[jsclarke99]

     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com

Our first 500-mile (one-way) road trip, and, the iX was a beast! I'd worried about our annual trip from So Cal to Lake Tahoe. It's about 500 miles, one way, up 395. In an abundance of caution, we stopped 3 times going up, but only 20 min, 30 min, then 20 again at Electrify America. Those stops actually made the trip less fatiguing. On the road, the car was QUIET and fast. Passing 4 trucks in a passing lane we hit 115 MPH with zero drama. I used plugshare to plan where to stop and to be sure charging locations were working. This was a perfect car for this trip.
Only downsides- there were no "backups" if a charging location was down on the way. And even "reliable" EA locations- like Bishop- would start near 200 kW but quickly drop, even with 25% of the stations in use and a low (less than 50%) state of charge. An EA in Hesperia would start at near 200 kW for 10 min, then drop to 40kW. And there wasn't a SINGLE DC fast charging station in Incline Village (our destination). One EVGo has been an EV-NO-Go for months now. So car, A! Charging infrastructure- C, passing grade, but needs improving.

[bunker]

good share m8, and yes - it's just the infrastructure at this point. these cars have plenty of range already.

[Quadruple VANOS]

If a trip was “a beast” that doesn’t sound like a good thing. Sounds like it was difficult to manage. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[blue dragon]

Like buying a gas car and worried about finding fuel stations.

[Macphisto]

Fingers crossed that the infrastructure is solid in 2025 when I get the Neue Klasse.

[shoot_the_goalie]

Pretty spot on review. Car is great. Charging infrastructure still needs major improvements.

[doctorzeus]

That charge curve actually looks pretty normal for the iX. The car has great range and drives very well but the charge curve is mediocre.
The max speed is 170kw but that usually from 30-50%. After that, the charge speed slows down until around 80-100kw above 80%.

As much as I love to hate on EA, this seems to be BMW's issue.

Any of the stations down? The main stress from charging for road trips is if the stations are full or down. Once you plug in and get even 100kw, I'm happy.

[JMD]

So, looks like the high initial charge rate is the lollie-pop that gets one hooked,...the old "HCRBAS" "High-Charge-Rate-Bait-And-Switch"!

[Hotflare]

This is the fear for me going to the iX. I enjoy my 2016 x5 but if I wanted to convert and not buy a G05 , charging stations on road trips like this scares me. This is where tesla holds the crown still

[Blue87]

Appreciate the review.

What's the consensus on which app provides the most complete availability of charging stations or does each provider have their own? Thanks.

[jsclarke99]

Originally Posted by doctorzeus

...

As much as I love to hate on EA, this seems to be BMW's issue.

Looks to me like it was EA's issue doctorzeus - I had always set the EA charging location as the destination to enable pre-conditioning of the battery.

And if you look at my picture of the screen in the iX- look at charging rate. The little diagonal lines from the right to the middle indicate how much power the charging station is offering up. The solid line from the left to the middle is how much power the car is asking for. So you can see that my charging rate was limited by EA, and not the car.

[jsclarke99]

you can see from the display what EA can provide to the car (at the end of the diagonal lines) vs what the car is requesting

[doctorzeus]

Originally Posted by jsclarke99

Looks to me like it was EA's issue doctorzeus - I had always set the EA charging location as the destination to enable pre-conditioning of the battery.

And if you look at my picture of the screen in the iX- look at charging rate. The little diagonal lines from the right to the middle indicate how much power the charging station is offering up. The solid line from the left to the middle is how much power the car is asking for. So you can see that my charging rate was limited by EA, and not the car.

Preconditioning doesn't do much unless it's below 40-50F. We don't get that cold in California, unless you drive up to Tahoe during winter.

You top charging curve definitely something is wrong. The drop off is too sudden.

The 2nd charging curve seems pretty normal to me.


I thought the solid line was what is being received and the dash line is the maximum it could receive?

[Gfit]

Nice review and glad you like it. I’m prone to anxiety. Mild but still uncomfortable, so an EV wouldn’t work for me just yet.

[doctorzeus]

Originally Posted by Gfit

Nice review and glad you like it. I’m prone to anxiety. Mild but still uncomfortable, so an EV wouldn’t work for me just yet.

It really depends on whether you even road trip your car.
I commute 30miles a day to work and only plug in at home once a week at work(cheaper rates).

I've driven the iX sometimes for 200 miles for local day trips without any worries. Just plug in at the end of the day at home.

