This Is The Car That’s Supposed To Save BMW

After years of teasers, leaks, and rumors, BMW’s first “Neue Klasse” production car is finally here. The iX3 is the first (and most important) car in a lineup refresh for the German brand, promising big leaps in design, efficiency, and tech. Going by the specs, there’s a lot to be excited about here.

As a refresher, Neue Klasse, German for New Class, refers to BMW’s new vehicle architecture, and borrows its name from the company’s groundbreaking sedans and coupes of the Sixties and Seventies. Previewed by two concept vehicles, a sedan and an SUV, the radical design switch and the new drivetrain tech underneath are meant to be a guiding light for the automaker going forward. The iX3 is simply the first step in this revolution.

Here’s everything worth knowing so far.

Wow, That Grille

Let’s start with the looks. The iX3 is, as you can probably guess by the name, an electric version of BMW’s incredibly popular X3 crossover. It’s about an inch longer, but also an inch narrower and an inch shorter. The fascia is unlike anything I’ve seen from a production BMW before, with a thin vertical kidney grille (which BMW says is inspired by those original ’60s Neue Klasse cars). On either side of the kidneys is a black panel integrated into either headlight. Those panels can hold additional lighting to go along with the optional light-up grille. Seems like that craze isn’t going away any time soon.

Like the front of the iX3, the rear borrows a lot from the Neue Klasse SUV concept. The taillights are huge horizontal items, held by parts of the trunk that jut out, almost like a furled brow. Honestly, the rear of this car reminds me of the front of the current M3 and M4, where the grilles lead into protruding parts of the bumper and hood. Proportionally, the rest of the iX3 looks pretty good, almost like a miniature, more streamlined XM (but without that car’s gruesome face).

What’s It Like Inside?

I like the inside even more. Look at that steering wheel! It looks even more interesting than the wheel on the concept car. There are some extra-fat grips for where your thumbs go, and lots of shiny, fancy-looking metal trim. It’s a four-spoke setup, with the fourth spoke connecting at the 12 o’clock mark. Usually, that type of design never makes it into production, but because the iX3 doesn’t have a traditional gauge cluster, BMW made it happen.

In place of a gauge cluster is something entirely different: a projection system called Panoramic iDrive that shoots visuals right onto the base of the windshield, “where information appears on a black printed surface stretching from A-pillar to A-pillar,” according to BMW. It’s here where you’ll see vital stuff like speed, range, current gear, and warning lights. In the photo above, it looks like a screen mounted at the base of the glass. But really, that’s just a reflection from the glass itself. Trippy.

There’s also a standard touchscreen infotainment display in the center of the dash. This one measures in at 17.9 inches, and naturally, features wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Following recent BMW tradition, the climate controls have also been loaded into this screen, where they sit as a permanent fixture at the bottom of the display. Why they can’t be real buttons, I’m not entirely sure (aside from the painfully obvious, rub-it-in-the-buyer’s-face cost-cutting reasons).

There are still a few real, physical buttons, thankfully. Specifically, the gear selector, the parking brake, the hazard lights, the defrost controls, and the volume scroll wheel have all been saved from touchscreen jail. The turn signal and windshield wiper stalks are also totally normal, rather than pointlessly reinvented. The rest of the interior seems like a lovely place to be; it borrows much of its design from the iX, another one of BMW’s electric crossovers that I very much enjoyed spending time in.

Ok, Let’s Get To The Stuff That Matters

The iX3 is an EV, which means batteries and electric motors (two, in this case). Officially called the iX3 50 xDrive (rolls right off the tongue), it gets an 800-volt architecture, which means more efficient, quicker charging. BMW hasn’t published the size of the under-floor battery pack, but says the front and rear motors make a combined 463 horsepower and 476 pound-feet of torque. That’s enough for a 4.7-second sprint to 60 mph (if that sort of thing matters to you). Top speed is limited to 130 mph.

The Neue Klasse architecture brings a few significant upgrades here. The cylindrical lithium-ion cells are 20-percent more dense than before, resulting in a 30-percent incresase in charging speed, according to BMW. The cell pack is a structural member of the chassis, allowing it to perform double-duty as a power supply and holding the car together.

BMW’s particularly proud of the strides it’s made in the charging arena. That 800-volt architecture means that with the right DC fast charger, the iX3 can go from 10 to 80 percent charged in just 21 minutes. On that same charger, the automaker claims it can take as little as 10 minutes to add up to 230 miles of range. We’re getting close to regular gasoline fill-up times here, people. Total range, BMW says, is an estimated 400 miles, based on the EPA cycle. And, because we live in America, the iX3 will get an NACS charging port as standard.

Quick charging is only part of the game here. The iX3 has Vehicle-to-Load (V2L), which means it can basically act as a portable power brick for things like energy-sucking power tools or big appliances. There’s also Vehicle-to-Home (V2H), which allows the car to connect to a home’s power system to harvest energy from stuff like solar panels. Then there’s Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), which can feed the iX3’s battery supply back into your town’s power grid in exchange for cold, hard cash.

That’s Cool And All, But Is It Fun?

BMW seems to think so. The iX3, being the first Neue Klasse production car, is the first road-going vehicle from the brand to feature its “Heart of Joy,” which is basically just a fun codename for the central computer that runs things like the powertrain, the brakes, and the steering. The computer’s calculations, which, according to BMW, happen up to 10 times faster than conventional ECUs, mean the iX3 “can be guided through corners with exceptional accuracy.” What that means, exactly, we may never know.

One stat that earnestly excites me is the weight distribution: 48.6% front, 51.4% rear. That’s some real sports car distribution, the type you’d see on a proper mid-engine machine. Combined with the low center of gravity thanks to the floor-mounted battery pack, I think I’m actually developing some hope this won’t be yet another soulless econobox.

So How Much Will It Cost?

BMW’s being coy about pricing right now, saying only the iX3 50 xDrive will start at “around $60,000” when it goes on sale in the first quarter of 2026. If that 400-mile range estimate turns out to be accurate, I’d say that’s a relative deal in the world of EVs, especially if those charging numbers can live up to their promises.

While 60 grand isn’t cheap by any means—you can buy 1.95 Miatas with that kind of dough—it’s a reasonable price in the world of luxury EVs. If you want anything with 400 miles of range from Tesla, you’ll have to shell out over $96,000 for a Model S. The Lucid Air is a bit more reasonable; the base Pure model nets you 420 miles of range for around $71,000. By all accounts, the Germans are starting to catch up.

I’m even more interested in the cheaper version. BMW says it plans to introduce a single-motor, rear-wheel drive version of the iX3 down the line. Though it’ll certainly be slower, it’ll also be lighter, with an even better weight balance. That means more range and, theoretically, more fun—all for fewer dollars.

Top photo: BMW