BMW iX long-term test: report 5

The car BMW iX xDrive60 M Sport Run by Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

Why it’s here To see if BMW’s largest electric SUV can be used as a long distance cruiser that’s both luxurious and easy to live with.

Needs to be comfortable on a long commute; be efficient enough to keep running costs low and justify the price tag; offer practicality that deals with lots of passengers and long weekend luggage.

Mileage 12,770 List price £93,205 Best price £93,205 Price as tested £107,000 Test range 320 miles Official range 426 miles

11 April 2026 – Going digital

If someone had told 10-year-old me that, one day, he’d be able to use a mobile phone (at that time, a brick that did nothing fancier than let you text and play Snake) to control various parts of a car – or even use it instead of the key – it would have blown his mind.

Thanks to smartphones and car maker apps, though, that’s the world we now live in. Or, at least, many people do. But until recently the only car app I’d spent significant time with was the very primitive one that came with my Mini Cooper D back in 2014. So, I decided to rectify that when my BMW iX iX arrived.

Setting up the My BMW app on my iPhone was remarkably easy, and simply required me to enter the vehicle identification number (VIN) in the app and then accept the pairing request on the car’s infotainment screen. Refreshingly, unlike most things these days, it worked first time. 

The app’s user interface is instantly intuitive, giving you access to a wealth of information; everything from the charging history to whether the car has any warnings, like it being time to refill the washer fluid. I also like that you can add information such as remaining range and charging status as permanent widgets on your iPhone home screen so you don’t even have to open the app to make use of it.

Then there are all the things you can control through the app. You can do everything from locking and unlocking the doors to looking through the parking cameras, to see if anything nefarious is happening around your car. But my favourite feature of all is being able to warm the car’s interior and defrost the windscreen while I’m still laying in bed; when your commute is as long as mine, you really value those extra minutes.

In short, I’m now a complete convert and couldn’t imagine buying a car without its own app. I expected my BMW’s to be a bit of a gimmick – something I’d use once and then quickly forget about. But it has been a genuinely highlight of owning the car, complementing the ownership experience no end.

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