The Drive Report: BMW iX1 LWB

The iX1 LWB is not for early adopters. It’s for cautious aspirants — the ones who want their EVs to look like the petrol cars they used to trust.

At a time when our collective love affair with Tesla appears to be reaching a fever pitch, BMW’s march towards EV dominance, in the luxury space, continues uninterrupted. Case in point: The BMW iX1. Shortly after being launched at an aggressive price of Rs 49 lakh (ex-showroom) the iX1 became a template for mid-tier electric luxury. Compact and, more importantly, familiar in proportions, its price undercut the X1s. And it didn’t appear to compromise on any front. The material quality inside was top notch, the power levels exceeded those of the X1. It really was a case of more for less.

Well now you can add a bit more to that. More rear legroom that is. Following the success of the likes of the stretch 3-Series, BMW decided to add a few inches of legroom and dial-up the luxury quotient, thus creating the iX1 LWB. The iX1 LWB looks exactly like the regular iX1 — which is to say, like a conservative luxury crossover that just happens to run on electrons. The length has gone up by a modest 116 mm, and most of that has been mercifully sent to the rear seats. Only the truly eagle-eyed among us will be able to spot the difference in silhouette, but in every other aspect the iX1 remains inoffensive and conservative (for a BMW). It still has the same squared-off haunches, the sensible glasshouse and opaque grille. There’s no mistaking this for anything radical. Which, to be fair, is precisely the point. The iX1 LWB is not for early adopters. It’s for cautious aspirants — the ones who want their EVs to look like the petrol cars they used to trust.

Apart from the added length, the iX1 LWB looks virtually identical to its short-wheelbase sibling, right down to the M Sport styling kit. The visual aggression lends some much-needed presence to a car that’s no longer compact by any stretch, and keeps it from veering into refrigerator-on-wheels territory.

Performance

Bigger usually means more power but that isn’t the case here. The iX1 LWB gets the same 66.4 kWh battery but instead of a dual motor set-up it opts for a front axle mounted motor that incidentally makes less power than its more compact twin. The benefit here is that the WLTP certified range has gone from 441km to 531km. Which means in the real world you can expect 26% less than that. Power levels drop dramatically from 313hp to 204hp, as do torque levels from 494 Nm to 250Nm. BMW reckons that the LWB customer, in fact most customers looking for a compact luxury SUV are more utility oriented, and excess power at the expense of range isn’t a winning combo from their POV. Thankfully, the iX1 doesn’t feel sluggish. Yes, it doesn’t feel quite as nimble since it's still a very heavy car and without a paddle shifter to engage boost, acceleration isn’t as lightning quick as the standard iX1’s. But there’s still a palpable surge of power. Thankfully, BMW hasn’t swapped the 18-inch wheels for 19-inch ones – this is a machine wholly calibrated for comfort and not much else. Suspension remains soft and absorbent however, you need to crab walk across outrageously sized speed bumps or you risk scraping the bottom.

Interior and features

The real improvement here is at the rear, designed primarily for a chauffeur driven experience. Passengers remain seated lower to the floor owing to the battery pack underneath them. The backrest can now recline, the sunroof is a panoramic one and the horizontal space offered at the back is noticeably plentiful. Save for the absent “Boost” paddle, everything up-front remains the same. The sensibly sized dual-screen set-up gives you access to wireless Apple Carplay, however I found myself constantly having to re-connect it every time I got back inside the vehicle. But the iDrive system remains otherwise intuitive and the dashboard quality is several notches above the entry-level fare we’ve come to expect from premium European carmakers. Gone is the lighter shade of beige leather which is instead replaced by a richer “Mocha” brown. Given that only chauffeur-driven customers are likely to go for this vehicle, the front seat massage function has also been removed.

Verdict

Think of this as the long-range version of the iX1, with a few bells and whistles missing. What doesn’t change however, is how wholesome and fortified the iX1 feels. By addressing the range issue, it has only heightened its appeal to most city-dwellers looking for an EV with marginally greater highway capabilities. At Rs 51.35 lakh (on-road), it still manages to undercut the price of the Tesla Model Y while being a far better built machine than it.