My £62k electric car that takes nine hours to drive up North
By Paul Homewood
h/t Ian Magness
Dear Katie,
Last year I decided it was time to get an electric car, so I traded in my BMW X5 diesel for a BMW iX3.
I wish I hadn’t. The battery is supposed to have a range of 285 miles but it performs so poorly on occasions that it is only able to show a maximum range of 145 miles.
We live down south and have family in the north of England, but the car won’t get us there in one stop. It took us nine hours each way over Christmas. We have three children and it was a nightmare. The car cost £62,000 and I really expected better. We also have a Peugeot electric car, which was less than half of what the iX3 cost. It performs brilliantly.
I have tried and tried to resolve the issues with the iX3 by speaking to the dealership, BMW and BMW Financial Services, but I have never in my life experienced such a dismissive attitude. We first raised the issues with the car seven days after purchase, and with the benefit of hindsight, I should have rejected the car there and then.
I want to get rid of it, but the dealership is only offering me £50,000. Then it will sell it on for something like a £7,000 profit the next day, which seems grossly unfair. The latest thing I’ve been asked to do is jot down the details of every journey I make in a notebook, which is taking up all my time. My wife is complaining this is not what she signed up for.
MD, Essex
Dear Reader,
BMW’s iX3 has won rave reviews from major car websites, so I was somewhat surprised to hear of your negative experience. Also, your vehicle had undergone a number of diagnostic tests and passed with flying colours, suggesting it was unlikely to be faulty.
BMW blamed the lower than expected battery performance on factors such as outside temperature, driving style and using the air con and heated seats. This left you irate, as you felt it was wrongly shifting blame onto you. Conversely, you say that your Peugeot e2008 runs like a dream and has a fantastic battery range, making you suspect this issue sits with BMW.
However, this smaller Peugeot is used as an everyday runaround, unlike the iX3, which is used on the motorway and to drive the length of the country. You bought the iX3 to replace an older BMW X5, an SUV which you say was well suited to making long journeys to see relatives.
What you don’t seem to have realised is that although the iX3 is comparable in size to the X5, its performance on the motorway is quite different, due to its electric engine. Unfortunately, electric batteries tend to deplete more rapidly when cars are driven at faster speeds, meaning that their range on motorways can be disappointing. This is just the reality of electric cars in general.
I felt the BMW dealership where you bought the iX3 should have properly explained this to you at the point of purchase, but it seems this didn’t happen in quite the way it should. As a result, you have been in and out of the dealership stressed to the nines and now you’re chained to this ridiculous notebook.
However, following my involvement the dealership has agreed to return your £11,500 deposit. It has been agreed that all the payments you have made so far (£2,600 in total) will cover the cost of ownership over the past six months. You are delighted to be able to finally throw your notebook in the bin and get back to your wife.
When picking your next vehicle, I think you need to be a little more discerning. Clearly you’re keen to go electric, but I wonder whether you’d be better off replacing the iX3 with a hybrid model? This would allow you to pootle around town using the battery and fill up with petrol for longer journeys.
Have a look at BMW’s X3 xDrive30e, Volvo’s XC90 Recharge T8 and Range Rover’s Evoque P300e. All have great reviews and could be worth a test drive.
A spokesman for BMW said: “A fully electric car will be the ideal choice for many customers now. For some customers a plug-in hybrid or combustion engine vehicle may be the more appropriate choice.
“For this reason, it’s important that both retailers and customers discuss individual needs before each vehicle purchase.”
Fancy expecting to drive along with the heating on in cold weather!
As BMW admit, electric cars are pretty much useless, unless you want as an urban run around.
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Nuff said. Leccy cars good for urban journeys, not good for distance. Who’d a thought that?
A Forbes article a couple of years back noted the same thing and suggested battery cars should be improved versions of golf carts as they would be much cheaper than trying to adapt proper cars to be battery cars. Yes, there is still the same problem is soaring raw material costs.
“You knew it was a snake when you picked it up.”
Or the old ‘bushies story’ of the newchum who picked up what he thought was a stick to hit what he thought was a snake.
So, electric cars are only suited to urban Runarounds!
