2023 BMW iX M60 Video Review: MotorTrend Buyer's Guide

MotorTrend

This is the BMW iX M60

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 This is the brand new 2023 BMW iX.

00:14 It is an all electric SUV,

00:20 and it's the most important product

00:22 that BMW has made in a long, long time.

00:26 Let's find out why.

00:28 (upbeat music)

00:30 Why is this vehicle so important?

00:35 Two big reasons.

00:36 One, BMW is going electric.

00:39 They announced by 2025,

00:42 they're gonna have a new platform called the new Aclasa,

00:45 which every single BMW they make

00:47 will be built off that platform.

00:49 The other reason it's so important is, it's an SUV.

00:52 Guess what?

00:53 If you wanna make money selling cars these days,

00:55 you gotta make SUVs.

00:56 So, electric SUV equals the iX.

01:01 Is there competition in the electric luxury SUV space?

01:06 Not much at the moment.

01:08 Jaguar makes the I-Pace, Audi has the e-tron,

01:11 Cadillac has the Lyric,

01:13 and of course Tesla makes the Model X

01:15 as well as the Model Y.

01:18 But you know, for something like this, not really yet,

01:21 although the competition is coming.

01:24 I think BMW is smart to get the iX out of the gate first.

01:28 Design.

01:31 Strap yourselves in.

01:33 I think the iX looks pretty cool.

01:35 I know, I know, BMW design is out of control.

01:38 Luke Donkervold has lost the plot.

01:40 It doesn't look exactly like an E30.

01:43 But pretend it's not a BMW for a second.

01:46 Pretend you have to launch an electric SUV.

01:49 When you look at it through those eyes, it's pretty good.

01:52 The twin kidney grilles, yes, it's a bit much,

01:56 but remember why they look like this.

01:57 They're burying all the ADAS stuff in there.

02:00 So, radar and lidar, whatever they need

02:03 to make these things autonomous in the future,

02:05 they're gonna live here.

02:06 Plus, they're actually covered in self-healing skin,

02:09 which I think is pretty cool.

02:10 I really like how aggressive they made the headlights.

02:13 They've shrunken them, but they're still big this way,

02:15 so it has a lot of eye going forward.

02:19 Coming down the side, the big 22 inch wheels help,

02:23 as does the color.

02:24 This dark blue, it's a great color,

02:27 and it just really does help with the design of this thing.

02:30 Coming down, because this is the M60 high performance

02:34 version, the badges are kinda grayed out,

02:36 and that's the new M look, which I think is very cool.

02:38 As are the taillights.

02:40 Normally, in other colors, I think the taillights

02:42 look too small, but like everything else

02:44 on this particular one, it all kinda works.

02:46 I really do think this is a cool looking SUV.

02:50 I feel like I'm sitting in the future.

02:54 Not just the future of BMW, but kind of like

02:56 the future of the car.

02:58 Look at this, it's space age.

03:00 I've got this big floating screen right here.

03:03 Luxurious, yet technologically advanced.

03:06 And that's really what the entire interior looks like.

03:09 Really nice materials.

03:11 I'm not a huge fan of all the crystal,

03:12 but if you are, man, there's a lot of it.

03:15 How is the iX as a luxury vehicle?

03:17 It's very nice.

03:18 This is an incredibly comfortable seat.

03:20 This is wonderful, lots of room.

03:22 The back seat has lots of room,

03:24 and there's a ton of storage behind the back seat.

03:26 This is a nice preview of the future.

03:29 Time to talk performance.

03:33 I mentioned that this is the iX M60.

03:37 This is the high performance version of the iX,

03:40 and it does have some pretty impressive numbers.

03:44 It has two motors, one on the front, one on the back,

03:46 and they combine to put out 532 horsepower

03:50 and 749 pound feet of torque.

03:54 However, it's a German product,

03:55 meaning obviously it has an overboost mode.

03:58 Here they call it launch mode,

04:00 and when you go into launch mode,

04:01 you're talking 610 horsepower

04:04 and an impressive 811 pound feet of torque.

04:08 And even though this thing probably weighs

04:10 just under three tons, that should get it

04:14 to 60 miles an hour in 3.2 seconds,

04:18 which is nuts for a family SUV.

04:22 What's it like to drive?

04:23 It's pretty good.

04:24 Look, they put 'em on these low rolling resistance tires

04:27 so they can get more mileage.

04:28 You put on a good set of tires, it would handle better.

04:31 What you really wanna know though is

04:32 how big is the battery?

04:34 This vehicle has a 105 kilowatt hour battery.

04:38 Well, what does that mean?

04:38 How far can it go on one charge?

04:40 It can go 274 miles according to the EPA.

04:44 Should you opt for the smaller 21 inch wheels,

04:46 that number jumps up to 288 miles.

04:50 That's cool.

04:51 When it comes to safety, nobody has crash tested

04:55 one of these yet, so we just don't know.

04:58 We hope it's safe, but we have no idea.

05:01 As far as standard active safety features go,

05:04 well look, you don't put a grill that big on a vehicle

05:08 and stuff it with sensors if it doesn't have

05:10 all the latest and greatest stuff.

05:12 And well, the iX does.

05:14 How much?

05:17 Okay, glad you asked because you can get into a 2023 BMW iX

05:22 and the lower trim X-Drive 50 model for just over $84,000.

05:29 And if you want to spend some more money

05:32 on a highly optioned, much more powerful iX M60

05:36 like this blue one here, this one is over $113,000.

05:41 Those are big numbers.

05:44 Yes, however, let's take a look at the competition.

05:48 The Audi e-tron S with the prestige trim,

05:50 that's over $93,000, kind of in the middle of the iX range.

05:55 That Jaguar I-Pace, that's somewhere like $73,000.

06:00 It's much less, but it's much slower, has much less range.

06:03 And right now, the real competition for the iX

06:07 is the Tesla Model X dual motor,

06:10 which begins life at over $122,000.

06:15 So when viewed against its main rival right now,

06:19 you're saving some money.

06:20 If there's one thing I want you to know

06:24 about the all new BMW iX,

06:27 it's that you are getting a sneak peek look

06:30 into the future of BMW.

06:33 There's gonna come a point in time,

06:35 and it's coming up sooner than you think,

06:37 where you will not be able to buy a BMW that burns gasoline.

06:42 If you want that badge, it's gonna be an EV.

06:45 And you know what?

06:46 If they're like this, that's a future I'm cool with.

06:49 To see vehicle rankings and a complete buyer's guide,

06:55 please visit motortrend.com/cars.

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