[TusharK]

BMW has launched its first all-electric model in India. The BMW iX is available in a single xDrive40 variant at a price of Rs. 1,15,90,000 (ex-showroom).



The BMW iX looks quite striking with its large kidney grille and slim headlamps. The car has frameless windows and slim one-piece tail lights.

On the inside, the iX features a single-piece BMW Curved Glass display, a hexagonal steering wheel and a panoramic sunroof. The car comes equipped with leather seats with massage function, ambient lighting, head-up display, a 14.9-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple Carplay, an 18-speaker Harman Kardon sound system and other creature comforts.



The iX is powered by two electric motors - one on each axle. Together, they produce 322 BHP and 630 Nm. The car can accelerate from 0-100 km/h in 6.1 seconds.

The electric motors are powered by a 76.6 kWh battery pack that is said to offer a maximum range of 425 km (WLTP cycle). The battery can be recharged using a 150 kW DC charger, 50 kW DC charger or an 11 kW AC charger in 31 minutes, 73 minutes and 7 hours, respectively.



The BMW iX will come with a complimentary 11 kW Wallbox charger. The company also offers the iX with a 2-years / unlimited km warranty and an 8-years / 1,60,000 km battery warranty.

Link to Team-BHP News

[Sk8r]

For a car that requires no " Grill", the grill looks atrocious IMHO. Apart from that, it looks classy and has great road presence

[Livnletcarsliv]

I don't know what's happening to the design team of BMW as this iX is far from the BMWish DNA.
The ugliest BMW front ever from its stable. The side profile is Okish.
It is also significantly expensive for the powertrain it offers. Not an attractive package overall.

[agambhandari]

Can't believe I'm saying this but the price is actually better than expected if you consider the size of the car with the competitors like the EQC and E tron. The starting price is also lower than what you may expect vis a vis the pricing in US but BMW India seems to have played its cards well by bringing in the lower powered variant only.

Prices almost at par with an X7 and interior space better than an X5, it does seem to be a good halo product. The interior design and quality seems to be in a league of its own. Hopefully they follow it up with sanely price Mini SE and i4 soon.

[bordeaux]

That is the ugliest front face I have ever seen in a car. Maybe it'll look better if you crash it into a truck a couple times at moderate speeds.

[TusharK]

BMW iX sold out; bookings reopen in Q1 2022

BMW recently launched the iX - its first all-electric offering in India. The electric SUV will be imported as a completely built unit (CBU). Now, the carmaker has announced that the first batch of cars has been sold out.



BMW has confirmed that the first batch of cars will be delivered by April 2022. Bookings will reopen in Q1 2022.

The iX is powered by two electric motors - one on each axle. Together, they produce 322 BHP and 630 Nm. The car can accelerate from 0-100 km/h in 6.1 seconds. The electric motors are powered by a 76.6 kWh battery pack that is said to offer a maximum range of 425 km (WLTP cycle).

In India, the iX competes with the likes of the Mercedes-Benz EQC and Audi e-tron in the luxury EV segment.

Link to Team-BHP News

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by TusharK

BMW iX sold out; bookings reopen in Q1 2022

This PR gimmick is getting really old and cliche
Almost every company does it, allocate a handful of cars and then claim it's sold out within a day of launch. This is the only way they get repeat PR coverage after the launch day.

We have seen this strategy fail with the Skoda vRS before the pandemic and their CEO faced a lot of criticism.

[AKSarkar1]

Originally Posted by Sahil

This PR gimmick is getting really old and cliche

And yet companies keep on using it, about time they learn and adapt their strategies in sync with the market. I feel such kind of marketing such classify as misinformation since it definitely isn't true in most of the cases.

Personally, I have been seeing VW use this strategy from as early as 2012, and some dealers yet continue making such claims. Seems almost unethical to me that dealers knowingly subject customers to such sort of misinformation for personal (dealer) gains.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by Sahil

Almost every company does it, allocate a handful of cars and then claim it's sold out within a day of launch. This is the only way they get repeat PR coverage after the launch day.

My guess is that they got less than 20 cars and it's a fact that they have sold out all. Booking was taken in advance from repetitive customers to my knowledge and dealerships had to give the names too. They are now collecting further payments and in case any one drops out, they will ask the people who have registered their interests.

Similar thing happened with AMG A recently, MB India had hardly any cars which were sold out even before the launch.

Since the numbers are too little in case of CBU, manufacturers use this mostly as free publicity. Collective free media attention they get during such launches helps them other models I guess. I was keen to consider one but only in 50 variant. This one is not apt for intercity trips in my opinion but the kind of interiors and the price is definitely a big factor.

[Venkatesh]

BMW iX xDrive 40 review by TopGear

The iX 40 might well be the pick of the iX litter

So it’s good to drive, then?

This entirely depends on what you mean by ‘good’. If ‘good’ means sporty, then absolutely not. If ‘good’ means capable, comfortable and soothing, then yes, it’s really quite brilliant.

Review by AutocarUK

The ride is incredibly well isolated. At lower speeds it’s good,too, if marginally less cosseting. What’s more unusual is how responsive, light and quick the steering is.

There’s no great connected feeling here between steering and car, and that’s unusual in a BMW – even one of the big SUVs. There’s a little roll as you do turn, but while this is a tall car, most of the masses are low down.

[Venkatesh]

BMW iX review - Autocar India

Ride is fantastic for an SUV and body movements are so well controlled and damped, the iX almost glides limo-like over small ridges and medium-sized bumps.

The high-revving qualities of the motors ensure that the iX continues to pull strongly well past 100kph, the said figure coming up in a claimed 6.1sec.

