I can’t unsee that front as a bathroom scale with markings where to put your feet. 🤣
Anyways congratulations to BMW for doing well with EV.
Very strange looking BMW, but still better than giant beaver teeth it kept growing in the past. And still pretty recognizably BMW.
They deserve the success, and honestly they’ve launched with perhaps too low price* for the specs. Example comparing price, WLTP range, 10-80% charge time.
- BMW ix3 50xdrive. £58.7k. 500 mile range. 21mins.
- Volvo EX60 P12 AWD. £64.8k. 503 mile range. 20mins.
- Mercedes GLC 400 4Matic. £60.3k. 444 mile range. 22mins.
- Audi Q6 etron Quattro. £69k. 388 mile range. 23mins.
- Telsa Model Y Premium AWD. £52k. 373 mile range. 29mins
Very exciting to see the this range of strong EVs (though the Audi is lagging a little). The GLC, Q6 and EX60 have great towing capacity as well (2400kg vs 2000kg for ix3 and only 1600kg for model Y).
*they are increasing the price in some areas, see here: https://www.electrive.com/2026/02/02/bmw-raises-price-of-ix3-50-xdrive-by-2000-euros/
Model Y is more than a generation behind now and it gets nowhere near the advertised range, Tesla are one of the worst for that. Obviously you aren’t going to be getting 500 miles in real world driving in the other cars either but you will be a lot closer to the advertised range than the Tesla.
The Volvo is working on about 4.4 miles per kwh, which seems extremely optimistic for anything but hypermiling in the summer. I am expecting about 425 miles in the summer, or about half that if towing.
I tow with my Ioniq 5, just over half my annual mileage, so I have been waiting for this group to launch as its going to be a huge increase in range. The extra range means I can drive for four to five hours without a charge, which is more than I want to anyway as my (and my dogs) bladder wont last that long.
I cite WLTP because it is a standardised way to test and compare range. It’s not perfect, but it allows us to compare one vehicle to another. None of these cars will achieve WLTP in winter nor at high speed.
Also - the model Y is arguably newer than the Q6 - Juniper came out less than a year ago here!
I am in the same position as you though - generally charging stops on long drives are now driven by bladders rather than batteries.
Nobody hits the WLPT but Tesla are usually the furthest from it.
I know the Tesla had a refresh but its not updated the fundamentals to the same level, its more than an actual generation with its current tech levels and specs vs. the latest competition.
it gets nowhere near the advertised range
EPA fixed that about a year ago.
These are WLPT, which is a European rating. No manufacturer hits this rating but Tesla are still the furthest off.
I was just speaking generally. In either case, OEMs don’t just make these numbers up, they have to be certified by the relevant org. If said org doesn’t have accurate tests, the results won’t be accurate either.
Its been a consistent story with Tesla that they are always miles off regardless of the test, not suggesting that they might be cheating with software as with VW and dieselgate no sir
Optimising for the test is a widespread practice with everything from smart phones to cars
It’s not consistent any longer, as I said, because EPA updated their testing procedures. So no, it is not regardless of the test.
Optimising for the test is a widespread practice with everything from smart phones to cars
My point precisely. The test needs to be updated and optimized or else the best cheater wins.
It wasn’t consistent in the first place, EU cars usually had much lower ratings than Tesla, yet would be far far closer to the official EPA rating because Tesla got away with more optimisation before.
Tesla are the same in the EU despite it being a completely different setup thats been revised a few times over years.
No test is going to give accurate numbers, we all drive differently over different conditions with different loads in the car. We can just get closer than we are now, there is still too much space to hypermile in the current tests for WLPT.
What should happen is manufacturers who are clearly missing by a lot should be heavily fined as with VW and dieselgate.
Most quoted ranges from reviewers are considerably under what I get from normal driving so they are no better, I presume they drive with a heavy foot.
Real world numbers from EV database tend to be my starting point
We haven’t even received our first one yet and have sold all of our allocations already for this year.
I chose the xpeng g6, slightly less range but better charging and far cheaper in price
