BMW iX1 - EV or Diesel? (ENG) - Test Drive and Review

The iX1 is BMW's next electric model after the i3, iX3, iX, i4 and i7. Like the iX3, i4 and i7, also the iX1 has an internal combustion-powered counterpart. The X1 is a practical compact crossover, one of BMW's European bestsellers, so it's no surprise a decision was made to base one of their EVs on it. The iX1 competes with models like the Mercedes-Benz EQA or Volvo XC40 Recharge, among others.
The BMW iX1 xDrive30 has a 64.7 kWh battery pack and a claimed range of about 430 km, depending on the trim. Energy consumption of about 17.5 kWh/100 km, towing capacity up to 1,200 kg, 313 hp and 494 Nm. That puts the iX1 somewhere between the EQA and the XC40.
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↔ BMW iX1 dimensions:
✔ length: 4500 mm
✔ width: 1845 mm
✔ height: 1616 mm
✔ wheelbase: 2692 mm
✔ boot/trunk: 490-1495 L
💲 BMW iX1 xDrive30 starting price: 55 000 euro
💲 BMW iX1 xDrive30 price as tested: 72 950 euro
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#MarekDrivesENG #BMW #iX1
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Marek Drives reviews are independent and based on personal experience with cars provided by car manufacturers for media to review. No carmarker has any influence on what is being said in the review, nor are they given a preview. No carmarker pays me to do these reviews. My sponsors are you - the viewers, Channel Members, and occasional non-carmaker entities, whose sponsorship is always clearly marked.
Chapters:
0:00 intro
0:30 BMW i
1:45 competition
2:20 specs
2:45 performance
3:35 BMW Charging
4:05 theory vs. reality
9:40 driving impressions
12:00 diagonal approach off road test
13:50 cockpit
14:35 My BMW App
15:00 rear seat
15:35 boot
16:00 pricing
16:10 conclusion

[@odracirsotam]

@marek may I suggest showing the infotainment menus in english?

[@timotopaasia6382]

Thank you! Great review once again! As an iX1 owner, I can only agree with everything you mentioned. Although I haven't had similar problems with the charging card. My last trip to Poland - Warsaw went smoothly. Ionity chargers were mostly used on the journey from Tallinn to Warsaw, but there were no problems with the Polish Greenway chargers either. Unfortunately, the Polish charging network has not really reached the level of the number of chargers yet. But everything is moving for the better! There is still hope for you! All the best! Timo.

[@andie3614]

I just ordered the diesel version, and nothing in this review makes me regret that choice!

[@kresimirkalman6113]

good choice

[@danielhuynh8264]

Your grandchildren will make the regret not you

[@kresimirkalman6113]

LOL@@danielhuynh8264

[@laupakhin]

Thanks for the review Marek, and it was interesting to see the issues you had with the software and the charging network. I think that pricing and the charging network issues are the two main issues slowing EV acceptance, and that Tesla having their own network has won them a lot of customers because of the issues you've shown with other networks. All these different networks needing memberships is stupid as well - imagine requiring separate memberships for each different fuel retailer. The iX1 seems like a fairly handy vehicle, like its non-EV counterparts. I think they've done a good job with the X1 in general and the EV powertrain hasn't done anything to hurt that.

[@christernordlander1354]

Very good review and video! 💪

[@MarekDrivesENG]

Glad you liked it!

[@NemanjaPantelic]

This is a nice car for people that want to drive it mostly around town, have a charger at home, who are loyal to BMW and have a different understanding of value than most. This compliance box is designed to be someone’s nth car, so they can use it instead of their Autobiography on the supermarket run. I firmly believe the 73k tag will make this an exclusive, hyper depreciating vehicle that will soon be forgotten by everyone, even the owners.

