JOHANNESBURG - BMW showed off the next chapter in its electric car strategy with the reveal of the iX Sport Activity Vehicle last week, and now there’s good news for local electric car fans with the confirmation that the new battery-powered crossover is coming to South Africa.
A representative from BMW South Africa confirmed to IOL that the new iX “is expected to arrive in South Africa from the first quarter of 2022”.
South African car buyers looking to make the radical step to full electrification don’t have a lot of options at the moment, with the only current choices being the BMW i3, Mini Cooper SE, Jaguar I-Pace and Porsche Taycan. However, apart from the upcoming BMW iX, there are other new entrants on the way, including the Volkswagen ID.4, Audi e-tron and Mercedes EQC.
What does the iX have to offer?
While the styling might prove controversial, mainly due to that large 4 Series-inspired grille, the iX looks impressive from a technological perspective, with BMW claiming that its 100kWh high-voltage battery allows a range of more than 600km between charges on the WLTP cycle.
Larger and more luxurious than the i3 (BMW says it’s a similar size to the current X5) the iX was developed from the inside out as a fully-electric vehicle.
The vehicle is powered by two electric motors that produce a combined output of over 370kW, which BMW says is sufficient to haul it from 0-100km/h in less than five seconds.
Furthermore, BMW says the new iX ushers in significant progress in the areas of digital services while also offering new and improved automated driving and parking functions.
The BMW iX also features new charging technology that allows the battery to be charged from 10 percent to 80 percent in less than 40 minutes, when plugged into a fast charger. In fact, within ten minutes, the car’s range can be boosted by over 120km. When plugged into a normal wall box, BMW says it will take less than 11 hours to charge from zero to 100 percent capacity.
Local pricing will be announced closer to launch.