2023 BMW iX M60 Video Review: MotorTrend Buyer's Guide
This is the BMW iX M60
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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.