[@SteveLoughran]

Same price as a Volvo XC40/C40 AWD, polestar 2 or Audi Q5 with equivalent features. More luggage and rear passenger room than the Volvos, plus handles better if it doesn't accelerate quite as fast. The polestar is the compelling competitor-but there it didn't have enough headroom in the back for my son. Otherwise that may have been the choice.

[@rosinor6406]

The reality is that I thought at this point in the cycle the main manufacturers would have been able to perform much much better. And yet here we are with yet another “meh” offering. Mediocre range, mediocre efficiency and conventional packaging with nothing really remarkable. I am a massive bmw guy for everyday cars and still think they have the most functional interiors and best build quality combination. But this is just another vanilla offering. Sub 300 range, no idrive controller to save money, and everything is optional once again. Give me a ix3 any day with all the kit as standard. Rotary controller and better interior finishes. On smth like this we don’t need hyper speeds anyways. When will manufacturers understand this. Single motor is the logic choice. Polestar 2 is nice but too small for a family. Back is compromised and boot is just small. Audi q4 has super low equipment and is boring as f. I can understand ppl looking at cars like they do at appliances would just buy a Tesla which costs much less, has better range and still has that tech feeling. Despite the interior having the same charm as my Miele washing machine. They are destroying competition with pricing.

[@manuelrusu7052]

A BMW with indicators? Why? They will never be used! 😎🤣

[@SteveLoughran]

Ahh, the driver assist will let you change lanes without looking. Oh, wait -that's been a feature in BMWs for years

[@Commentator541]

Perfect proportions make it a stand-out!

[@colnreid]

I have found the sat nav extraordinarily accurate

[@kevinn1158]

I think the iX1 is really sharp. This model needs bigger wheels though. It seems they design the cars so they only look good with massive wheels. Go figure. Alas, this car isn't coming to Canada. Thanks for the review Marek. (Just as a heads up VW has a revised ID4 with a lot more HP, and a completely new software system.)

[@rlorenzoalvarez]

@marekdriveseng dzeki for the review. It highlights one of my fears… travelling with ev in Poland. We live in NL but drive every year to Poland (family) we want an electric (tax wise decision in NL) but fear that it will bit us back in PL (infrastructure?). It would be great that you do a video in an ev (like ioniq5) traveling from krakow to Gdańsk. How hard is it? And how hard it would be for a foreigner that will not have local apps installed or have local cards. Dzekuje bardzo

[@MarekDrivesENG]

For now it's best you have an app for every network you'll find along the way. You can skip Lotos and MOL. Lotos charges a flat fee for relatively slow DC charging, so they are a waste of time. MOL is not particularly reliable. Greenway and Orlen are the easiest to find. In the south you may also find some Tauron stations, but I know there are more local ones as well. I just avoid them, because I can't be bothered to register in some obscure networks. Be prepared there are no charging outlets at hotels, or they are out of order, and the hotel staff doesn't know how to fix it. Recently I was at a hotel, where the charging station was sealed off, because a coach was supposed to park in those places. I shit you not. Don't be surprised to find many 50 kW chargers, and don't be surprised, if they barely put out 30 kW. Also most will have one CCS, one ChaDeMo one Type 2 plug, and if there's a Nissan Leaf occupying the ChaDeMo plug, forget about connecting to CCS. Ionity is growing slowly, but it's not as popular, as in Western Europe. Greenway and Ionity should work with BMW/Hyundai/KIA/whatever charging cards. Orlen doesn't, but they are in abundance, so it's worth having their app. Watch my Tesla review and geek out. Paradoxically I used Superchargers only twice, because they were inconveniently located, so I ended up using other networks most of the time. Everything is OK(ish), as long as you're not in a hurry and the weather's nice. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qqale2SshZicm80 kzbin.info/www/bejne/aH3SkJehhNmDb6s

[@peterhammer6915]

I have driven now almost 3 years with my EV (non BMW) and would never ever change back to ICE. Had 14 BMW:s before that, the last ones being M3:s. Not a single charging problem also when driving from Finland to Austria. Ionitys all around.