Isn’t that what public transport is supposed to be for?
Public transport only any use if you want to go to the city centre if you live somewhere like Derby. Getting from South to North or west to east means a change in the city centre a twenty minute journey in a car is quicker than the wait between buses
This is the ultimate goal. As resources to make batteries become scarce the average person won’t be allowed to own personal transport. Public transit will be the only choice.
So we won’t be able to get to somewhere where no one else wants to go!
I second that. I picked up my previous car from the dealer using buses. I had to go into the city centre then get another bus out to where they were. Then there was a 10 minute walk at the end. It took 1 hour 15 minutes in all. When I left in my new car, I got home in 20 minutes.
Peter,
as a general comment, public transport is constantly being trotted out by the greens, This may be fine if you live in a busy city and wish to travel a couple of stops, but otherwise it is a poor way to travel. Also, where I live in a rural area, public transport is the choice of last resort. A large amount of the country is served with infrequent and slow public transport. as anything else would be ridiculously expensive. Other practicalities such as shopping etc are difficult if not impossible with public transport. We need our cars.
I’m willing to wager that the vast majority of greenies live in woke areas in cities, e.g. Islington in London and similar areas in other major cities
But, if nobody has private vehicles then public transport might be used by more people which, in turn, might also lead to better performance? Most of the buses around me are poorly utilised and appear to exist solely as a contractual obligation… if there were no alternative, one suspects they may be more popular?
In response to “pjar” comment ” if nobody has private vehicles then public transport might be used by more people which, in turn, might also lead to better performance?” is a total load of bollocks.
You pays your money, you takes your choice 🤣🤣
You should lease an EV, not buy it. If it’s a dud, demand a replacement.
If you are a one car family, they still exist, then an electric runaround is no good for the times you need to travel a couple of hundred miles. So you have to go ICE or Hybrid.
Judging by Motorway traffic on a Friday afternoon /evening then long runs up motorway to see family or for a weekend or longer away is a common thing.
Bad publicity on EVs not wanted. Note how the reports of the Felicity Ace ship carrying EVs have gone quiet. Been trying to keep up with this news. The Portuguese navy confirm that the Felicity Ace has sunk. Caught fire on Feb 16 2022, sank two weeks later about 1st march 250 miles off the Azores, after it listed to starboard. Now 10,000 feet down in the ocean. Reports mention smoke levels died down but it was very hot on inside of the carrier ship.
189 Bentleys, 1,110 Porsches and many Lamborghinis lost. Who will insure these cargo ships in the future, can EVs ever be exported?
Funny twist how Environmental groups are so terribly concerned at the pollution coming from this ship – destroying the beautiful coral on the sea bed. I always thought it was them, the Environmentalists, who wanted EVs!
My concern with EV’s is this: I worked as a dentist and listened to Radio 2 in the background. I am now retired, but still listen to Radio 2.
R2 has always had traffic reports every hour, years ago, traffic jams caused by accidents, breakdowns and debris on the road were fairly common occurrences. However a new hazard has appeared in the last few years, cars on fire! There are at least one or two a week!
Now I have been driving for 49 years, a big chunk of that was driving an average of 18,500 miles a year carrying out dental treatment for the housebound in care and private homes.
In all those years I have only ever seen one car fire and that was on holiday in Spain 20 years ago. Electric car batteries are known to spontaneously combust, but one or two a week?
That is a significant percentage, given the greatly reduced distance, and owners/leasers, that these vehicles travel, in comparison to conventional vehicles! The facts that, the fire can only be extinguished by total immersion in water and the fumes from the combustion are Hydrogen Fluoride, when it is in contact with water vapour, Hydrofluoric Acid is the result the strongest mineral acid known, it will attack glass, is frightening! I think that this a problem that has been deliberately under-publicised?
Incidentally electric cars are nothing new? In the 1880’s, when private motoring first became available, there were three types of vehicle powered by steam, internal combustion and electricity. The time taken to get a head of steam meant that urgent, or spontaneous journeys could not be undertaken.
