BMW iX long-term test

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 10,443 List price £93,205 Best price £93,205 Price as tested £107,000 Test range 290 miles Official range 426 miles

3 March 2026 – How my electric SUV could heat my house

The BMW iX is a high-tech machine in many ways, but its very healthy electric range isn’t the result of some epochal discovery that has massively advanced battery technology. It simply has a whopping great battery that holds a colossal amount of energy. Think of it as a sledgehammer solution to cracking the electric range nut.

That's something deputy reviews editor John Howell found when he borrowed the car recently. For context, John lives in Wales, in a house which runs solely on electricity (no gas), which powers a heat pump providing the heating and hot water. The heating is set at 21°C and runs 24/7 because that’s the most efficient way to operate a heat pump. A week or so ago, there were 10 people in the house — all taking baths and showers, plus using the lights, electric hob, and oven — while the outside temperature dropped to just below zero. Peak energy demand, in other words; according to his Octopus app, it was using 80kWh per day.

The xDrive60’s battery holds 110kWh (rounded up), so it would run John's house for almost a day and a half during that period of high energy consumption. That’s seriously impressive. No surprise, then, that the iX managed to take him from London to his house, driven in exactly the same manner as he would drive a petrol car (prioritising speed rather than efficiency), with ease. And it still had around 100 miles of range left when he arrived. If he'd been using its 'Max Range' mode the iX would have gone even farther – when he clicked this setting out of curiosity with the battery at 100% and the predicted range went up to 460 miles. 

Why mention this? Because it’s the first electric car John has driven completed that journey in while driving normally – rather than eking out the range to get there without stopping en route. And because John didn’t have to stop at an expensive public charger en route, when he did charge it, he did so at home for a reasonable price – around £18 was enough to get the battery to 80%.

John did report back one annoyance, though: his house is a farm with gates on the lane. He resents getting out to open the gates at the best of times, but the iX made matters worse because every time he exited the car it switched off completely. So he would get out, open the gate, get back in, switch the ignition on, wait for the seat and steering wheel to move back into their preset positions, select drive, then move forward a few feet, get out to close the gate, and repeat the entire palaver.

Despite that admittedly niché foible, John said he was deeply impressed with my electric SUV – so much so, that he's already asked to borrow it again.

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