[thebishman]

Originally Posted by TrainingCaptain

Another downside is the lack of manual battery preconditioning. I wish I could activate it 30 minutes before reaching a charging stop for better charge speeds. I hate activating BMW maps for that. And speaking of charging, the charging curve are inconsistent. Only getting proper charging speed 1 out of 4 times is frustrating, throttling around 100-140kwh, translating to 2kWh per minute or 6 miles per minute in the best-case scenario.

Despite these issues, the iX is still a joy to drive, especially in the city. But on road trips, the slow charging is already becoming letdown as more and more 800v EVs are being announced. That’s why I’m keeping an eye on the Q6/A6 e-tron for next year. They promise faster charging speeds, a better charging curve, and hopefully, a range exceeding 300 miles. If they deliver, it could be a game-changer.

Overall, the iX has its ups and downs, but it’s still a fantastic SUV. Just hoping for some improvements in the charging department.

Just did our first long distance 1500 mile round trip in the iX.

Some thoughts: incredibly comfortable car to travel long distance, only let down by seats that truly lack the level of comfort and adjustability of say the seats in an etron Prestige. They’re not bad; just could be better.

Charging: Why oh why as a clean sheet design didn’t BMW design this car with 800V architecture; it was a major flaw. Also, the charging curve surely can be so much better. An etron was charging next to me and it stayed at 140-150kW whilst we continued to drop lower and lower as our ‘tank’ approached 80%. A couple of times we had to charge to 90%/95% in order to reach our next EA chargers of choice given our relatively high average speed, and that was excruciatingly slow. BMW no doubt have vast reams of data on battery health at this point given how long the car has been released, and they really should copy the charging curve of the etron if at all possible.

Very fortunate that we never had to wait for an EA charger, although a couple of the 350kW ‘Hyper’ units were acting up, but using a 150kW ‘Ultra’ really doesn’t cost any time when starting around 30% SoC.
Plug and Charge worked great every time and is welcome.
EA need to try and make all chargers ‘drive through’ like a Gas station design if possible; at least it would be much more convenient for our needs imho.

All in all, the car was flawless and we loved it. Not super efficient, but at average speeds of 75-80mph what would be? 😎

[Fast400]

I think it's hilarious how this thread considers a couple years 'long term' ownership.
I remember my dad's cars...I think he had four in my lifetime...Long Term for him is 15yrs.

[exxxviii]

Originally Posted by Fast400

I think it's hilarious how this thread considers a couple years 'long term' ownership.

Truth. 2-3 years is definitely not "long-term" in my perspective. I consider that short-term and my BEV expectation is 0 service visits in that period. Long-term to me is around 5 years, when life and warranty have passed.

[elcee]

Had our IX40 since September 2022, but can no longer charge it at home since an update done at dealer in March 2024. Love the car and so much fun driving it, but inability to charge at home a deal breaker.

[Louis_BE]

Originally Posted by ricerboi

Also you guys probably wanna see this. There are a few guys stateside on this forum who are over 50k besides me.

Moral of the story: Wheel, tire weight, and aero matter even more on EVs. My heavy 22” 3-piece forged wheels and tires are yielding 250-260 miles of range (hence the low 2.4mi/kWh along with a lot of winter driving) whereas my much lighter non-aero 20” set is yielding 280-290 miles. I’m going to switch to a lower weight 20” set with 285/50R20 or 275/55R20 A/T and see what happens (estimating 275 miles or so which is fine for me). The ride on air suspension and 20” is just so much better than 22” which just look good.

I do easily 330 miles on my 22 inch wheels driving at 78 on the highway and 45-50miles on B roads …
(In fact my range was less on winter tires 21 inch wheels on same conditions)

Almost 2 years in ownership it’s just the best “SUV type EV” out there for me personally … Though it will be joined by a Macan EV …

[Louis_BE]

Originally Posted by Bmwno6

I love the iX. Now over 6,000 miles. it is great all around. The issue is range and charging time. Last week we did a 600+ mile trip to Vegas (one way) and after doing the math the charging time would have added 1-1/2 to 2 hours to the trip each way. So we took our X5 instead. But that does not happen often and the iX is great for trips of about 200 miles one way. I hope that by the time I trade it in the charging infrastructure and the range have improved a lot. By then I probably will not get a lot for it. I hope they do not become like smart phones that are not worth much after 3-4 years.

