[masmole]

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My SA sent me this.

This is interesting. Just like on the xDrive50 model, the various perforated sensatec upholstery options come standard at no additional cost, however while the upgrade to leather is a $2450 option for the xDrive50, it appears to be a $3500 option for the M60. What gives? Does the M60 get more leather? Or that just M-Sport model "tax" for the same damn option?

Despite this, it seems the M60 really can look like a compelling option for anyone who was already considering ordering a loaded xDrive50 model. A fully loaded xDrive50 comes in at essentially the base price of the M60 which already includes many option packages as standard. The only things missing from a base $106k M60 versus a loaded $105k xDrive50 are the $1100 luxury package, $1900 driving assistance pro pkg, $3500 leather option, $950 22" wheel option, and the $500 titanium bronze trim.

Aside from the M badges on the exterior, there appears to be no other interior or exterior styling differences from the xDrive50 model, except for the the optional 22" style 1023 wheel that has bronze highlights to match the 3L7 titanium bronze trim option.

Another way to look at is: loaded M60 is ~$114k and loaded xDrive50 is ~$105k. The extra $9k buys you extra hp and torque from a larger rear electric motor, a bunch of M badges, and Hans Zimmer sounds unique to the M60, while sacrificing a little bit of driving range and ride quality. Is it worth it? Maybe. I've spent $9k on much worse things full of bad decisions and regret. lol.

[venom21]

As an EV owner for 5 years, range is king. I will sacrifice speed for range 9 times out of 10, and it's not as if the 50 is slow either. If you only plan on puttering around town with the M60 and showing it off to friends, then sure go ahead, but if you want an all-rounder family car that you plan to take long distances I'd go for the 50. Also in Canada, I specced one out like for like and its a $20K difference lol

[PhilD]

Originally Posted by masmole

a larger rear electric motor

Is this confirmed? I wouldn’t be surprised if the 40, 50 and 60 all have the same motors. Apparently the 40 and the 50 do but the 50 can drive more current through them due to the extra battery capacity. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the 60 is mechanically and electrically identical to the 50 just with more aggressive tuning on the power delivery curves.

[slampert]

I'm concerned about the loss of range as well. 15% is not trivial.

But given that the various tradeoffs seem to balance, I can see that for me, the iX50 vs M60 purchase decision is going to come down to availability...!

Otherwise the M60 seems like the obvious choice.

[masmole]

Originally Posted by PhilD

Is this confirmed? I wouldn’t be surprised if the 40, 50 and 60 all have the same motors. Apparently the 40 and the 50 do but the 50 can drive more current through them due to the extra battery capacity. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the 60 is mechanically and electrically identical to the 50 just with more aggressive tuning on the power delivery curves.

That's what BMW is telling people, their dealers, and apparently the media because I've heard it from multiple sources now: my dealer, the BMW reps at the Chicago auto show, and I've heard it mentioned from a couple of youtubers who have reported the same thing.

I seriously doubt the 40,50,60 all have the same motors. It's just not that simple, even if it was for cost-cutting purposes at the production line. The xDrive40 at nearly 200hp and 300hp less than the 50 and 60 respectively, just doesn't make sense to have the more powerful electric motors inside only to be "detuned" because not only would the powerful motors cost more, they would also be heavier and perhaps larger. Why unnecessarily add weight to an already heavy EV after they've gone to great lengths to save weight by using carbon composite and aluminum body structures? That wouldn't be consistent with German engineering at all. Even Franciscus van Meel, CEO of BMW M GmbH in the video below suggests that the iX M60 is driven by "two specific M e-drive engines" (watch at 0:43). And look at what Audi had to do just to get another 90hp on their e-tron S model over the base e-tron - they basically employed a tri-motor configuration by replacing the larger single rear motor from base e-tron with 2 of the motors they use for the front of the normal e-tron for a total of 3 motors. If it was as simple as just turning up the current on the same electric motors, they wouldn't have gone to all this trouble.

[PhilD]

Originally Posted by slampert

I'm concerned about the loss of range as well. 15% is not trivial.

But given that the various tradeoffs seem to balance, I can see that for me, the iX50 vs M60 purchase decision is going to come down to availability...!

Otherwise the M60 seems like the obvious choice.

This is exactly what it's coming down to for me. I can get a 50 in June or a 60 some time between October and December (not in the US btw). I'm probably going to go for a 50 that's almost the cost of the 60 after adding all the options just because I really don't want to have to wait until the end of the year, not with a 13 year old car at the moment that's too small for our needs now already and we're due to become a family of four in less than a month's time. I'd prefer to have the 60 but needs must.

Originally Posted by masmole

I seriously doubt the 40,50,60 all have the same motors.

From Top Gear:

Originally Posted by Top Gear

But the big news is that - to spoil things a bit - the iX 40 might well be the pick of the iX litter. Yes range equals convenience, but the 40’s 322bhp and 465lb ft of torque feels nicely judged. It’s pleasingly rapid too, dispatching the 0-62mph sprint in 6.1 seconds and on to a largely pointless 124mph. In fact, the 40 has exactly the same motors as the 50 with less current, so it would be interesting to see what kind of range an iX 40 with the bigger battery would be able to achieve.

https://www.bmwblog.com/2021/03/16/b...0-ix-xdrive50/

Honestly, it does make a lot of sense. It means they only need to create one motor. It saves loads in terms of development and spare parts costs. A single motor for the 40 would likely have been underpowered for a car that size and it would have lost the xdrive moniker which is likely why they kept it to one size. Manufacturers have been doing this for years with the exact same engine just tuned to different levels. With electric motors, they just change the power limits. At best, they might be cherry picking better performing motors for the 50 (and maybe 60) but I doubt it.

