BMW, the brand owners of traditional high-performance internal combustion cars, is also home to an ever-evolving world of futuristic full battery electric vehicles. But still with one serious factor in play; high-performance. Meet the 400kW/765Nm BMW iX 60. An electrically driven tour de force.
Back in 2022, when we tested the 365kW, BMW iX 50, the model it has replaced, we called it the performance bargain of the year. Hitting 100km/h from standstill in just 4.5 seconds and being able to travel 500km for a mere R300 of electricity.
Fast forward to 2025, and the iX 60 is just as fast but goes further than ever before. But I must quickly explain something to you before I get to our open road test with the BMW iX 60. The claimed WLTP range for the car is set at 600km. But what must be understood is that WLTP stands for Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicles Test Procedure. A standardised laboratory, chassis dynamometer test used to certify new passenger cars’ fuel consumption, emissions and EV driving range.
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Addictive instant power
So, in simple terms this is not a real-world test out on the road where you can’t control all the factors that affect range. Things like temperature, start/stop, traffic and most of all, your right foot. Punching the accelerator and burning through electricity on the BMW iX 60 is so addictive. That instant urge never gets old. This is an SUV that gets to 100km/h in less than five seconds and is doing almost 200km/h in 400m of road. All this all means that you are never getting the claimed range figure. But what are you getting then?
The mission was to get to Umdloti on one charge for a “surprise” marriage proposal of future in-laws. Fully charging the 109-kWh battery and loading a bunch of beach stuff and a family into the BMW iX 60, the digital cluster showed we would get 556km, and that wasn’t enough to make it.
Seemingly my mission had failed even before it had started. According to the sceptics in my family, just like many other families are not big believers in the convenience of battery electric vehicles for long road trips. The joke was on me. I had to switch to Plan B, and that was then to make it feel like any other family visit to the coast.
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Fast chargers does the trick
And that meant stopping for a Wimpy breakfast at the Engen Bergview 1 Stop. There a fast 60kWh charger lay in wait. This time things worked out perfectly. With the humans and the BMW iX 60 all fuelled up, we took off for Umdloti and got there with over 200km left on the range. More than enough for running around over the weekend.
Getting charged up and ready to head home once all the “surprises” were done with was equally convenient. Again, using PlugShare, we knew that the Sibaya Casino right by us had 100kWh fast chargers. We used the downtime to have a breakfast and charge the BMW iX 60. Before setting off to the beach for the last bit of sun and sand before heading up the N3 home.
Remember I mentioned that right foot being a problem? Well simple physics means going uphill requires more power. More power requires more battery. So, rather quickly the range started dropping and settled at not much over 400km. Harrismith without any doubt was in our future again.
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BMW iX 60’s real range impressive
After a stop there for an early dinner, we were all charged up, and we chased the sun over the horizon to arrive at home with 90km on the range. All in all, we averaged 21.3kWh for the trip and this was a real-world range figure of 511km. I think this is exceptional for a heavy, luxury SUV, that has supercar like urge.
The BMW iX 60 retails for a suggested R2 675 000 and this includes a two-year/unlimited vehicle warranty and a five-year/full maintenance Motorplan.
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