BMW iX

All-new zero-emissions flagship luxury car strikes out in bold, sophisticated style Some car manufacturers probably feel similarly about the advent of 2030, and the gradual enforced phasing out of the combustion engine that it will begin to bring to markets all over the world, as 1990s tech companies did about the arrival of the millennium bug in 2000. Just a few, however, seem bold enough to look at it like our young century’s greatest business opportunity.Having played a small but notable part in the emergent stages of the European electric car scene with the likeable i3, BMW has evidently got a busy few years of zero-emission launches planned – because, from a not-quite-standing start, the BMW Group is aiming for 50% of its total sales to be electric-only by 2030.If there’s a sure-fire way to show the world that you’re serious about electrification, it’s with a statement car like this week’s road test subject. The BMW iX is an electric halo model based on an all-new, EV-only platform that’s coming not only to dominate its closest electric SUV rivals, but also to help redefine the luxury car for the zero-emissions age, and to blow away the compromises that we expect to apply to them.With its most powerful versions breaching the 600bhp barrier, claimed range extending close to 400 miles and prices beyond £110,000, the iX promises to take few prisoners among the market’s existing electrified SUVs. Time to find out if, and exactly how, it might deliver.BMW iX line-up at a glanceThe iX range is quite a broad one, priced to take on the likes of the Jaguar I-Pace and Audi E-tron at the cheaper end of the model scale, as well as the quickest and most expensive Teslas at the other end.There are two trims – Sport and M Sport – although BMW’s pricier optional equipment and styling packs (Technology Plus, Comfort Plus, Sky Lounge) could be considered de facto trim levels and are also highly likely to influence residual values.