2026 BMW iX3 review

The headline reads: ‘another ludicrously fast family SUV.’ The headline reads: ‘the battery car just changed forever.’ The headline reads: ‘BMW’s last stand.’ The headline reads: ‘What exactly is Neue Klasse?’

They’re all true, for this crazy-quick, 463bhp family SUV has changed the terms of trade for EVs and it needs to. In Germany, pundits as well as the public think it’s now time for the home manufacturers to make a stand in the battle for dominance in premium EVs, because the Chinese are coming.

So, as well as a backward-to-the-future design stance, BMW’s Neue Klasse consists of a more profoundly software-defined vehicle than that offered by any other car maker. Highlights include the OSX operating system with the Panoramic iDrive dashboard display, four separate super computer brains controlling different aspects of the car, a highly advanced high-nickel-cathode battery with cylindrical cells like so many torch batteries pushed into the floor and the new software-based ride and handling system, all of which will appear in 40 new models and model updates in the next two years.