I did a trip last year 620 miles, while the apps and the car gave 4 stops close to 2 hours charging the reality was 2 stops of 35 minutes (breakfast and lunch) and a short 10 minute last charge to not arrive empty at the hotel … The same trip in my Q7 is like maybe 30 minutes faster … driving 80 miles/h on the French highway, fairly normal summer conditions … Did the same trip in winter, that was additional 30 minutes charging …

[sound1]

Originally Posted by elcee

Had our IX40 since September 2022, but can no longer charge it at home since an update done at dealer in March 2024. Love the car and so much fun driving it, but inability to charge at home a deal breaker.

Can you explain this? Where do you charge then? Only DC?

[ricerboi]

Just finished a 1100 mile trip in 36 hours (San Diego to Truckee (Tahoe) and back to LA) dropping off my winter wheels to someone on this forum.

So irritatingly I hit the multiple charges in a day “wall” or “DCFC Jail” or whatever you wanna call it.

I was against wind all the way up and was averaging 2.2kW so effective range was 190-205 miles at my 92%ish capacity. I would charge to 99% at EA from 3-5% SOC (1 full 30 min charge, unplug and go another 15-20 min) and made it to my destination to drop off (700 miles) and then the next few DCFC I was capped at 40kW along with 3-4 other charges on the way down. I was able to get 1 full speed 30 min/70kWh charge but it’s annoying as hell. Fortunately I averaged 2.5kW on the way down so it made things a bit better. Traffic so averaged 70-75mph.

Basically moral of the story is don’t take your iX on any 800+ mile drives within 15 hours where you need to charge more than 5x.

[frank70]

I always thought that when you see the grey-striped bars in the charging speed indicator in the left side of the display, this meant that the charger is the cause of not being able to charge at full speed. As i do see these stripes in your picture i would therefore assume that the reason you can not charge at full speed is the charger in this case.

[LVBMW]

Originally Posted by frank70

I always thought that when you see the grey-striped bars in the charging speed indicator in the left side of the display, this meant that the charger is the cause of not being able to charge at full speed. As i do see these stripes in your picture i would therefore assume that the reason you can not charge at full speed is the charger in this case.

No, you can see the line on the left which shows the car is asking for much less than the charger is willing to put out. If there is a gap between the solid and striped lines, that means the car is asking for less than the charger is willing to provide. You can see the gap is quite large in this case. If the charger is limiting power you will see a yellow gas pump symbol in the display.

[Louis_BE]

Originally Posted by ricerboi

Just finished a 1100 mile trip in 36 hours (San Diego to Truckee (Tahoe) and back to LA) dropping off my winter wheels to someone on this forum.

So irritatingly I hit the multiple charges in a day “wall” or “DCFC Jail” or whatever you wanna call it.

I was against wind all the way up and was averaging 2.2kW so effective range was 190-205 miles at my 92%ish capacity. I would charge to 99% at EA from 3-5% SOC (1 full 30 min charge, unplug and go another 15-20 min) and made it to my destination to drop off (700 miles) and then the next few DCFC I was capped at 40kW along with 3-4 other charges on the way down. I was able to get 1 full speed 30 min/70kWh charge but it’s annoying as hell. Fortunately I averaged 2.5kW on the way down so it made things a bit better. Traffic so averaged 70-75mph.

Basically moral of the story is don’t take your iX on any 800+ mile drives within 15 hours where you need to charge more than 5x.

Indeed annoying, but something triggered BMW to have this in place, my guess is that it will prolong battery life, avoiding some chemical reaction degradation they observed during development. Anyway compared to other EV’s this can be a roadblock for some 🤪

[NomoTesla]

Originally Posted by ricerboi

Just finished a 1100 mile trip in 36 hours (San Diego to Truckee (Tahoe) and back to LA) dropping off my winter wheels to someone on this forum.