I don't see anything wrong with this btw and think it's just what will become the norm. Car models within a model line will likely largely scale just by number of battery modules, number of motors and the tuning assigned to the motors. It's way more cost effective that way.

[Paladin1]

I wouldn't be surprised either if they used the "same" motor - just motors capable of being driven faster with more voltage applied (and maybe some power train tweaking). They didn't mention (I don’t think) the battery size for the M60, but perhaps a bigger battery (and/or throttled-up power delivery) makes the M60 faster off the line.

[masmole]

Doesn’t matter to me either whether or not they use the same motor across the model lineup since I’m likely going for the more powerful variants. But if I were actually in the market for the 40 model, I would be a bit irked if weight savings and range were somehow compromised by not utilizing motors specific to the intended power and torque specs. After all, when it comes to EVs, every little bit of weight savings matters.

Anyhow, I also noticed from this USA pricing guide for the M60 that option code A90 is Dark Graphite Metallic. On the USA pricing guide for the xDrive50 as well as on my ordered xDrive50 build sheet, A90 is Sophisto Grey. So does that mean they are really the same paint color? I thought someone mentioned on another thread that they’re not the same color. Perhaps they just renamed Sophisto Grey to DGM for the US market but forgot to make the name change on the xDrive50’s pricing guides? Confused.

[Pictor]

Am I the only person who thinks TiBronze trim is like a modern version of Lexus/Toyota gold emblems of the 90's?

[Refujeet]

Originally Posted by venom21

As an EV owner for 5 years, range is king. I will sacrifice speed for range 9 times out of 10, and it's not as if the 50 is slow either. If you only plan on puttering around town with the M60 and showing it off to friends, then sure go ahead, but if you want an all-rounder family car that you plan to take long distances I'd go for the 50. Also in Canada, I specced one out like for like and its a $20K difference lol

Originally Posted by venom21

As an EV owner for 5 years, range is king. I will sacrifice speed for range 9 times out of 10, and it's not as if the 50 is slow either. If you only plan on puttering around town with the M60 and showing it off to friends, then sure go ahead, but if you want an all-rounder family car that you plan to take long distances I'd go for the 50. Also in Canada, I specced one out like for like and its a $20K difference lol

I'm in Canada, and agree on your assessment of the price difference.

I think we are just getting a good deal on the 50 - based on global pricing.

[Smithcinema]

I'll stick to a mx5 with gas

[PhilD]

Originally Posted by Smithcinema

I'll stick to a mx5 with gas

The next Miata is supposed to be electrified too, Mazda have confirmed. Should be a pretty popular car if they get it right!

[lilmacarony]

Originally Posted by masmole

Doesn’t matter to me either whether or not they use the same motor across the model lineup since I’m likely going for the more powerful variants. But if I were actually in the market for the 40 model, I would be a bit irked if weight savings and range were somehow compromised by not utilizing motors specific to the intended power and torque specs. After all, when it comes to EVs, every little bit of weight savings matters.

Anyhow, I also noticed from this USA pricing guide for the M60 that option code A90 is Dark Graphite Metallic. On the USA pricing guide for the xDrive50 as well as on my ordered xDrive50 build sheet, A90 is Sophisto Grey. So does that mean they are really the same paint color? I thought someone mentioned on another thread that they’re not the same color. Perhaps they just renamed Sophisto Grey to DGM for the US market but forgot to make the name change on the xDrive50’s pricing guides? Confused.

Yes they are the same color— on the i8 it was the euro name (sophisto) and on the standard series cars in the US (5er) it's called Dark Graphite.

[cfm56d7b]

I am not convinced that iX in any trim is ready for prime time. It's still a transitional vehicle intended to capture early attention from brand loyalists - present company included.

I would rather lease X5M for 3 years and then consider a broader variety of options.

[AlexFL]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

I am not convinced that iX in any trim is ready for prime time. It's still a transitional vehicle intended to capture early attention from brand loyalists - present company included.

I would rather lease X5M for 3 years and then consider a broader variety of options.

Why do you think it’s not ready?

[yousefnjr]

Really, really want one of these. Might flip the G82 in a year or two to do that.

[Al Pinã]

Originally Posted by AlexFL

Why do you think it’s not ready?

BMW is ready. U.S. charging infrastructure is not.

[TargaM2]

Don't understand fitting an M badge to these horrid electric monstrosities.

[PhilD]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

I am not convinced that iX in any trim is ready for prime time. It's still a transitional vehicle intended to capture early attention from brand loyalists - present company included.

I would rather lease X5M for 3 years and then consider a broader variety of options.

I'd argue that the i3 was a transitional vehicle but BMW now have almost a decade worth of experience with electric cars and over the next decade, they're going to be electrifying their whole model range. They have to as the EU wants all member countries to ban ICEs by 2035 at the latest with many countries worldwide already having law in place to ban them by 2030 or earlier. Unless there's some ground breaking new advances in things like algal biofuels that can bring carbon zero fuels to market in the very near future, the writing is on the wall for ICEs, unfortunately.

[Hi]

Assuming the IX's sdrive40 and 50 motors are the same as i4, then the motors are 3-phase. The m60 is a six-phase operated and has a double inverter.

From BMW Press Release

The M-specific design of the current-energized synchronous machine principle enables the electric motor of the BMW iX M60 - especially in the case of the rear motor - to achieve an extremely high power density. The drive unit is six-phase operated and has a double inverter. This makes it possible to achieve a particularly significant increase in peak power, which is available up to high speeds and enables typical BMW M power delivery.

[Al Pinã]

Originally Posted by TargaM2

Don't understand fitting an M badge to these horrid electric monstrosities.

Race one at a red light and then you might.

[KoenG]

Originally Posted by Al Pinã

Race one at a red light and then you might.

What do you mean!? What's your concept of M?