Great in town, not so great for the long road Peter Palm
The iX3 retains BMW’s high quality standard and serves as a serene urban family haulier Ryan de Villiers
The day is approaching when petrolheads take up such obscure hobbies as collecting obsolete dipsticks and switching their musical tastes to the Electric Light Orchestra. The latter is perhaps a reasonable analogy since our brand new motive power is light on energy consumption and the sheer joy of hearing a well-rehearsed orchestral piece is not unlike the refinement of the full electric package. So, it’s in this understandably charged atmosphere (couldn’t resist the pun) that we test the latest BMW SUV to receive the EV treatment: the iX3.
Given the shock to the system that was the radical-looking iX, the iX3 is a more main-stream-looking model, but then, we have been subjected to earlier polarising bodywork from BMW. Who can forget the Bangle years? That large kidney may look as though (no water) as the air-cooled Kombi stickers used to boast, as coolant is still necessary for the battery pack. It’s not unusual for a faux grille to be glued on to cars, as this is the most obvious visual image for a marque.
