As confirmed by the CEO of the company, the BMW iX3 will begin to be manufactured next summer. It will be made in China, where it will start selling first, and is scheduled to hit Europe in 2021.
At a recent shareholders meeting, BMW announced that it plans to start production of its first electric SUV next summer. The iX3 will be the second electric car of the German manufacturer, after the i3, an SUV that will have to compete in the market with the Mercedes-Benz EQC, the Jaguar I-Pace or the Tesla Model Y.
BMW CEO Oliver Zipse said during the meeting that the preparations for the production line continue according to plan despite the uncertainties deriving from the coronavirus pandemic. The BMW iX3 will start production in the summer, although we will have to wait until 2021 to see it at European dealerships.
It will also be the first BMW's first electric SUV model built exclusively at the Shenyang (China) factory, a plant run by the joint venture between BMW and Brilliance. From the Shenyang factory, it will be exported worldwide, and the idea is for production to remain that way at least during the initial stage of the model.
Although it has not yet been officially presented, we already know what it looks like thanks to several leaks in recent weeks. The iX3 (4,746mm long) will be slightly larger than a combustion X3, specifically 38mm longer and 7mm taller than the current BMW X3.
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The iX3 will feature the fifth generation of eDrive thrusters from the German manufacturer. It will have an electric induction motor on the rear axle, with 286 hp of power and 400 Nm of torque to be sent to the rear wheels. The lithium-ion battery has 74 kWh of capacity, will provide 440 km of autonomy (WLTP).
These new batteries use cells with NMC 811 chemistry (80% nickel, 10% manganese, and 10% cobalt), thanks to which BMW has cut cobalt in half and increased energy density by approximately 20% compared to previous technology.
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