BMW IX1: AN EV THAT’S EASY TO RECOMMEND
Our car: BMW iX1 xDrive30 xLine
List price when new: £54,125
Price as tested: £60,070 (Tech Plus Pack £2,750, Comfort pack £1,050, 19-inch bi-colour wheels £695, Panoramic glass roof £1,000, Luggage net £150, Sun protection glass £300)
Official range: 265 miles (WLTP)
Test range (best/worst): 250/180 miles
Test efficiency: 3.4m/kWh
The BMW iX1 didn’t get glowing reviews when it arrived. Aimed directly at the likes of the Mercedes EQA, Audi Q4 e-tron and Tesla Model Y, it was deemed one of those “It’s fine, but there’s nothing special about it” kind of cars.
However, the beauty of actually living with a car is that you get to find out all kinds of stuff that a straightforward first drive rarely reveals, and this was the case with the iX1, which I ended up becoming rather attached to over a few months.
I have to say up front that it’s not cheap. List prices have crept up since the iX1 arrived last year, so now the 268bhp, four-wheel drive xDrive30 that I tested starts at £54,125 – albeit in the fairly well-equipped, mid-spec xLine trim. Interestingly, in that same period BMW has introduced the iX1 eDrive20, which manages with front-wheel drive and 201bhp. Sure, that means you get a 0-62mph of 8.6sec rather than the xDrive30’s extravagant 5.6sec, but for a £6,000 saving I’d most likely live with less power…
Anyway, the world seems full of posh electric SUVs these days, so with competition aplenty and a slightly underwhelming reception, what is the BMW iX1 like to live with?
It’s what’s inside that counts
You can’t overstate the importance of a car’s interior, and the BMW’s is top of the reasons I really enjoyed my time with it. All the materials feel dense and high quality, the switchgear damping is great, the seat – with its electric adjustment and lumbar support that comes as part of the Comfort Pack – is great even on very long journeys. It all feels appropriately premium and lovely, and every time I got into the car I actively appreciated how good it is. Mind you, electric seats really should be standard at this price.
I don’t even mind the new OS8 operating system that BMW has introduced. The curved screen looks fabulous, responds pretty quickly and has some of the best graphics of any touchscreen out there. My big irritation is the vast sea of icons that greets you when you go to the car’s main ‘apps’ menu to try and find a setting for the display, or any other feature that may not be up front on the system’s configurable home page. It’s impossible to figure out what you’re looking for while you’re driving when you’re faced with hordes of tiny icons, and BMW really should know better. Did I miss the rotary controller of older BMW models? Yeah. Maybe a bit. Nonetheless, getting into the BMW always brought something of a smug glow, which is really why you go for a premium car, after all.
Seatbelt woes
It wasn’t too bad at first. I slid my seven-year old daughter’s car seat into the back seats, which have fairly sculpted squabs on the outer seats, and discovered that the seat base was narrow enough that her car seat covers the seatbelt plug. Much sighing and tugging about said car seat and seven-year old ensued, until I got her belted in securely.
The problem is that she’s generally more than capable of belting herself in – provided the plug isn’t underneath her seat. This sounds like a small irritation but, in truth, it’s a big deal. A daily annoyance for me and for my daughter.
For some context, I had a Vauxhall Corsa for a week during my tenure with the iX1, and she could belt herself in while ensconced in precisely the same car seat. So, come on BMW – why on earth are the outer rear seats in the iX1 narrower than in the much smaller Corsa?
What is worth pointing out is that, weirdly, I had much the same problem with the Telegraph Cars long-term Mercedes EQA, albeit it was a chunkier car seat that we were using at the time. So maybe it’s to do with the more deeply shaped rear seat squabs that you typically get in these posher SUVs?
Regardless, these are big-selling car seats from highly popular brands that I’m using, and both the EQA and iX1 are family cars first and foremost. If you’re using Isofix-fittings for your car seats then you’ll be fine, but even so – you’d think that car seat fitment (a legal requirement in the UK for any child up until they’re 12 years old or 135cm tall) would be a chief consideration.
Efficiency built in
One of the things I’ve noticed about most electric BMWs is that they’re very efficient. So it proved with the iX1. I ran the BMW over autumn and winter, so I was unsure of the sort of range and efficiency I’d get, but it returned a solid 3.4 miles per kWh despite the majority of my miles being on motorways. On milder days and in more modest driving I saw that creep up to 3.7m/kWh – good for a real-world range of 239 miles, but in reality 3.4m/kWh and a real-world range of 220 miles was pretty standard even in chilly weather.
I did see that drop to more like 180 miles on one faster motorway run in freezing conditions when it was also very windy, so it’s safe to consider that a worst-case scenario range for the iX1 and its usable battery capacity of 64.7kWh.
