In business it is important to remain competitive. You cannot ignore your competition, or hope they
will go away. Ironically much like the legacy autos have been doing for the last decade.
Therefore I also like to analyze what other companies are offering in the way of electric
vehicles. I like to analyze as many electric vehicles as I can, not to see how close they
are getting to Tesla. More to see just how much further Tesla is still ahead of everyone else.
Some of the more prestigious legacy autos are starting to bring out some nicer looking EVs
these days, so I thought I would check them out. Bear in mind where I live I don't have
access to many cars, and we don't get the latest, but it's all I have to work with.
Anyway, one of the nicest ones to come out lately is the BMW iX.
Now having owned half a dozen BMWs myself, its a brand I am familiar with,
and was one of my favorite legacy autos. I went to my local BMW dealership and had a look around.
Eventually someone asked if they could help. It was a BMW product specialist, he just felt
like helping me for some reason, so he had a lot more knowledge than a typical car dealer.
I asked him about the iX and he took me to view their demo model. It looked better in
person than in some of the photos I had seen. It actually looks quite good. Not Tesla good,
but not bad. At least there weren't any door handles sticking out. There are
certain things that really date cars for me now, after owning a Tesla, that's one.
It actually looked kind of stunning, and I think this was all due to the paint BMW were using.
In fact I noticed it with most of the BMWs in the showroom.
The paint jobs looked really good. And here I am going to say it,
they looked much better than Tesla's paint job. And you can't blame that on California, as my
Teslas come from China, and the paint doesn't look that good either. And it's not just BMW,
there are plenty of other new brands that have new paint systems, that look a lot better than Teslas.
I think this will be rectified with the new factories using the new paint shops.
Looks are important, obviously paint comprises a huge element of the aesthetics of a car.
Teslas with these sort of paint jobs, would look so much better. They need this futuristic look,
I can't wait to see the new colors available.
Alright, the iX is BMW first ever all electric vehicle from the ground,
there was also an electric BMW iX3 there, the person helping me said
all BMW did was electrify the X3, it is not built electric. It also looked very basic inside.
The product specialist also told me how popular the BMW i3 has been, and often gets repeat
business. But he said BMW still make a loss on every i3 they sell. But the i3 is not even
that cheap, nor has that big a battery, and BMW have been making them for nearly a decade now.
But alright back to the iX, it did look ok, it had no frunk, but it did have an electric tow bar,
which was able to hide itself when not being in use. It has a stupid massive grille at the
front of course. Legacy are really struggling to give up the grille, especially when it's how
they have branded themselves so much. Distinctive grilles, its the first way we recognize so many
cars, its not easy for legacy autos to give them up, but they are looking very dated.
Anyway I opened the drivers door and got in, and I have to say, it is the nicest BMW I have
ever been in. It is a whole extra level above the current BMW X5. The upholstery was really nice,
and the screen was really large. It even had a glass roof, but unlike the Telsas, there was a
button you could press that would turn the glass from transparent to opaque, which I have to say,
was kind of cool. In fact I was really impressed that there we no door handles on the inside,
another aging element I now notice. The iX had buttons like Tesla's to open the doors.
Now the BMW air vent has definitely been on a diet,
and getting slimmer, but they are still there, and not able to remove them
like Tesla has done so well. There is also a full infotainment control center
and gear sticks in the middle. Legacy autos seem to be really struggling to give up their old ways.
All these extras add to more cost and production time too of course. The best button is no button.
But despite the screen being touch screen it requires a whole inventory of buttons,
like BMW's previous iDrive system. It's just too hard for BMW to let go,
especially when it has to also be inline with the same brand that sells all these ICE cars,
and they lose money from their electric division anyway.
But perhaps the driver does need the controls down there, close enough within arm's length,
as the screen is not so easy to control whilst driving. Now although the screen
in the car is quite long, it is not very high. It is also positioned quite high,
not ideal for reach or view, but it has to be there,
as otherwise it would block the air vents. Oh those pesky air vents. Anyway due to the screen
not having particularly much height, then the actual viewing area isn't particularly impressive.
There was a whole Harmann Kardon display show that the representative demonstrated for me.
It was a pretty good stereo, but I wasn't that impressed by any of it.
What I can say about this car, is it felt like BMW have tried. It felt like they are seriously
worried about Tesla, and they are doing what they can to make an electric vehicle,
that can somewhat be used to demonstrate that BMW can make electric cars as good as Tesla,
and have been making them for almost a decade now, and will have not problem succeeding,
if they so chose. But BMW are making too much money selling ICE, and they can't make any money
selling electric. Therefore they are just making demonstration vehicles, like the iX,
to show BMW electric cars will be ready, when the consumer truly decides. You know except
for people who are actually able to analyze what is important in an electric vehicle.
Now there are 3 versions of the iX, the 40, 50 and M60. This version was the 40.
But the 50 gets 324 miles of range. Which is nearly as much range as a long range Model Y.
It does however start at $88,000. Of course a lot of the things I mentioned on the car
were optional extras, along with a lot of the features that will come standard on the Tesla,
and the premium version of the BMW is $93,000. Despite such a large car, it does also achieve
an impressive 4.4 seconds to 60. These are impressive specifications for a legacy SUV.
How are they doing it you may ask? Or did you already figure it out? That's right,
this is being achieved with an 111 kWh battery. Well perhaps the Model X is a better comparison
here, which actually doesn't get that much more range than the BMW, just over 330 miles. However,
Tesla use only a 100 kWh battery, and also a 3.5 second time to 60. But the X does cost
about $5,000 extra than the BMW. But this is a Model X Tesla, with the new refreshes,
the BMW doesn't come close to this. Of course Tesla make a huge profit margin
with every X they sell, BMW must lose a lot on every iX they sell.
Anyway, I took the BMW for a drive, and it was disappointing, it was slightly laggy in
performance, nothing like the Tesla, the steering was light, and didn't feel overly sensitive,
it was also hard to judge where I was sitting on the road, something the Tesla does well.
To conclude it's really nice for a BMW, and if there are still these loyal consumers to
legacy brands, that want to go electric and remain loyal, then this is probably the product for them.
Other than that, it felt really behind, dated and lacked technology. When I was driving the thing I
missed the most was the large, easily accessible, convenient infotainment screen. I don't care what
the couple of dozen buttons in the BMW do. The Tesla screen is highly under rated, its such a
good way of controlling the car. It's not talked about nearly enough, I guess there are so many
other good factors to keep talking about. But as for anyone who says something like some people
still want some buttons, or Tesla have gone too far removing all the buttons, well, get out your
mobile phone, and look how many buttons that has now. Let go of the buttons, I don't miss any.
BMW have done a good job on this car, if Tesla didn't exist, this car would be outstanding.
But with this price point, they are coming for the X, and it's just so far from a new X, it would be
a sacrilege not to buy the Tesla over the BMW. I also went to check out the Mercedes EQC,
no point going into any detail, it looks exactly like an ICE Mercedes,
at least BMW have gone to some extra effort for their electric models.
Anyway, it would appear that legacy are no closer to catching up than they were before,
just making the embarrassing specifications more presentable, with new advances to distract you
from the terrible efficiencies these cars produce, when compared to a Tesla. They
have still not made any revolutionary jump in technology. However, there is an EV company
that is about to improve their efficiencies in a massive way. Of course that's Tesla.