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Door staff@engadget.com (Tim Stevens) - 22 Oct 2026
The iX5's most luxurious feature might be the range. The iX5 carries a prodigious 144-kilowatt-hour battery slung down below the passenger compartment. It charges at a remarkable 460kW via NACS port, enough to get from 10 to 80 percent in 22 minutes if you can find a charger with enough juice.
BMW hasn't completed its EPA testing, but says to expect more than 450 miles on a charge. To prove that's attainable, one of BMW's engineers drove over 500 miles from San Francisco to LA without stopping and still had 50 miles remaining.
My road trip was a fair bit shorter, but I did spend about six hours behind the wheel of a pair of BMW's new SUVs. The first half I was in the X5 40 xDrive, the internal combustion version. The second half was in the electric, and it was my clear preference.
Though the gasoline-burning X5 had good power at higher speeds and made a nice sound when I floored it, the throttle response on the iX5 was infinitely sharper. It is certainly heavier, but the lower center of gravity made it feel that much more engaging in the corners, and it can do the same stopping trick as the iX3, relying on the electric motors to come to a standstill so smoothly that if you close your eyes you literally can't tell when the wheels stop rolling.
BMW hasn't completed its EPA testing, but says to expect more than 450 miles on a charge. To prove that's attainable, one of BMW's engineers drove over 500 miles from San Francisco to LA without stopping and still had 50 miles remaining.
My road trip was a fair bit shorter, but I did spend about six hours behind the wheel of a pair of BMW's new SUVs. The first half I was in the X5 40 xDrive, the internal combustion version. The second half was in the electric, and it was my clear preference.
Though the gasoline-burning X5 had good power at higher speeds and made a nice sound when I floored it, the throttle response on the iX5 was infinitely sharper. It is certainly heavier, but the lower center of gravity made it feel that much more engaging in the corners, and it can do the same stopping trick as the iX3, relying on the electric motors to come to a standstill so smoothly that if you close your eyes you literally can't tell when the wheels stop rolling.