That’s pretty good for something with this performance. Mind you, the Tesla Model Y – which is cheaper and more spacious inside – will go further, and charge more quickly… so it’s not hard to see why the Model Y is the most popular EV in the UK.
Charging
Talking of charging, the BMW proved reliable and pretty fast (by anyone but Tesla’s standards). It gets 130kW DC charging, but it’s interesting that I got quite close to that maximum on a number of occasions. Provided the battery was down to below 30% and the charger was up to it.
Part of that is also that the iX1 has a manual setting to warm the battery up ahead of a rapid charge, which is brilliant as I use CarPlay on the infotainment system – who doesn’t? – meaning that you don’t get the car’s automatic battery-warming benefits as the charging stop isn’t plugged into the car’s native sat-nav system. Being able to just hit a button on the screen ten minutes before you think you’re going to charge is simple, and a great feature that should really be on all EVs.
Anyway, rapid charging speeds vary depending on the charger condition, the weather, the state of battery charge, how many other cars are charging at the location, the colour pants you’re wearing and what the phase of the moon is. But even in the context of its rivals, the iX1 routinely charged quickly. Fastned reckons that the IX1 manages an average of around 62 miles in ten minutes from a healthy charger, which sounds about right to me based on our long-termer’s performance.
Bluetooth no longer compatible
The BMW’s infotainment system had been great for the first couple of months, until one day I got in, threw my phone into the wireless charging spot (neatly held in place within an upright cradle at the base of the centre console) and was met with a warning notice. “Not possible to connect this device. Bluetooth version no longer compatible.”
I lived with the radio for that journey, but with further investigation discovered that my husband’s phone had also been kicked out of the BMW’s system. The option to forget device and reconnect wasn’t available, and you couldn’t even turn Bluetooth on at all. Weird.
Naturally, it being the 21st century, I didn’t call a BMW dealer but went straight to Google and immediately found the BMW forums with many owners of modern iX models talking about the same problem. It seems that this is a peculiar software glitch that sometimes affects the OS8 system, and the solution was to reboot it by holding down the volume button for 30sec.
I pressed and held. Low and behold, the system rebooted and Bluetooth – more importantly, Apple CarPlay – was restored. Many thanks to the internet for the help, here.
Comfort and joy
One of the good things about the iX1 xDrive30 is that it gets adaptive suspension as standard and on 19-inch wheels I found the ride pretty decent. Not faultless – it’s a bit lumpy over town roads, particularly. But at higher speeds it settles down nicely and between this, the punchy performance and great refinement, it’s a lovely car to relax in. I used the stronger ‘B’ level of regenerative braking quite frequently, too, as it’s not grabby and I quite like heavier regen around town and on slower roads.
It handles well, too – not with the sort of flair that you might be hoping for given the performance, price and brand reputation for building ‘the ultimate driving machines’, but it’s confident, unflappable and has a nice bite and sense of confidence if you do fling it through some bends. I can’t speak for the front-wheel drive eDrive20 as I’ve not driven it, but test drive it in wet weather if at all possible, as similarly potent front-wheel drive EVs (including the EQA) can suffer from traction issues when the going gets slippery.
Voice control wins
I’m not generally a fan of voice control in cars. I routinely find a button quicker and easier; voice control is just too hit-and-miss. But I have to say that the iX1’s voice control is remarkably accurate, and I did begin to rely on it to change the cabin temperature, and even for things like turning the speed limit warning off (I was surprised that command worked, but it certainly did in our car). It’s the best voice control system I’ve used, without any doubt.
The Telegraph verdict
The BMW iX1 is one of those cars that fitted into my life effortlessly. It was genuinely easy to live with, even with dogs to get in the boot regularly, and a high-mileage lifestyle to accommodate.
But it is also one of those cars that, ultimately, I’d heartily recommend provided you can get a good deal on the day. Those deals are about if you look for them; you can get the xDrive30 with all the fancy options that our test car had for under £600 per month with a reasonable deposit. But the Tesla Model Y remains a looming problem – it charges more quickly and has the Supercharger network to rely on, goes further on a charge and is more spacious inside, so I wouldn’t blame anyone for going that route. However, the Model Y’s ride is rather terrible and its interior quality is not a patch on the BMW, so the iX1 isn’t without merits.
Ultimately, the iX1 was a truly enjoyable, resoundingly modern and classy feeling car that I enjoyed on every trip. That you only need to service it every two years and 20,000 miles is also in its favour. If you can make the money matters work and can fit your kids’ seats in the back easily, the iX1 is really rather peachy to live with.
2024-03-19T17:30:47Z dg43tfdfdgfd