2022 BMW IX XDrive50 Review: Flagship For a New Era

From inside the new-for-2022 BMW iX, the future looks bright.

Consider this the beginning of the second generation of BMW i. The 2022 BMW iX xDrive50 is a confident step forward into the all-electric future, all wrapped up in the hyper-popular mid-sized crossover shape. Popping with a ton of modern tech—most of it useful—and featuring styling that practically demands discussion, inside and out, the iX is a de facto flagship.

The iX is a wholly new creation amongst the vast BMW SUV … sorry, Sports Activity Vehicle, lineup. Built from the ground up as an all-electric platform, it’s roughly X5-sized, but sticks to a purely two-row seating layout. There’s a lot of difference under the skin, too. Like the original i models before it, the iX uses a clever, high-tech chassis made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), aluminum, and steel.

The result is a platform that’s both stiffer and lighter—a good thing to have when you’re going to be loading up with heavy batteries. To that end, the xDrive50 model you see here comes with a chunky 111.5-kWh battery pack, 105.2 kWh of which are usable. Like other EVs, the batteries are laid low in the floor, maximizing interior room and improving the center of gravity to boot.

This sure doesn’t look like other BMW SAVs, either. It’s impossible to talk about those looks, so let’s get it out the way now. Darker tones like this gray help hide the awkward proportions, but it’s still a fussy design, looking like two different designs fused at the B-pillars. This tester runs on 21-inch winter tires, but it was specced with 22s, which are almost required to avoid the iX looking under-tired. I do like the rear treatment, with thin taillights and a clamshell design suggesting both modernity and practicality.

The grille honestly isn’t even the worst part, and at least it’s clever. The whole surface is coated in a self-healing plastic, which should take care of small stone chips in around 24 hours of impact. It also houses heating elements, so the myriad sensors tucked into the nose can properly function more often. Those of us in places with regular snowfall should appreciate that. There are other neat touches, like the front roundel housing popping open for windshield wiper fluid.

There is no other new vehicle on the market that has a greater contrast between exterior and interior design. Simply put, the iX cabin is stunning. BMW’s design team has paid special attention to materials and colors here, resulting in an eye-catching space. This tester gets the pale blue microfiber and gray wool combination, which works far better than it has any right to. A laser-etched pattern runs up the dashboard, fading as it nears the glass. You just want to run your hand across it.

Bronze metallic accents and a real walnut insert in the center console give the iX interior a warmer ambiance than the average EV. The glass roof provides lots of natural light, and the curved glass panel that “floats” just above the dashboard only enhances the sense of space.

BMWs typically have rock-solid ergonomics. The iX gets the basic controls right, but fumbles in smaller, still important aspects. The cup holders, for example, sit in an awkward spot down and forward of the console’s leading edge.

Initial concerns that the diagonal material split on the seatback and (especially) the lower cushion are unfounded. Seat comfort is exceptional, with a full range adjustments allowing for drivers of all shapes and sizes.

It’s spacious in the back, too. A flat floor makes for lots of legroom, and the steady roofline keeps headroom at a hat-friendly 39.5 inches (1,003 millimeters).

Storage space is reasonable, if not capacious. There’s 35.5 cubic feet (1,005 liters) of storage behind the rear seats. Fold the 40/20/40 bench flat and that more than doubles that figure to 77.9 cubes (2,206 L). The opening is large and square. Cool feature: the whole clamshell opens as one piece, with integrated safety lights built into the CFRP either side of the opening.

The iX is the first production BMW to include the brand’s latest iDrive 8 infotainment system. A full revamp of what came before, it’s quicker, prettier, and more customizable.

If you’ve been reading AutoGuide for a while, you know there’s a “but” coming. The 12.3-inch screen is responsive, sure, yet BMW has migrated climate controls to the screen, meaning more fiddling with that—and more time with your eyes off the road. Sure, you can “hey BMW” your way out of it, and the digital assistant picks up on natural speech well enough. Nothing beats a simple dial, though. BMW has canted the screen towards the driver as a nod to its heritage, but it’s not so angled that the passenger is left out of the loop. Looking at you, C8 Corvette.

The touch controls on the center console are a little better: haptic feedback is better than none, and the integration with the wood looks great. That glass rotary dial looks and feels great, making it easy to flit through the many app tiles that make up iDrive 8. There’s a serious wow factor here that I’d argue makes this particular option a must-have. With the wood, of course.

iDrive 8 is a big deal, and yet it’s only a small part of the iX’s substantial tech suite. The augmented navigation, for example, overlays instructions right onto the windshield, making it easy-peasy to follow. BMW remains one of the few OEMs to allow third-party map apps to display within the instrument panel, too. Speaking of, that 14.9-inch screen is a beaut, and fully customizable. By default it has a color scheme similar to the interior, and I can’t stress enough how good blue and bronze go together. More of this, BMW.