So irritatingly I hit the multiple charges in a day “wall” or “DCFC Jail” or whatever you wanna call it.

I was against wind all the way up and was averaging 2.2kW so effective range was 190-205 miles at my 92%ish capacity. I would charge to 99% at EA from 3-5% SOC (1 full 30 min charge, unplug and go another 15-20 min) and made it to my destination to drop off (700 miles) and then the next few DCFC I was capped at 40kW along with 3-4 other charges on the way down. I was able to get 1 full speed 30 min/70kWh charge but it’s annoying as hell. Fortunately I averaged 2.5kW on the way down so it made things a bit better. Traffic so averaged 70-75mph.

Basically moral of the story is don’t take your iX on any 800+ mile drives within 15 hours where you need to charge more than 5x.

Next time you do a trip like this, try to charge on AC before the return leg to see if that breaks you out of DCFC jail. I read speculation that this might be enough but not confirmed. I am glad that someone else is experiencing this other than me. I was tired of being accused of spreading misinformation! lol

Originally Posted by frank70

I always thought that when you see the grey-striped bars in the charging speed indicator in the left side of the display, this meant that the charger is the cause of not being able to charge at full speed. As i do see these stripes in your picture i would therefore assume that the reason you can not charge at full speed is the charger in this case.

You know when the car is the source of chargegating because the car throws up a full-screen message on the touchscreen saying that the vehicle's DCFC rate will be reduced for up to 2 days. That was the message I received during my 1,500 mile road trip.

Originally Posted by Louis_BE

Indeed annoying, but something triggered BMW to have this in place, my guess is that it will prolong battery life, avoiding some chemical reaction degradation they observed during development. Anyway compared to other EV’s this can be a roadblock for some ��

I was going to say that this is where Tesla has its shit together. But after thinking about it I realize that there is no magic sauce in Teslas. They just have fewer guardrails around battery usage. This lets them win the numbers race at the expense of battery degradation and ownership experience.

[LuisBoston]

Originally Posted by FultonMDUSA

Costco gas may be cheap, but don't kid yourself thinking it's necessarily faster. In 20 years I recall one time I didn't have to wait in line to fill up at Costco. It's much more likely I'm in a line of vehicles 6-7 deep for each set of pumps, and with 2 pumps in a line I'm waiting a good 15-20 minutes before it's my turn. And it's not like Costcos are conveniently located off interstates or nearby whenever my tank is near empty. More likely I'm spending that 20+ minutes just filling up half a tank.

And I'm not even counting the time it takes to drive to the Costco, as opposed to the time I save charging from home.

I know, right. People complain about DC fast charging times are some of the same willing to wait 45 minutes in the Costco gas line to save 10c-20c /gal, idling their engines the whole time.

[Bmwno6]

Love the IX. the issue is the range and charging on the road. I also had to get a spare tire but takes up a not of the storage space. So we use it around where we live and charge at home. We also have an X5 which has double the range of the iX and has a spare.

[Windshieldfarmer]

Originally Posted by NomoTesla

I was going to say that this is where Tesla has its shit together. But after thinking about it I realize that there is no magic sauce in Teslas. They just have fewer guardrails around battery usage. This lets them win the numbers race at the expense of battery degradation and ownership experience.

I think Tesla does have the battery thing figured out…. I suspect BMW is just being extremely conservative. I can’t image the actual battery technology is much different between a Lithium Ion Tesla battery and a Lithium Ion BMW.

My wife and I are planning a long road trip to Northern Michigan this summer…we will be driving our V6 Ford Edge rather than driving our more comfortable IX. Charging desert issues combined with this potential issue makes the IX less convenient and potentially more stressful to drive. I wonder if this is unique to BMW EVs.

[Kennethjk]

I drove from Boca Raton to Charleston, 550 miles on my way to NY.

I filled up the might before and used 2 DCFC’s, no reduction.

