Bjørn Nyland has put more electric cars through his 1,000 km highway test than most people have driven in total. He logs everything — every charging stop, every minute — in a public Google spreadsheet that’s become something of a reference document for the EV world. So when a car goes fast, you can actually see why. The BMW iX3 (NA5) finished in 8 hours and 55 minutes. That’s the best result he’s recorded for any electric SUV. It also beats the Mercedes EQS 450+ and the new Mercedes CLA, both of which were tested in warmer weather — a detail that matters more than it might seem.
The conditions for the iX3 were rough. Temperatures were around freezing, which punishes battery range. The test car came on 21-inch wheels rather than 20s, trimming WLTP range by 23 km. Nyland reckons the cold alone cost 5 to 10 minutes off the final time. Run this test in double-digit temperatures and the iX3 probably lands in his all-time top three, somewhere near the Tesla Model S Long Range.
What’s worth paying attention to here isn’t just the time. The iX3 posts that result through a specific combination: big battery, fast charging, and efficiency that holds up when you’re driving hard on the motorway. Most EVs are good at one or two of those. The iX3 does all three, and then also has 469 hp and enough room to carry people comfortably. That’s what Nyland kept coming back to — not just a single impressive stat, but the fact that nothing obvious was sacrificed.
The car had already done a different kind of 1,000 km run — driven conservatively from BMW’s Debrecen factory to Munich without a single charging stop. BMW says the iX3 50 xDrive (NA5) is rated at 421 to 500 miles WLTP depending on wheel size — 20-inch wheels hit the top end, while the 21s used in Nyland’s test drop it by around 14 miles. In the US, BMW’s preliminary EPA estimate sits at up to 400 miles, though a final certified figure hasn’t been published yet. China’s CLTC cycle, the most generous of the three standards, puts it at 559 miles (900 km). The gap between WLTP and EPA is around 20%, which is pretty standard across the industry.
The i3 sedan edges further ahead: BMW claims 900 km WLTP and 440 miles EPA, a 95 km improvement over the iX3 that’s largely down to the sedan’s better aerodynamics. So we expect the 1,000 kilometer test to be easily achieved with the NA0 i3.
First published by https://www.bmwblog.com
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