As standard, the iX comes with the usual driver assistance features, such as parking sensors, lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, and adaptive cruise control. This one also adds the Driving Assistant Professional package ($1,900 / $2,000 CAD), which combines ACC and lane-keep into one smooth-acting hands-on highway driving assist. The system is now capable of lane changes once a turn signal is active (when safe to do so, of course).

Still there’s more. The extended interior heating elements mean warm armrests, a welcome embrace from the cold. The glass roof is electrochromic, so it goes from clear to opaque at the touch of a button. Ambient lighting extends to the base of the side windows—frameless, for the first time on a BMW SAV—which looks cool but can sometimes fool my peripheral vision into thinking another car has pulled alongside. BMW’s Drive Recorder is on hand to, well, record your most recent 40 seconds of driving via the 360-degree camera. Probably the least useful is the selfie camera, which can snap pictures of you and your passengers and then share them via center screen.

All iX models feature dual electric motors, one at each axle. The xDrive50 uses a 268-horsepower, 260-pound-foot motor up front, and a more powerful 335-horsepower, 295-pound-foot unit in the back. EV math isn’t straightforward, so the combined outputs are 516 hp and 564 lb-ft. Those figures are very similar to those of the X5 M50i. This is the entry point of the lineup in the US, too; in Canada, a smaller-battery, lower-powered, xDrive40 anchors the range.

The result is an effortlessly quick mid-sizer. BMW quotes a run up to highway speeds in the mid-4-second range, and in typical Bavarian fashion, that feels conservative. What’s more, the iX is capable of repeated blasts without a noticeable dip in power. It’s no one-trick pony. Drivers have a selection of four different regenerative braking settings; three range from light to full one-pedal driving, while the fourth is adaptive, increasing regen when, say, a car ahead starts braking. The pedal is typical BMW, with strong bite right from the top of its travel.

The optional air suspension (standard on the xDrive50 in Canada) is well-judged. This isn’t an M car, so the iX prioritizes smooth progress over sporting pretensions. It’s buttoned-down, feeling smaller and lighter than its dimensions suggest—the benefit of those low-slung batteries. There’s no real feedback from the odd hexagonal wheel, but it does have a good amount of resistance, and its responses are consistent. The Eco drive mode dulls throttle response and lowers steering resistance; as expected, Sport mode does the opposite. The latter does come with the added perk of the Hans Zimmer-crafted IconicSounds suite, which gives the iX a suitably spaceship-like sound under acceleration. It’s defeatable, but I’m firmly in the camp that these sorts of features are fun.

The iX is quoted at up to 315 miles (521 km) on a single charge, with the 22-inch wheels. Our tester had a whole bunch of hurdles that made that figure unlikely, including smaller wheels wrapped in range-depleting winter rubber. Winter hadn’t quite given up during the test week, either. Nonetheless, the iX displayed an estimated 296 miles (476 km) of range at the start of the week, and travelled around 270 miles (435 km) before we plugged it in, with 7-percent showing. Its battery efficiency was slightly better than the smaller Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 we recently tested. That leads us to believe the iX would have no issues extending its range in better conditions.

Getting into the iX requires at least $84,195 ($92,470 CAD), including destination. That’s a slight premium over the equivalent X5 M50i, although only in the US; in Canada, the gas-powered car is $6,500 pricier. That’s some $30,000 ($50,000 CAD) less than the slightly larger Tesla Model X, as well.

This Canadian-spec tester came to us after a healthy visit with the options list. The big-ticket item was the $9,900 CAD Premium Enhanced Package, which bundled soft-close doors, added seat heating, the BMW IconicSounds suit, parking assist, BMW Drive Recorder, and other goodies together. Plus there’s the additional $4,300 CAD upgrade to the excellent Bowers and Wilkins sound system. The Sport Package, Dark Graphite Metallic paint, and awesome interior color scheme, alongside a few standalone options, brought the final tally to $115,765 CAD. There’s no exact translation for US builds, but the closest we found came with a $100,370 sticker.

The 2022 BMW iX xDrive50 is as impressive as it is polarizing. Say what you will about the exterior styling, but BMW was smart to kick off i 2.0 with a vehicle this size. The X5 has been a massive success since it launched, and the iX follows in those footsteps. Confident and smooth to drive, it features one of the very best interiors at this price range—small ergonomic niggles notwithstanding—and is positively overflowing with tech. A stint behind the wheel makes it clear the iX is exactly the sort of vehicle to lead BMW into the electric future. And from there, you can’t even see how it looks.