Longer road trips will need more planning. For most EV newbies, I recommend you get a BEV for your daily commuter. If you have a 2nd ICE car, use it for longer trips or to places with limited charging infrastructure or what I would do is just rent an ICE car for the trip.

[GOLFFRR]

nice! sounds like you are loving the iX

range anxiety def is a thing! but I think it sorta of slowly goes away the longer you have the ride

[Needsdecaf]

In before all the front page news idiots come to say it's ugly or EV's suck.

Seriously though, the iX looks like a pretty strong entry. I'm curious to drive one. Sounds like you have had a pretty good first go with it!

[ricerboi]

Originally Posted by doctorzeus

Preconditioning doesn't do much unless it's below 40-50F. We don't get that cold in California, unless you drive up to Tahoe during winter.

You top charging curve definitely something is wrong. The drop off is too sudden.

The 2nd charging curve seems pretty normal to me.


I thought the solid line was what is being received and the dash line is the maximum it could receive?

It’s 100% EA’s problem. Now they’re throttling 8-10 min into the charge instead of off the bat. I’ve plugged in over 1000x at EA and charged over 400 times (somewhat) successfully over the past 13 months of ix ownership and EA was great until March of this year then it went to complete garbage.

I’ve done a 4700 mile winter road trip (LA to Whistler/Jasper/Banff/Calgary and back down) and many trips to SLC/Vegas/Mammoth. Winter trips were miserable especially with winter range down to 160-210 miles. Pre-March, EA was bearable without the lines and throttling. Once the chip shortage got EVs was over and everyone got their EVs, it got really back with lines, bad charger etiquette, throttled/overworked/broken chargers, etc)

You can see my charging curve as what’s already “good” for EA now. It’s quite sad. There’s “ideal” and then there’s “whatever EA feels like giving you.”

[///M TOWN]

Originally Posted by blue dragon

Like buying a gas car and worried about finding fuel stations.

And then ❔

[330 CSi]

Originally Posted by ///M TOWN

And then ❔

My iX is my 3rd EV. Been driving EVs since 2019. I don't really take long road trips. LA to SD is my longest EV drive to date. (My old car is a I-Pace with far less range than an iX.) I worried about topping off to make it back from SD. I don't think I'd have much concern with the iX.

On the long trips, it can be a little unnerving if I don't know where I can top off or recharge.

However, on a day-to-day basis, I have no worries or concerns. I have a home charger and typically charge overnight. It is heaven. I plug in at night and wake up with a "full tank." My wife uses EA to charge her Ioniq 5 on the free plan. She rarely has a problem finding a working charger. It's not perfect, but it hardly a cluster.

Now, if you don't have your own Level 2 charger at home. It would be different. I work at a building with literally dozens of Level 2 chargers. The cost is no where near the low cost from my night time charges but it is still cheaper than gas.

[exxxviii]

Originally Posted by 330 CSi

Now, if you don't have your own Level 2 charger at home. It would be different.

This X2. I got my daughter a CCS BEV as a college car in San Diego. We figured BEV in CA would be a cake walk. Nope. Dorms and apartments don’t have charging. Finding CCS conveniently is a royal PTA. Then they often aren’t working. She can sometimes charge L2 on campus, but not consistently. In retrospect, ICE would have been a far better choice.

[leasehackr]

Originally Posted by jsclarke99

Our first 500-mile (one-way) road trip, and, the iX was a beast! I'd worried about our annual trip from So Cal to Lake Tahoe. It's about 500 miles, one way, up 395. In an abundance of caution, we stopped 3 times going up, but only 20 min, 30 min, then 20 again at Electrify America. Those stops actually made the trip less fatiguing. On the road, the car was QUIET and fast. Passing 4 trucks in a passing lane we hit 115 MPH with zero drama. I used plugshare to plan where to stop and to be sure charging locations were working. This was a perfect car for this trip.
Only downsides- there were no "backups" if a charging location was down on the way. And even "reliable" EA locations- like Bishop- would start near 200 kW but quickly drop, even with 25% of the stations in use and a low (less than 50%) state of charge. An EA in Hesperia would start at near 200 kW for 10 min, then drop to 40kW. And there wasn't a SINGLE DC fast charging station in Incline Village (our destination). One EVGo has been an EV-NO-Go for months now. So car, A! Charging infrastructure- C, passing grade, but needs improving.

Have you hit 414 miles on 100% charge?

I thought ix is limited to max ~300 ish miles.