I always figured a good max of driving each day in an EV is around 600 miles.

Not thrilled about doing charging at night but with longer spring and summer days daylight driving on the east coast is really a breeze.

Now of course , I am retired, all 3 kids married and out of the house so being in a rush is a thing of the past.

[superflysocal]

I absolutely still love this car. It's my favorite car I have ever owned. It was originally a stop gap car before the Lotus Eletre comes out, but now I think I will cancel that order.

[Louis_BE]

Originally Posted by superflysocal

I absolutely still love this car. It's my favorite car I have ever owned. It was originally a stop gap car before the Lotus Eletre comes out, but now I think I will cancel that order.

I cancelled my Eletre order, to many 1st gen problems, yes it's an eyecatcher, but in the end it's the complete package that counts and in that respect the iX is a better total package ... way more efficient and software that works

[LuisBoston]

All the folk claiming they won’t take the iX on road trips is baffling to me.

I went on a long trip recently. And I can’t wait for the next one. Absolute joy in the iX. It has longer range, faster charging, and is way more comfortable than my last EV. Win. Win. Win.

I got the iX specifically for longer road trips, as that is the bulk of my driving. I cannot in good conscience willingly and unceasingly burn fossil fuels anymore, and the iX is a great way to be really comfortable in a less bad way.

A little (and I mean little) inconvenience is a minor price to pay for the benefits the iX brings me.

[Windshieldfarmer]

Originally Posted by LuisBoston

All the folk claiming they won’t take the iX on road trips is baffling to me.

I went on a long trip recently. And I can’t wait for the next one. Absolute joy in the iX. It has longer range, faster charging, and is way more comfortable than my last EV. Win. Win. Win.

I got the iX specifically for longer road trips, as that is the bulk of my driving. I cannot in good conscience willingly and unceasingly burn fossil fuels anymore, and the iX is a great way to be really comfortable in a less bad way.

A little (and I mean little) inconvenience is a minor price to pay for the benefits the iX brings me.

I too enjoy driving the IX. So comfortable and well engineered. I agree distance travel is totally doable (if it involves interstate roads) though I have found charging incredibly inconvenient on more than a few occasions(inoperative chargers, long queues, out of the way chargers). My travel needs take me into western Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas…remote areas. DCFC are currently too widely dispersed for reasonable travel with the IX, especially in cold weather.

To my point…my kids live in Garden City, KS. It’s a 200 mile trip west for me which works well since I spend the night and have installed a 240v outlet in their garage for charging. There is no DCFC between here and there or in Garden City. This will hopefully improve in the next few years but it would be impossible for me to drive out there and return home the same day.

[NomoTesla]

Originally Posted by LuisBoston

All the folk claiming they won’t take the iX on road trips is baffling to me.

I went on a long trip recently. And I can’t wait for the next one. Absolute joy in the iX. It has longer range, faster charging, and is way more comfortable than my last EV. Win. Win. Win.

I got the iX specifically for longer road trips, as that is the bulk of my driving. I cannot in good conscience willingly and unceasingly burn fossil fuels anymore, and the iX is a great way to be really comfortable in a less bad way.

Same for me, agree with everything above.

[LuisBoston]

Originally Posted by Windshieldfarmer

I too enjoy driving the IX. So comfortable and well engineered. I agree distance travel is totally doable (if it involves interstate roads) though I have found charging incredibly inconvenient on more than a few occasions(inoperative chargers, long queues, out of the way chargers). My travel needs take me into western Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas…remote areas. DCFC are currently too widely dispersed for reasonable travel with the IX, especially in cold weather.

To my point…my kids live in Garden City, KS. It’s a 200 mile trip west for me which works well since I spend the night and have installed a 240v outlet in their garage for charging. There is no DCFC between here and there or in Garden City. This will hopefully improve in the next few years but it would be impossible for me to drive out there and return home the same day.

I’m in the northeast, so I don’t have many problems with DC chargers. The experience in the plains I’m sure is more challenging.

Once the superchargers open up next year it’ll be even better for all of us.