From InsideEVs.
A test of a prototype BMW iX3 reveals that the Neue Klasse EV platform may just live up to the hype—and it’s a BMW through and through.
If you haven’t been following the endless hype cycle that’s led up to this moment, Neue Klasse ("New Class" in German) is a fully new, ground-up EV platform that builds on the learnings of EVs like the iX and the i3 that came before. As good as offerings like the i4 and i5 have been, they have their origins with a gas-car platform.
That changes with the iX3. New motors, batteries, and a raft of new software-defined systems in between mean that the iX3 and the other EVs that follow are radically different than any BMW EV we’ve seen before.
It starts with BMW’s new Gen6 batteries. The company’s engineers haven’t said how much capacity the iX3 will have, but it’ll be somewhere in the ballpark of 100 kWh, enough for roughly 400 miles of range on the EPA cycle. Do the math, and that equates to a healthy 4 miles per kWh in this compact SUV, resulting in more range on a smaller battery than BMW’s current range meister, the 2026 iX.
That pack powers a pair of motors said to provide a combined 400 horsepower, but the real magic is the system that controls them. It’s a fully integrated, software-defined platform that BMW aspirationally calls Heart of Joy. Basically, it’s the trend of banishing disparate controllers for different in-vehicle systems, the same sort of simplification that pulled 1.6 miles of wiring out of the latest-generation Rivians, but here taken to new heights.
This unification has many benefits, the primary one being that everything can communicate with everything else. For example, it’s the same system handling both regenerative braking in the electric motors and ABS in the physical brakes, allowing for a far more seamless handoff when slowing down. Likewise, traction control, stability control, and direct motor controls are all running in the same place, so there’s no latency or lag as one system makes requests to another.
The net result is an EV that feels particularly smooth, which is saying something considering how smooth your average EV is. Whether I was creeping away casually from a stop sign or sliding your way sideways through a corner on a wet test track, the iX3 prototype delivered clean and consistent feedback, particularly through the steering, which is a rarity in your average battery-powered SUV.
The iX3 is officially rated for a max charging rate of 400 kW, which BMW says is enough to get more than 200 miles of charge in 10 minutes. On a 400 kW test charger at the company’s Miramas facility in southern France, I watched as a pre-production iX3 did even better, hitting a 403 kW max charging rate on the way to hoovering down more than 350 km (217 miles) of indicated range in 10 minutes.
To be fair, it only held that 400 kW rate for a few minutes, but in 10 minutes of charging, it averaged 318 kW, still higher than the max rate of many new EVs on the road today. It was just one of a series of impressive demos that BMW had lined up for me during my visit to France, all of which left me blown away by the potential of the iX3 and its new platform.
This Electric SUV Could Be BMW’s Best Yet
https://insideevs.com/reviews/762386/bmw-ix3-prototype-drive-test/
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00:00 – Introduction
00:20 – 2026 BMW iX3 Handling
00:47 – 2026 BMW iX3 Heart of Joy
01:14 – 2026 BMW iX3 Braking
01:36 – 2026 BMW iX3 Range & Battery Capacity
01:47 – 2026 BMW iX3 Charging Speed
02:08 – 2026 BMW iX3 Interior
02:33 – 2026 BMW iX3 Infotainment
03:30 – 2026 BMW iX3 Design
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