Today I had one of my shortlisted cars for the day. A BMW iX1 20e M-Sport with Technology Plus Pack, 19” alloys and Harman Kardon sound system. As I currently have a petrol X1 (2021 20i XLine 4WD) and have previously had a current generation iX1 30e XLine for the day, there were some very specific things that I wanted to establish. Feedback as follows;
Performance – Our current petrol X1 is something like 190 bhp and 4WD. Whilst I tend to drive it in moderation, it’s sh*t off a shovel if you want it to be. The 20e iX1 is 200 bhp but, being an EV, is a heavier car. I was concerned that it might be sluggish. I’m pleased to say that I needn’t have worried. Power and performance is fine. As those who drive, or have driven, an EV will know, the power delivery is different. With our petrol X1, if you accelerate hard you get a rapid but progressive build up of power that keeps going, with the iX1 if you floor it you get immediate punch in the back take off, so it gets to speed quicker, but then flatlines rather than continuing to build. It’s different but still perfectly adequate. There is a ‘Boost’ mode but I tried fast acceleration with and without it and couldn’t tell any difference. Obviously the negative of flooring an EV is that the range takes an immediate hit. In summary though, I don’t think that anyone should be concerned that this car would be underpowered.
Range – When I collected the car it was showing 85% charge and an available range of 220 miles. The car had been driven 35 miles in B mode since charging prior to me picking it up. I ended up only driving about 60 miles in it, on a mix of motorway and A roads. Apart from 3 or 4 sharp blasts (as mentioned above) I was driving it at 60-70 on the motorway and 30-60 on A roads, so sensible speeds. When I returned the car the remaining range was 145 miles. So I used up 75 miles of range driving 60 miles. Keeping in mind that today was quite warm (19 degrees) my guess is that the realistic range for the sort of driving I do is probably around 230 miles from a full charge. Our petrol X1 easily manages 500-600 miles, so a massive difference, but that’s obviously something you have to accept if you go down the EV route.
Ride & Handling – M-Sport iX1 and X1’s have M-Sport Adaptive suspension as standard. You wouldn’t know. It’s certainly not jarring and I wouldn’t even say it’s problematic, but it does have a slightly unsettled ride. When I asked my wife what she particularly liked and disliked about the car, the first negative that she mentioned was the ride quality. Our test car had upgraded 19” alloys, but I doubt that the standard 18” setup would be massively different. I certainly wouldn’t advise going to 20” though. Our current petrol X1 is 4WD and lighter and, if you are so minded, you can really chuck it around with no stress at all. Not that I do that, but it’s certainly a brilliant drivers car, as so many BMWs are. The 20e iX1 is heavier and 2WD. Furthermore, the driven wheels are at the front, which is unusual for a BMW. I’ve lost count of how many BMWs I’ve driven (I’d guess at a minimum of 50) and whether it’s the setup or the fact that it’s an EV (or both) I don’t know, but the iX1 doesn’t drive and handle as well as other BMWs I’ve driven. This won’t be an issue for those who are new to BMW, but may come as a slight disappointment to those who are very familiar with them, and like the way that the ICE versions drive.
Regenerative Braking – I’ve given this aspect of driving characteristics a separate paragraph as, for me, it’s a big issue. I tried ‘B’ mode (one pedal driving). It’s not for me, but I can imagine that it could be very useful for those with certain disabilities. Even with it off, you still feel the car regenerative braking. The car was set to ‘Adaptive’ mode. This is very clever, as it changes the degree of regenerative braking based on various factors, including the road ahead (it uses the Sat Nav to know, for example, that you are going into a bend). Whilst very clever, I hated it. You never knew whether there was going to be very little ‘braking’ when you eased off the accelerator, or lots. I could not work out for the life of me how to disable this mode (see separate section on OS9) so had to google it and watch a YouTube video. Once I worked it out I set it to ‘Low’, which was better, but the regenerative braking was still noticeable. I realise that this is an essential aspect of driving an EV to help preserve the limited range but, as with my previous test drive in an EV, I just don’t like it.
Road Noise – The petrol engine in our current X1 is near silent, but road noise is a bit excessive. We both felt that the iX1 was a bit quieter. I’m sure that many other cars are even quieter, as it’s never been a strong point of X1’s, and still isn’t, but the new model is definitely better than the 2021 model that we have. Our test car had the Harman Kardon sound system and I wouldn’t say that I was blown away by it, but it was good and better than the standard system in our current car.
Infotainment – The iXi has the latest BMW iDrive operating system 9. I am certainly no technophobe and like to have all the gadgets and options, but the setup in the iX1 and new X1 is a step backwards. The rotary controller has gone, so you now have to use touchscreen (dangerous and awkward whilst driving) or voice control. Worst of all, it’s not intuitive and even though I currently have a BMW, I found it to be extremely confusing. In our current X1 I can do countless things on the move safely. If I tried to do the same on the new model I’d end up in a ditch – or worse. The voice control in our current car is brilliant, but it’s not as good in the new model, which is a real shame as you need it to be as good or even better. I asked it to ‘Navigate to (my postcode)’. This command always works first time on mine. On the iX1 it accepted the postcode every time but wouldn’t accept it as a destination. I had to state the road name and village to make it work. Very odd. I didn’t like the new map views as much. The surround camera was pretty cool and may be of use to those with some restriction in upper body movement. I’m sure that there’s lots of other cool stuff but you can only really plough through it all whilst the vehicle is stationary. It’s way too complicated and distracting to use on the move.
Summary – I really wanted to love the iX1. BMW is my favourite mainstream brand by a mile and this is the only BMW on Motability that my wife can get in and out of. Our current X1 has been near perfect, so this car should have ticked every box for us. It’s not a bad car, and for those making their first step into a BMW, the quality step up from other brands will be noticeable. Furthermore, those who really want an EV will happily live with all the quirks that these powertrains have. The problem we have is that we don’t yearn to have an EV, so we would be getting the iX1 purely to get the closest car to what we currently have and like. We are fortunate that running costs are low down on our list of priorities in what we look for in a car, so whilst it would undoubtedly be cheaper to run, that money saving comes at a cost in several other respects, and that’s a trade off that we aren’t keen on making. We haven’t ruled the car out, because the way things are going with the scheme (and my wife’s worsening condition) we can’t afford to, but would I feel excited about the prospect of getting an iX1 and feel that it was a step up from our 2021 petrol X1? The honest answer to both questions is ‘No’.