2026 BMW iX3 revealed w/ 400 miles range to take on Macan EV

[Paris92]

BMW lost their way, design-wise, about a decade ago, IMO. I was a big fan previously, but find their vehicles hard to look at these days.

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[JonoNZ]

I think the the NK iX3 is a very impressive car in nearly every respect it seems to be the new benchmark. Early drives seem to indicate it might even give the Macan a run for its money for driving enjoyment.

 

[jwatte]

1000 kilowatt chargers are great, because even if they are "balanced," you'll get 250 kilowatt each across 4 stalls!

Also: Still waiting for a fully electric 850 or i8 or whatever. Some of the previous 850 models were gorgeous!

 

[TS23]

I am driving a BMW M50 today and my first thought was to wait for BMW to release this car before I made a decision on which vehicle to buy as my next. I really like M50 and how it looks and drives and thought the next BMW would be a good choice. I am now happy that I did not wait and ordered myself a Turbo instead.

This design is not for me, way too futuristic and don't think it will age very well. Have watched some reviews now and the reviewers seems to think it is nice - but I think it's quite ugly. We are ofc different and for sure it will attract some.

From a huge BMW fan (almost ordered a g90 M5 instead of the Macan to replace my g82 M4 because of the UK’s tax benefits from it being hybrid), I agree with the futuristic comments. Its design language is like what the 1970’s thought 2030 was going to be.

Some great tech and no doubt be a great drive. Let’s hope they don’t kill M products in the same way, otherwise I will not go back.

 

[albin]

Some great tech and no doubt be a great drive. Let’s hope they don’t kill M products in the same way, otherwise I will not go back.

M50 is not even close to the great looking M4 but it got some of it's vibes. At the time when I bought it I finally found a good looking electric car that did not look lika a space ship (even though its user interface in the car has a lot of space ship inspiration).

The tech in the BMW sounds superb, if they take that tech and put it in the shell of good looking new version of the M-cars it will be very interesting! As you say, let's hope they come back to that instead of this futuristic design.

 

[Alex74]

I would like to understand why 270 speed is not good enough. I am good with 150 and on purpose set my Taycan to battery friendly to lower the speed. 300 speed heats the battery to over 130F and gives no advantage in overall time in charging from 10% to 80%. I am not seeing any value in 400, that certainly if real, will be rare as it will need some serious power infrastructure. Then there is 1,000 out there, totally unnecessary.

Also, what standard options are not available to you on a Turbo.

i have my Turbo for 6 months and have 25000 km. It is not my only car.
so i charge a lot on hyperchargers. With my Taycan, after 3,5 years ,130000km, my battery was 98% health.
when it’s charging slowly, i lose time. So simple. As a premium brand as Porsche is, it’s should develop something above the rest, instead it’s always behind. (Charging and software, gps)
i mis the possibility to drive my car out or in a parking lot ( if to narrow) by key or phone. No tv screens at backseat, combination/interaction gps/ hud with abrp or apple, waze. Tv or netflix not possible on passenger screen.
i am still hungry about some features that other brands have std or in option.
We have a lot of chargers of 400 pr 600 kw . We are going to instaal even some MW chargers, with 8 dispensers, so they can give you up to 650 kw.
Xpeng importer EU, called me 2 weeks ago, if they could come to our premises for testing their new car that can charge up to 550 kw.
yesnwe have them in BE, for trucks and cars.
for the rest car is ok.

 

[MatC21]

Charging speed up to 400 instead of 270 from Porsche so sad .
also still hungry for standard options wich are be paid by porsche or not available
after 6 months with turbo, feeling to sell it. Thankfully i have some other cars to drive with

Marketing worked well on you. In practice charging time are actually the same for Macan and ix3 with the BMW arguably having the better range though. But people should really stop caring about peak but rather look at average charging speed.

 

[Wivenhoe]

And take account of the Charging Curve. I mistakenly bought a Lexus 450RZ and marketing said a charge rate of 150kw but they didn’t say it was for only between 18% to 28% with a real average of 70kw between 10% to 80%

The Macan is an average of 192kw between 10% to 80% The iX3 is 221kw so the Macan would take 20 mins 47s and the iX3 20 mins 40s. The iX3 battery is 109kw usable vs Macan 95kw.

In the real world the Macan isn’t too far below the iX3 especially when the real world charging speed of say 300kw chargers are Actually providing.

 

[sor]

That’s well put. A bigger battery affords higher peak charge rate, but you can tell they’re proportionate charging performance wise based on the virtually identical 10% to 80% times. The better range is helped by the larger battery at the expense of a heavier car, unless their next gen batteries are getting more energy pound for pound.

 

[SergeyIndy]

i have my Turbo for 6 months and have 25000 km. It is not my only car.
so i charge a lot on hyperchargers. With my Taycan, after 3,5 years ,130000km, my battery was 98% health.
when it’s charging slowly, i lose time. So simple. As a premium brand as Porsche is, it’s should develop something above the rest, instead it’s always behind. (Charging and software, gps)
i mis the possibility to drive my car out or in a parking lot ( if to narrow) by key or phone. No tv screens at backseat, combination/interaction gps/ hud with abrp or apple, waze. Tv or netflix not possible on passenger screen.
i am still hungry about some features that other brands have std or in option.
We have a lot of chargers of 400 pr 600 kw . We are going to instaal even some MW chargers, with 8 dispensers, so they can give you up to 650 kw.
Xpeng importer EU, called me 2 weeks ago, if they could come to our premises for testing their new car that can charge up to 550 kw.
yesnwe have them in BE, for trucks and cars.
for the rest car is ok.

A lot of this sounds completely false:

- Taycan loses almost 10% of SoH in the first 10k miles. We have a ton of data on the Taycan forum about it, but this is my own, which is consistent with others. Therefore, the claim of 98% of SoH is false after the years and miles you are noting.

2. Taycan charges super-fast, so saying Porsche is not premium in the segment with 800v architecture is false, when conditions are right and as others pointed out, even at 150kW peak charger there is no significant difference when charging at full on 295kW that I tried, because of the curve, so any claim of faster peak than say 300kW is false as you will not get there any faster from 10%-80% proven by data.

3. Remote Park has also been an option on the Taycan and now on Macan EV, so saying this does not exist by pulling the car out of a tight parking spot using a phone is also false.

4. Entertainment is the wrong thing to expect from a Porsche, so get something else if you prioritize that over driving experience. Yes, built in rear seat screens are available, but this is a useless thing when you can get an iPad to do that for you instead.

 

[MatC21]

Also Porsche is actually pushing charging to a next level (for european manufacturers) with the Cayenne. Which charges 10-80 in 15 minutes with the same battery size as the iX3. That is the charging curve I would have expected from the iX3.

Macan does well considering the age of the platform vs BMW.

 

[Wivenhoe]

 

[Wivenhoe]

 

[Wivenhoe]

I noticed that the BMW doesn’t have a charging curve for 400v charging. The Macan does as it splits the 800v into 2x 400v. Mercedes recently announced a car without a 400v alternative - can the new iX3 50 only charge at 800v chargers ? That would cause a real problem in the UK due to the legacy chargers being 400v. Merc’s had to then announce that they would fit the equipment for 400v chargers next year. I’ve no idea whether being restricted to 800v chargers would be a problem in the US.

 

[MatC21]

Important to look at the note below. This is an estimated charging curve, not a real, measured one like the one in the Macan.
Based on this estimate they estimate 16min for 10-80 for the BMW, while BMW already stated it will take 21 mins. So it is pretty useless at this point. Let's wait till the car is out for real reviewers to have a look (not just paid influencers).

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