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BMW iX4: 514 miles, a smaller boot and a £60,170 starting price
BMW's coupe version of the iX3 is on sale now from £60,170, with up to 514 miles of range and 30 litres less boot space. The UK numbers explained.
BMW put the iX4 on sale on 8 October, and the headline is a number that would have looked implausible on an electric SUV two years ago. The iX4 50 xDrive is quoted at up to 514 miles on the WLTP test cycle from a 108.7kWh usable battery, and it costs £66,075. The iX4 40 xDrive opens the range at £60,170 with 396 miles. First UK customer deliveries are due on 6 March 2027.
The car is the coupe-shaped version of the iX3, the first Neue Klasse model, and both are built at BMW Group Plant Debrecen in Hungary. It is the second body on the same electric architecture, following the iX3 that launched the Neue Klasse, and the differences between the two are mostly bodywork and packaging.
The UK numbers
The 40 pairs an 82.6kWh usable battery with two motors for 374hp and 520Nm, giving 0-62mph in 5.6 seconds and a 124mph top speed. The 50 raises output to 469hp and 645Nm, cuts the sprint to 4.9 seconds and lifts the limited top speed to 130mph. Both are four-wheel drive, using an electrically excited synchronous motor at the rear and an asynchronous motor at the front.
Charging splits along the same lines. The 40 peaks at 300kW on DC, which BMW says adds up to 187 miles in ten minutes. The 50 accepts 400kW, adding up to 240 miles in the same time, and charges from 10% to 80% in 21 minutes. An M60 xDrive joins in spring 2027 with 612hp, 875Nm and a 483-mile range, and BMW has not announced its price.
What the coupe roof costs you
The boot is the clearest trade. Autocar puts the iX4's luggage capacity at 490 litres, 30 litres less than the iX3's 520. The same report notes that the iX4 50's 514 miles is 17 miles more than the equivalent iX3, and links the gain to the lower drag of the sloping roofline.
BMW quotes a drag coefficient of 0.23. The rear seats fold 40:20:40 and the load bay grows to 1,600 litres, with a further 58 litres of storage under the bonnet. BMW also says the cell-to-pack battery design preserves rear headroom beneath the sloping roof, which is the claim to test with a tall passenger in the back rather than take on trust.
The price is the real story
Compare like with like and the coupe body carries a clear premium. The iX3 50 xDrive was launched at £58,755, so the iX4 50 at £66,075 costs £7,320 more, an increase of about 12.5%. The iX4 40 at £60,170 sits £6,920 above the iX3 40's £53,250, though those two are not equivalent: the iX3 40 is a single-motor rear-drive car with 320hp, while the iX4 40 has two motors and 374hp.
Two things follow from that. The first is that BMW is not using the iX4 as a cheaper way into the Neue Klasse. It is a more expensive bodystyle and it is priced as one. The second is that M Sport specification is standard on both launch models, so there is no stripped entry trim to advertise. Autocar makes the same point, noting that the iX4 will not be offered in the plain entry-level trim available on the iX3.
Within the range, the step from the 40 to the 50 is £5,905, or about 9.8%. For that you get 95hp more, 118 miles of additional quoted range and faster charging. It is the easier upgrade to justify of the two decisions on the price list, and the one that carries the 514-mile headline.
What 500 miles actually changes
Range at this level stops being the reason to choose one car over another. A 514-mile WLTP figure will not translate into 514 miles on a wet motorway in February, and no honest reading of the test cycle pretends otherwise. What it does mean is that the long-distance case for a car like this now rests on charging speed and on the network, rather than on the size of the battery.
On paper the 50 refills quickly. Adding up to 240 miles in ten minutes turns a stop into a comfort break rather than a lunch, provided you find a 400kW charger that is working and unoccupied. The 40's 300kW peak is still fast by the standards of two years ago. AC charging is where the options list matters, because 22kW AC charging is an option rather than standard fit, and adaptive M suspension is standard only on the M60. BMW says all versions are prepared for bidirectional charging.
Where this leaves big electric SUVs
The iX4 arrives into a market where electric cars took a record 28.3% of September registrations, with 99,201 battery electric cars registered and 178 electric models on sale according to the SMMT. Choice has played a part in growing that share, and the final September numbers show how the market responds when more models are available at keener prices.
A £66,000 coupe SUV is not the car that moves that share, and BMW is not pretending otherwise. What the iX4 does is establish how much a large electric BMW can charge before buyers start comparing it with the petrol car it replaces. That comparison decides volume at this end of the market, and BMW has chosen to price above the iX3 rather than below it. The iX4 also joins a crowded autumn of electric arrivals, which we set out in our guide to the cars landing this quarter.
The M60 will test the ceiling further. Autocar expects it to nudge nearer £70,000, against £66,075 for the 50, and BMW has confirmed only that pricing will come closer to launch. A 612hp electric SUV at that money is a statement car rather than a volume one, and its role is to keep the iX4 in the conversations that the iX3 starts.
What to watch
The M60 price. It is the number that decides whether the iX4 range tops out at £70,000 or pushes past it, and it will set expectations for the next Neue Klasse models.
Real-world range on a 50. The 514-mile claim is the longest in the range and the one most buyers will quote back at a dealer. A winter motorway test at 70mph is the figure that matters, and it will be lower.
Residual values. Used electric values have only recently stopped falling after several hard years, which our depreciation coverage has tracked. The first three-year residuals on a £66,000 coupe SUV will be worth watching closely.
The options list. Adaptive M suspension is standard on the M60 and optional elsewhere, and 22kW AC is an option on the two launch cars. Both change daily life more than the paint choice does.
The read
The iX4 is the most convincing argument yet that electric range is no longer the hard part. A 514-mile family SUV with 400kW charging exists, it is on sale in Britain, and it arrives in March. The harder questions are the ones BMW has answered with a price: whether the coupe shape is worth £7,320 over the iX3, and whether a boot 30 litres smaller matters to the households buying at this level.
For most buyers the honest answer is that the iX3 is the better value and the iX4 is the better looking car. That has been true of every coupe SUV BMW has sold, and the electric version has not changed the arithmetic.