The 500-mile BMW iX3 made its debut at the Munich motor show a few months ago, and is the first of a new generation that builds on everything the manufacturer has learned about EVs since the i3.
‘Project i’ was formed back in 2007 with the aim of completely rethinking the automobile. The i3 went on sale in 2013 after a few years of teasing and was every bit as advanced as we thought it would be.
With the ratio between weight and energy capacity far behind what it is today, BMW reasoned the only way to make an EV viable was to offset the weight of the battery by making the entire passenger compartment, or ‘Life Module’, from carbonfibre.
Ambitious, given such construction had so far remained viable only for supercars. But it worked: the i3’s kerb weight came in at a tad over 1300kg depending on the spec.
The iX3 may not literally be the successor to the i3 but maybe spiritually it is. With the forthcoming Neue Klasse dedicated EV platform on which BMW’s new EV family is based, EV architecture has become less dramatic, if no less sophisticated. There has been a continued shift towards sustainability of materials and the need for ‘circularity’ in the design of the smallest detail.
BMW is taking what it calls a “secondary first” approach too (and it’s not alone in doing that), which means prioritising recycled materials over primary (virgin) materials in the manufacture of everything from interior trim to cast aluminium suspension components.
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