The ghost of iX'mas future

Singapore

THIS might sound strange, but the thing I'll miss most about the BMW iX is the cold way it greeted me. Rock up with the key on you and this electric wonder not only unlocks its doors in anticipation, it also fires up the air-con so you can slip straight into a world of climate controlled comfort. If that isn't the height of civilisation, I don't know what is.

You can also call up gusts of frigid air remotely with the companion phone app, and that literally cool idea is just one of the fancy features that the post-combustion era is set to usher in.

BMW calls the iX its technology flagship, and it does feel like the Munich-based carmaker beamed it here from a different universe. That's partly because it's a clean-sheet car, built from the road up as an electric one, as opposed to a combustion one with its oily bits ripped out and replaced by electric bits, like the iX3.

It also feels like a product of fresh thinking because BMW's designers took inspiration from boutique hotels, which might be why the air-con is already on when you step in.

Electric cars look unstoppable at the moment, and like other legacy automakers BMW is scrambling to meet demand, at the same time taking the chance to retool its business model, or at least its approach to building cars.

Thus, roughly half the aluminium used in the iX is recycled. There's also around 60kg of recycled plastic in the car, some of it from reused fishing nets, meaning this car literally removes plastics from the oceans. Even the dye for the upholstery is sustainably extracted from olive trees.

Check out the recessed door handles, too, which not only look cool but also smoothen the air flowing over the car's body to reduce drag, thereby adding a couple of kilometres of range. The point is, wherever you look there is something fascinating to see about this BMW.

That's probably the least you could ask of a car that, depending on trim, is priced at either side of 400 big ones, but if any car makes an impression on people, it's this one.

It's large and visually imposing, with roughly the same square footage as BMW's X5, and I don't think it will ever be accused of being graceful. In fact, it doesn't photograph well at all, because in two dimensions the enormous front grille (or the two panels that make up its front grille) and the body's boxiness tend to be exaggerated to almost comic effect.

Yet, when you walk around the iX, subtleties reveal themselves that make it an intriguing car to look at. The wheel arches have a crisp edge that makes it look as if a sushi chef took his knife to the body to trim off excess flab, and elsewhere subtle curves take the severity out of the boxy profile. In real life, the squinty face looks more fierce than goofy.

If peering at the iX doesn't win you over, climbing inside it will.

It's airy and roomy, thanks to things like the glass roof and the open layout that you can give a car's cabin when it's driven by compact motors instead of a big engine/gearbox combo.

The i3, BMW's first pure electric vehicle, felt a bit like that when it came out eight years ago, but this is a much larger car, and it feels noticeably more expensive inside.

Crystal glassware adds poshness, and so does the haptic wood panel where many virtual buttons live. It's much nicer than the shiny black plastic that more and more cars are adopting.

The seats look and feel plush, and the enormous, slightly curved twin-screen display looks like a piece of furniture, which lends the interior a lounge-like quality.

If the iX feels like a different sort of BMW inside, it also leaves you with the desire for all BMWs to be like this.

Much the same applies to the way it drives, since the iX has all the usual virtues of electric propulsion. Except for artificial whirring noises, it boots up nearly silently, takes off nearly silently, and cruises nearly silently.

The drive components are as expected: under the floor is where the 71kWh battery pack lives, and there's a motor for the front wheels and another for the back wheels.

Together they output 326 horsepower, which isn't a whole lot, but there's 630 Newton-metres of peak torque so if you're in a hurry, you can put your foot down and leave the rest to the iX xDrive40.

To reach 100km/h takes just 6.1 seconds, and in typical electric car fashion the BMW feels quicker than that, although if you want something properly fast, a more powerful xDrive50 version might be here next year.

What's impressive is that the iX is refined even for an electric car. On the highway, it lets little noise penetrate the cabin, and is even quieter than the iX3, BMW's smaller electric SUV, which is already hushed as anything but does let in a bit of rustle from the wind at expressway speeds.

As for how it handles, the iX moves with some deftness and rides nicely over bumps, though surprisingly (it is a BMW, after all) it feels like a car set up more for comfort than sportiness.

It glides along doing a credible impersonation of a cloud, but seldom puts you in the mood to attack corners.

You're only aware of the iX's bulk when you're in a car park, which is also where having to make tight turns seems to emphasise the size of the steering wheel, whose odd hexagonal shape is there to ensure you can peer through the rim at the digital instruments.

They're certainly lovely to look at, but are also part of the most vexing thing in the iX. The BMW OS8 interface looks gorgeous and the graphics display smoothly, thanks to the most powerful processor ever used in a BMW infotainment system, but it's such a heavy redesign that you'll find yourself disoriented if you're used to BMW's current menu system.

Even if you're not, finding your way around the car's many functions is like stepping into a digital maze. It took me a while to activate the driver's massage chair, and after three days I never worked out how to set the adaptive cruise control gap to the car ahead, nor how to switch off the adaptive recuperation system, which lets the car decide whether to coast or brake for you.

That's progress for you, which is ultimately what the BMW iX is about, and maybe true progress is bound to be a bit discomfiting.

Conversely, BMW says the iX is a showcase of something called "Shy Tech", which tucks certain things away for the sake of minimalism. You can't open the car's bonnet yourself, for example, which is a hell of a thing for a car maker that partly built its brand on silky engines.

To top up the windscreen washer fluid, you pop up the BMW logo to access the filler neck, and likewise, the jet that cleans the rear screen emerges from behind the BMW badge when needed.

It'll be interesting to see how far BMW takes Shy Tech with future models, but if you ask me, given how good it is, the iX itself has nothing to be shy about.

BMW iX Sport Launch Edition

Electric Motors 326 hp (combined output), 630 Nm Battery Lithium ion, 71 kWh Charge Type / Time 7.4 kW AC wallbox / 10 hours (estimated) Max Fast Charge Type / Time 150 kW DC / 31 mins to 80 per cent Electric Range 373 to 426 km (WLTP) 0-100km/h 6.1 seconds Top Speed 200 km/h (limited) Efficiency 25.1 kWh/100km Agent Performance Motors Limited Price S$406,888 with COE Available Now