kWh. For recharging the battery, both 400V battery and 12v on-board should be supplied.
If you use the right 150 kw rapid charger, in less than 34 minutes 80 per cent of your car’s battery is full. If the charging stations are not available, wall box chargers are convenient. by the way, with a full charged battery you can drive 285 miles.
As it was predictable, the visual shape is just like the regular X3 but with more details. The enclosed design is so visible in the front and the rear of the care has been tweaked. In this way the resistance of the air is much less. The center of the gravity is 7.5 cm lower than the regular X3 too. Contrary, much space for luggage by splitting rear bench. The capacity of the boot, is 510 liters which is slightly smaller than regular X3.
It seems that the start price of this SUV will start at about £60,000. The good news is, maybe there will be some discounts like Audi or Mercedes. Just you should be so aware to be just in time. The bad news, as the speaker of BMW stated, this electric SUV will not be available soon in USA. So, if you like to drive it, take a ticket to London.