BMW iX

I haven't really had too much of a chance to give it a full range test yet, sadly, because we only did one long-distance trip up to the North and back. And unfortunately because the car's TCU was already on the fritz for that journey, I don't have the exact history in the app.

What I remember is that we (two onboard) left Dun Laoghaire on the morning of 18th March (a cold morning around 5 degrees but not windy) with 100% range, stopped at Applegreen Castlebellingham and took on 8.360 kWh in 10m16s. Then we arrived to the Ulster Transport Museum with 56% charge remaining. That's a 190km journey and I had the auto cruise control set to 120km/h for the vast majority of the trip, so we weren't doing turtle mode.

By my math, I would have had 44% charge left without stopping at the Applegreen, so we're probably talking about getting around 350km range total.

I can definitely confirm though that the city range is a good bit less efficient, the school run was really making me wonder if I'd get any better range than our old i3. But once out on the motorway, it seems to be in its element.

We were due to travel to Donegal for the Easter week, but who knows whether I'll have the thing back by then (service guy said 2 weeks for the part, but I'm skeptical based on reports here and elsewhere). I'm stuck with a diesel 5 series at the minute, and I detest how close to the ground it is (so does my back).

Just wanted to update: still no replacement part for the TCU. 2 months waiting now, with a courtesy car.

Nope! I don't think they have any available to give - I got an M5 via Enterprise. Asked for any other SUV type thing instead though because we've 2 kids and the M5 just doesn't work for that, so we got a Skoda Kodiaq. By god I want my iX back.

I've had my iX40 back for months now, so I can give a decent sense of this, especially as a former i3 owner too.

Drove back from Bangor to Dublin yesterday, started at 88% charge, and got to Castlebellingham Applegreen with 46% charge. This was driving with the automatic driving assist on, which matches the speed limit (usually +10% because it's the motorway....) and isn't slow by any means. According to the app, this was a 116km segment, which used 29 kWh (24.9 kWh/100k).

Charged up to 92% at that stop, then drove the next 83km back home, at a bit of a higher speed on the motorway (shhh), and arrived with 62% charge left.

For me, you can do all the math there if you want to, but as someone driving this route regularly with a couple of kids and luggage onboard, this car is at a range level where I don't need to stress about charging at all on longer journeys. I'd have made it home without any charging, with some to spare. I get a bit more anxious about making sure to get a good charge when heading up to Bangor because the public charging network in the North is pitifully bad, but when you're within Ireland, you really don't need to worry much.

As for city driving, well it's almost a delight to drive this thing in traffic. You stick the auto assist on, and you can pretty much just tune out the traffic and relax, because it'll do the driving for you (aside from traffic lights, sadly!). I would drive the kids to and from school most days, which is about a 5km journey, and the usage is at about 29.1 kWh/100km, and would be even higher if I didn't floor it when I get onto the one bit of dual carriageway that's on the trip.

Anyway, during the week, if I've got it fully charged on Sunday, I probably won't need to charge it again until the following weekend, and only then in case we head out somewhere further at the weekend.