The BMW iX3 Beat Its Own Range Record By Dropping To Smaller Wheels
Article Summary
- The iX3 50 xDrive travelled 749 km (465 miles) at 90 km/h on 12.9 kWh/100 km, the best figure in Nyland’s database of several hundred cars.
- The gain over April’s 724 km came entirely from 20-inch wheels on Hankook Ion Evo SUV tires instead of 21s on Goodyear Eagle F1s.
- At 120 km/h the iX3 managed 543 km, second only to the Lucid Air Dream Edition, and its 1,000 km time fell to 8 hours 49 minutes.
A BMW iX3 50 xDrive has just gone 749 km (465 miles) on a single charge at 90 km/h (56 mph) in Bjorn Nyland’s highway test, drinking 12.9 kWh per 100 km on the way. Back in April the Neue Klasse SUV posted 724 km (450 miles) and took the record then. Nothing about the powertrain has changed since. What changed is the rubber of the car. That earlier test ran 21-inch wheels shod in Goodyear Eagle F1s. This one used 20s wrapped in Hankook Ion Evo SUV tires, a low-rolling-resistance design aimed at precisely this result. Twenty-five extra kilometers came out of a wheel and tire choice.
Nyland reckons the smaller combination rides better and makes less noise, too, which is the rare case of a downgrade on paper improving the car in three separate ways. BMW’s own paperwork hinted at some of this already. The iX3 50 xDrive carries a WLTP rating spanning 678 to 805 km (421 to 500 miles) depending on specification, and wheel size accounts for most of that gap.
What Happens When You Add Speed
Raise the pace to 120 km/h (75 mph) and consumption climbs to 17.8 kWh/100 km, leaving 543 km (337 miles). One car in Nyland’s spreadsheet has beaten that: the Lucid Air Dream Edition, with 580 km (360 miles). Lucid built a long, low sedan around the specific goal of range. BMW built a family SUV with a 108.7-kWh usable pack, 400 kW charging, and a normal boot, then finished 37 km behind it.
Better efficiency also showed up in the 1,000 km (621-mile) challenge, where the iX3 stopped the clock at 8 hours and 49 minutes. Nyland scores that eight minutes up on the winter attempt, although his public spreadsheet rounds both figures and displays the improvement as five.
What About The BMW i3?
These numbers have an expiry date. The i3 (NA0) arrives in customer hands this autumn with a WLTP rating of up to 900 km, close to 100 km beyond the iX3’s best case, in a body that sits lower and pushes less air. Expect it to walk past both of these results.
There is also a variant BMW has not built yet. Every iX3 with the large battery comes with two motors, so nobody has seen what eDrive Gen6 could do in a single-motor car configured purely for distance. It’s possible that the range will get even better. The BMW iX3 40 is expected to come next year in March. See below his video review of the car:
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