Expect somewhere between 350km to 370km in the real world.

[Turbanator]

BMW India to launch 2023 MY cars with Air Suspension and Connected drive features shortly.

Sales will begin online shortly with deliveries later in this month. Not aware of the price increase, about 3-4 lac increase can be expected.

[pk0080]

WHY BMW IX

I wanted an electric, first booked a BMW i4 due to range figures but when I actually saw it, it is too small, cramped, and had low ground clearance, so I canceled it and took the refund.

I checked many SUVs of Jaguar, Landrover, Audi, BMW, Mercedez, etc but none were giving as many features at that time as my wife's new XUV700 was giving, Believe it or not, Last year these brands were no longer talking about feature if you say you have XUV700, only pitch they were making was Luxury, Brand value etc.

IX had all the features, range, ground clearance, etc, that's why I decided on it.

WHY IT took almost a year to buy it

The problem was no one knew the expected delivery time etc, but then last year-end a bulk (100+) lot of IX got diverted to India from some other market (I assume Russia or Scandinavian countries), suddenly it was readily available but I didn't like that one because it had heated seat but not ventilated, whereas in NCR or Most of India, we do not really need a heated seat that much, and it even had heated steering, heated side mirrors etc.

Then in March of 2023, another lot came, though the price got increased by 10%, but it had a soft close door, the latest ADAS (driver assistance plus), so I booked it while it was in transit to Bird Automotive Gurgaon to take immediate delivery.

Delivery Experience

6 years ago when I took 5 series delivery experience was smooth, there was no surprise, and I was hoping the same. But it was shock one after another.
The first dealer changed bank for finance from Axis to HDFC at the last moment,
With Axis I was promised cashback, when they changed to HDFC, HDFC had a higher interest rate, and they said they will give me the difference of interest as cashback. When I took delivery, it was late in the evening like 8 pm, and I didn't pay attention, just took the vehicle. Later I realized that no cashback was given at all, later first they said we promised nothing, luckily I had it in the email for one part, and for 2nd part, HDFC guy was a witness, still they gave me an accessory / extended warranty worth that amount only after raising the issue with BMW India.

2nd on the day of delivery, all of a sudden they increased insurance costs from 1.5 lakh to more than 2 lakh, saying it was mistake by one of their employee. I told them that I will do it outside and I got it done outside.

3rd few days before delivery, when I came to sign loan papers, dealer gave me wall charger and told me that travel charger will come later but after delivery they told me that this lot is coming without a travel charger (even cheapest SUV EV, Nexxon comes with travel charger).

Ownership Experience

None of my past vehicle got as much attention or eyeballs as this one.
It is super spacious inside, so many type C charging ports that you will never need even half of them at the same time.
Seats are very comfortable.
Acceleration was very fast, infact you can't even use full acceleration if there is stuff loose in boot, as stuff keep moving back and forth.
Mileage is improving with time. I got 300 KM distance from 100% to 2% on expressway (120 KMPH) and around 400 KM distance for same charge on expressway (100 KMPH). I have noticed I get best in city but never could really do long distance.
Lange change feature is super useful, you do not need to worry about vehicle coming from back, just give the half indicator, and it switches the lane automatically, but it waits upto a minute or so max for lane to be clear of traffic for change and cancels the lange change function if its not possible to change within this short time. I think this time should be more.

Twice it happen with me, when I was in a hotel which gave just socket for charing and didn't had DC / AC charger itself. I had to once borrow the charger from Nexon owner staying in same hotel. I was wondering why BMW doesn't supply charger with vehicle, and after such experience, I decided to buy one. But BMW charger is expensive and it doesn't even have cable / plug for India, it has european plug and you need to buy convertor / adaptor yourself. And default cable charges at less than the speed of Nexon charger. but charger itself is designed for fast charging, but in India cables sent with it are slow.

Overall I am satisfied, except that such expensive vehicle is given without proper travel charger for Indian enviornment.

Charging expeirence

Like most EV users, I have been to different charging stations, best I found so far were Golden royal dhaba in Kurukshetra, Highway King near shahpura, all three had 150 KW charger. but I got around 150 KW charging speed only in Kurukshetra Hyundai (Charged zone app) charger at Golden Royal dhaba.
BMW charger are amongst the worst with charging speed around 25KW, May be that is why you rarely see anyone charging at BMW charging station.

I did trip from Ambala to Jaipur and back, with charging at highway king, and getting 80% before we finished the meal / snacks.

did Another trip from Delhi - Agra - Jaipur - Delhi, without stopping anywhere and charged at hotel where I stayed. There was no charging problem, but still always need to think how far can it go.

I found adaptive regen gives better mileage than high or low regen.

Many time valet are not able to get out of car, as it has button to open the door instead of handle.

CONS

1. lack of travel charger, they are selling 11KW travel charger in USA & europe, why not in India ??
2. Need to tell hotel security that its bonnet cant be open.
3. Moon Glass on top doesn't really stops the heat well, and there is no curtain to cover it.

Thanks

Feel free to give your feedback or ask questions.
Planning for a trip from Jaisalmer - Udaipur - Jodhpur - Delhi - Shimla - Manali - Leh - Kashmir - Amritsar - Delhi in it. If all goes well, I will share the experience.

[zandot]

Originally Posted by pk0080

WHY BMW IX

Please add photos!! Been contemplating one as well as there are some good deals to be had at the moment on slightly pre-owned ones

[zandot]

Forgot to ask and too late to edit my previous post now what is the real world range you've been getting?