[@MarekDrivesENG]

That's a very good EV route. If you had to drive via Poland or the Czech Republic, you'd be praying for a diesel :)

[@peterhammer4644]

@@MarekDrivesENG I have never in my life prayed for a Diesel. I hate those 😂. I just checked the route from Tallinn to Innsbruck and no problems in doing that with an EV. There is Ionity missing in 1-2 patches but there are other fast charging stations.

[@MarekDrivesENG]

@@peterhammer4644 yes, it all looks great on the map, until you arrive at a charger with a single CCS plug (occupied), and outputting less than what it says in the app (so it takes longer to charge). I drove EVs in Western Europe, and I'm ready to drink the Kool Aid there. In Poland it's a hassle that I can't be bothered to deal with.

[@peterhammer4644]

@@MarekDrivesENG If you live in Poland you charge at home mostly anyway. I charge at home in Finland and for 450 km I pay 9 euros.

[@SteveLoughran]

ABRB shows how bad the routing of BMW in general -I think it represents a company slowly transitioning from an ICE to an EV vendor. Its choice of charging is one aspect, but I'd highlight the lack of concept of "planning a multi stop route with breaks". You can't design your favourite route to a destination, save it for later and then select it whenever you take that journey. Note: a few of us have been complaining that the remote lights and precharge control from the app doesn't work if the car hasn't been used for a while (12+ hours). I'm chasing this up-so far I've only been told how to reset the head unit by pressing down the volume control in the centre unit for 30s while the car is awake. That doesn't fix it

[@TheAllMightyGodofCod]

We need to stop this insanity of apps and cards for charging. We need to be able to get to a charger and swipe our bank cards and pay, as we do for gas. Either that or the car communicates directly to the charger and we get billed. We need universality

[@odracirsotam]

@TheAllMightyGodofCod search for AFIR. 😉

[@PierreDybman]

To be frank, when I went to pick up my new second-hand Bmw i3S close to 1000km from home, I didn't bother with Bmw charging and its proposed stations, i planned every charging stop around Tesla superchargers, paid for a month subscription, and that shaved an extra 10 c from each KWh, making it a much cheaper proposal than any other charging network in France.

[@MarekDrivesENG]

You're lucky, because A. you have more TSC, B. your TSCs are already open to other users. At the time of filming the very few TSCs in Poland were still Tesla-only (not sure about the situation now). And they wouldn't have made any difference, because most aren't conveniently located :(

[@PierreDybman]

@@MarekDrivesENG I'll also add that testing this car right after testing a Tesla 3, the BMW felt like a real luxury car, even without many options, and rode better than the Tesla, much less road noise and less bumpy on bad roads. In France it is marketed aggressively with lease offers for 3 years but only 10000km/year.

[@yoker84]

Cannot wait for Mustang Mach E Review

[@MarekDrivesENG]

Not on this channel, I'm afraid. Ford Poland doesn't talk to me.

[@yoker84]

@@MarekDrivesENG ok, thank you for the reply.

[@extreme8808]

I have a difficult time to grasp that Poland is somehow as bad as Bulgaria with EV charing infrastructure. How did that happen? Poland is like . . space . . compared to Bulgaria 😅

[@MarekDrivesENG]

Don't get me wrong. There are chargers, but they are slow and unreliable. The really fast ones are few and far apart. Also BMW charging failed here big time.

[@makar126]

72950?? Jezis Maria!

[@pqvid]

Just look at Germany, they went from a similar situation to current Poland back in ~2018, to chargers and High Performance Charging Parks around every corner. It's a bit of a chicken and an egg - nobody invests in chargers as long as they're not used (as you said, most of them were empty when you arrived) - and on the other hand, people don't buy EVs as they hear all these horror stories. Time will heal it, and this will happen sooner than most people think.

