The BMW X3 Thread

2026 BMW iX3 Zaps Us Into The Neue Klasse Era With Extremely Cool Styling, 400 Miles Of Range And The Wildest iDrive Yet

I'm sure that most of your favorite BMWs are things like the E30 and E46 3 Series, the E39 5 Series or the first-gen M roadster. You probably love classics like the 2002 and E9. Maybe you like some of Bangle's more subtle designs, like the E92 M3, and you might even enjoy a newer X5 or 2 Series. Many fans prefer BMW's more restrained periods like the 1980s and '90s when the company took fewer risks in terms of design, powertrains and adoption of new technology.

That's not the BMW I'm into. Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of the classics, just always the most avantgarde ones. I'm an avid Bangle-era fan, especially the weirdest stuff (I will always ride for the E65), and the only new BMWs from the past decade and a half that I've really loved have been the groundbreaking i3 and i8 — at least, not until the iX and current 7 Series came out. Their controversial exterior and undeniably excellent interior designs were a breath of fresh air to me, and they drive incredibly well, too. BMW has finally been leaning back into the futuristic and strange, and now it's zapping further ahead with the 2026 iX3, the first model on the long-awaited Neue Klasse platform that will underpin (or at the very least influence) every future BMW.

www.jalopnik.com

2026 BMW iX3 Zaps Us Into The Neue Klasse Era With Extremely Cool Styling, 400 Miles Of Range And The Wildest iDrive Yet - Jalopnik

This electric SUV's powertrain, design and technology will influence 40 new or updated BMWs over the next couple of years.
www.jalopnik.com www.jalopnik.com
 
i think my next one ( 2024/25 model) will be my last if this is how they going to be going.. its hideous, even the interior is just eeew
 
The Neue Klasse has arrived! The BMW iX3 is an EV with 500 miles of range

BMW enters a whole new era of design, drive and sustainability with a 463bhp all-wheel drive SUV

This is the new BMW iX3, and we’re proudly told by the Bavarians that it’s the “first Neue Klasse model to go into series production”. Except it isn’t, because as you’ll well know this isn’t BMW’s first crack at a New Class. It certainly went well back in the 1960s though, with that generation of cars (starting with the 1500) bringing BMW back from the brink of financial collapse.

These neue Neue Klasse cars better live up to the name, then. And on paper at least the iX3 is certainly looking good. The headline stats on this launch spec iX3 50 xDrive are 463bhp and 476lb ft of torque sent to all four wheels by twin motors using BMW’s sixth-generation eDrive tech. That means 0-62mph in 4.9 seconds and a limited top speed of 130mph.

Those aren’t the most impressive numbers though, because the iX3 also gets a monster 108.7kWh usable battery with fancy new cylindrical cells and 800-volt technology for a total of 500 miles WLTP range. Good grief. It’ll recharge rapidly too, with 400kW charging allowing for an additional 231 miles to be added in just 10 minutes. We’re told that’s a 30 per cent increase on charging speed vs cars with the fifth-gen BMW eDrive tech. BMW also says that the sixth-gen cuts energy losses by 40 per cent, weight by 10 per cent and manufacturing costs by 20 per cent. All good things, particularly the latter if you work in BMW’s accounting department.

Of course, we’ve already driven a prototype of the iX3, so we’ve experienced its fancy new ‘superbrain’ tech first hand. You can read all about that by clicking here, but essentially it’s a whole new electronics architecture for the Neue Klasse cars that BMW describes as a “digital nervous system”. It deploys four super high-tech computers that pool their processing power and look after almost every function in the car. The one for driving is known as “Heart of Joy” and controls the motors, brakes, steering and all of the safety systems while making decisions up to 10 times faster than conventional control units. It apparently allows for 98 per cent of braking manoeuvres to be performed with regen alone, while something called a ‘Soft Stop’ function gives the iX3 “the smoothest stopping process ever achieved by a BMW”.

 
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