Internal combustion engines were hand cranked, to start them. This required strength and good reflexes, once the engine was started, the handle had to be detached ASAP, to prevent a wrist fracture. They were not popular with women, but 12 Volt Lead/H2SO4, EV’s were.
This all changed, with the invention of the electric starter motor and its automatic disengagement from the crankshaft, when the engine was running!
In short, EV’s are an expensive, unfit-for purpose, dysfunctional solution, to a non-existent problem! They were tried and tested 140 years ago and are still not fit for purpose
Yes. They say petrol cars catch fire too, but considering they have the liquid fuel for a fire piped to the engine and even a small fault or neglect on a much older car can lead to a fire.
EVs have no such fuel to start a fire with at all.
The numbers of EVs with fires should be close to zero and it should be a feature and yet even fairly new cars are going up in flames
Actually, a diesel vehicle is more likely to catch fire given that the flashpoint of diesel is lower than petrol’s. Petrol is more volatile and will ignite if there is a spark. I suspect most fires are started by electrical problems….which leads us back to big high voltage batteries.
“the flashpoint of diesel is lower than petrol’s”: no, it’s the other way round.
The recent ferry fire, in the mid-Atlantic, that resulted in the crew being airlifted, was apparently a result of a Lithium battery fire which jumped from car to car causing more than $400million loss.
Apparently, one of the things about Lithium battery fires is that they cannot be put out with water…
Flashpoint of petrol (-45C) much lower than that of diesel (52 to 80C)
This confirms the article by a Motoring Editor in an australian paper. He set out from Sydney heading west along the freeway and over the Blue Mountains. At the other side he needed to recharge — Range Anxiety. He kept an eye on the state of charge all the way on a lengthy trip, and concluded that the claim of a range of 450km. was (using English vernacular) “a load of bollocks” and that 260 -280km was more likely. That was for Australian conditions, long distances at high speeds and in summer (which this trip wasn’t) use of the aircon.
Autocar is doing some comparisons of the range drop when winter driving is done. Some cars with a heat pump (!) which uses residual heat from the drive train are a bit better, but for Australia the reverse is needed – cooling
We need both. in many arts of Aus, particularly away from coasts winter temperatures are frigid.
‘Electric’ ( coal fired ) cars are stupid. Who’d a thunk it…
I expect we will all require an in depth consultation as to lifestyle, habits, desires and expectations, with get outs such as “past performance is no indication of future profits” before we buy an electric car.
Insofar as the car seems useless, taking the £50,000 makes sense. Don’t tic them off.
When the £50,000 is in your bank, then make a stink in every possible way. Don’t forget now there are folks called “influencers” that – I think- mostly young folks follow. Find one and suggest yourself and the BMW iX3 as a story (meme?).
put an extra battery in the boot!!! from Trevor in New Zealand.
A foole & his money,
be soone at debate:
which after with sorow,
repents him to late.
I remember my days in the UK, lived in dear old Brum! WE used to say, we were going ‘down’ to London, and ‘Up’ to Newcastle. so it would be difficult in your new EV, in going up, rather than down?? from Trevor in NZ. We have the same problem, We live in Auckland, we are going up North…or Going down South!!
It’s interesting to read the views of the EV community on this:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=247&t=1978902
I’d agree with the comment that anyone who spends k£62 on a car without doing a few minutes’ research deserves what they get.
Coincidentally the same forum has a current thread on EVs and motorway range:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=247&t=1978653&i=80
I looked up the BMW iX3 owner’s manual online to see what charging range they recommend. They do not give a range, but they do say that “Don’t allow battery charge status to drop too low – it will damage the battery.”
“Too low” is undefined. Anyway, all the alleged range isn’t usable.
Well imagine being stuck on the M62 in snow. Can’t move and how long will any heater work before the battery is flat. Fatal.
I can remember Journeys like that in my 60’s Mini. The heater was mostly used as an auxiliary radiator to stop boiling in Summer. Winter was ice on the inside of the windows of the car just the same as my bedroom.
You tell that to the kids today and they don’t believe you! (Apologies to Monty Python)
Ah, the ‘good old days’!
I notice a replacement battery for a Nissan Leaf is £9999 and is marked ‘used ‘ on Ebay