[@tiro2041]

Honestly, the insane prices of EV's is my biggest concern. I drive 50-65'000 km/year for work, right now with a 2021 BMW118i and despite high gas prices, I cant get the EV's to become economical due to the huge price difference between them and the ICE versions. And my biggest concern is the 2nd hand prices... they fluctuate a lot, just look at Teslas huge price cuts and how that has affected existing customers who payed a lot more for their cars and lost a lot of money when its time to sell... other than that I love driving electric, I'm on my 2nd 530e and it runs about 90% on electrons...

[@robertgidaa2705]

If we talk about BMW the ICE version cost more. I also drive 50k a year wit an ID.3

[@tiro2041]

@@robertgidaa2705 Well in Sweden the iX1 is 25’000 Euro more expensive than the gasoline version. For that money I can drive 115’000 km before the price diff evens out, thats not invluding the price of charging which would only further increase the price difference…

[@robertgidaa2705]

@@tiro2041 I bought an ix3 lately. The 300ps diesel was 5k eur more thant the electric. On the iX1 side what I see the 150ps diesel costs 12k eur less than the 300+ ps electric. Thats a considerable amount of money.

[@JohnDoe-vx3z]

You'll also lose sognificant money with the depreciation of a 530e.

[@tiro2041]

@@JohnDoe-vx3z Not where I live, they've kept their value very well...

[@holmikehol]

The car is ready, but perhaps Poland is not😉

[@MarekDrivesENG]

A bit of both. I don't think 300 km real life summer range is great. I don't think charger network (especially in rural areas) is adequate. While I appreciate how good EVs are around town and on short trips, one also needs a permanent low-cost place to charge. Otherwise you're paying more for the car, and as much for charging, as you'd pay for gas.

[@MaxGrossenbacher]

Have to disagree. The aforementioned software issues are present in both EVs and ICE cars. The EVs instant power and torque makes it a MUCH better experience, driving circles around, still ICE dominated, traffic. Lastly, charging infrastructure is country dependent, no problem here in Switzerland at all. I have the iX1, had the X1 before, for my use case, I would never get an ICE car again for daily use. It’s like going back to a horse and carriage.

[@MarekDrivesENG]

Switzerland is relatively small, so driving across the entire country on a single charge or with one charging stop is not an issue. And then there are fast charging prices during those trips. Switzerland is also a relatively wealthy country, so buying a somewhat expensive car that isn't an all-rounder may not be that much of a problem. If I never needed to drive more than 150 kilometers away from my home (where I can charge at very cheap rates), I'd be all in on EV.

[@BokiXI]

How can any of these cars compete with Tesla model 3/Y?!

[@robertgidaa2705]

If you talk abot numbers it can’t compete. I was considering a Model Y and also an IX3. The bmw won.

[@peterhammer6915]

The quality of the BMW is on a different planet, at least my wife's 2021 X1 hybrid has been bulletproof, driven now around 70k km.

[@sw_bf7202]

Not everyone likes the boring or some would say minimal design exterior and interior with a tablet in the middle.

[@dzonikg]

70k euro for smallest BMW...crazy ...who is crazy enough to buy this??

[@SteveLoughran]

Me. It's actually the same size inside as the 3 series touring and not much off the iX3. I'd fault it more for the 300-315V battery makes it slower to charge on 50-75 kW chargers than it would if it were a 400V unit like the i4.

[@peterhammer6915]

@@SteveLoughran I would too. It looks gorgeous and all costs included way way cheaper than any BMW ICE of same size. I charge my EV with 9 euros at home and with full charge you can drive 450 km in the summer, 350 km in the winter.

[@nocapproductions5471]

60k euro in Netherlands. Its not too bad for what you get.

[@ivanbodurov]

OMG X1 is expensive like mini RR.

[@davidpickard9393]

I have never used an electric car but I am aware that the UK charging network is as useless as Polands

[@SteveLoughran]

Getting better except for: wales north of the M4 and Scotland north of the central belt.