[Supercharger]

Hello,

TLR
I'm in Tesla, considering moving to iX and wonder if the experience is in any way comparable.

Hello!

Early EV adopter here. I'm in my third Tesla (early S, before S and X with full AP) but I'm utterly disenfranchised by the brand's incomprehensibly awful service capability. I've been evangelical about their ability to produce great vehicles, despite questionable build quality, and couldn't have envisaged porting into anything else until recent troubles with reliability (sh*t happens) have forced me to confront the incapability of the service centre network to provide any kind of reasonable standard. Poor experience, decreasing reliability = time to look & surprisingly bewitched by the iX50.

My X is long range meaning I'm quoted 260 as typical expectation of range, but regularly run a 150 mile route and I'm left with <25% range (in the dead of winter it's touch and go that I'll cover the distance). I've always been relaxed about that because supercharging network is convenient to easy to access (no need for multiple cards or logins etc) and will always offer >125kw/h (325mph for at least 20 mins before tapering quickly to half of that and then the last 20% is a crawl, so that a charge to full will always take >80mins).

AP is a massive bonus though. It's not foolproof, you do have to remain alert to daft ghosts in the system, but it generally makes long drives a far more pleasant experience).

My q is whether this feels similar in any way to the experience of the iX owners here. Are you comfortable with charge speeds, network capacity, home charging and promised range etc? Any horrors? Is the semi autonomous driving capability in any way close to Tesla AP?

Thanks so much for any guidance you are prepared to offer. Very much appreciated.

 

[BrendanC]

I only recently took delivery of the IX so I cant speak for any long term ownership experience, nor can I really comment on charging networks due to here in Australia we basically don't have one and this has been the real benefit to owning a Tesla here, with that said even the Tesla network is limited here so most EV owners rely on home charging.

I can however say that BMWs driver assistance system is very comparable to Tesla AP system, not so much the FSD package. In my previous BMW it also had the older generation assistant driving package and I used it daily for my compute and found it to be rather competent overall and less prone to phantom braking than I experienced in my friends Model 3. Id say both systems however are prone to mistakes so when comparing them there rather even, the key difference would be if your used to a Tesla with Navigate on Autopilot a similar function is simply not available at this time on the IX however there are rumors this is something that might be coming in a software update. One item that is nicer is that BMW uses a capacitive touch steering wheel for checking if the driver has there hands on the wheel vs Tesla that requires a slight steering input. Another key point is depending on region BMW limits the functionality of this system and working out what your car can and cannot do is a royal pain in the backside as documentation on what assists systems are available per region is poor.

While on the point of Software, software updates is an area Tesla has a distinct advantage in when compared with BMW, BMWs over the air updates feel positively old school.
The software experience itself however is solid and id go as far to say that up until Tesla BMW had the best in car software around.
My car did come with the latest version of the software and I'm happy to point out that the system performance is very good, some early IX videos show the system to be rather slow and unresponsive but that has not been the case for me.

Where the real difference is going to show between the two brands is simply going to come down to refinement and build quality, the IX is head and shoulders above a Model X in terms of build quality and id also say in terms of ride quality the IX is hands down the nicer car to live with. As far as aftersales service is concerned that is going vary between regions but my experience after been lucky enough to own 3 BMWs has been brilliant and is a major reason why I have owned 3 of there cars and continue to do so.

If you want more of a deep look into the assist systems id say check out this video here on youtube.

Good luck with your choice and if there is any questions I can answer id be happy to.

 

[SteveBK123]

You may want to read my personal review of my ix50 experience coming from 4 years of Model 3, focus a lot on the drivers aids - which I have found to actually be better on the iX (smoother, less false positives, less jerky, more predictable).

Took delivery Aug 1

Got the trunk liner installed.. will put the roof rails up in next week or two ! Got about 150mi on it so far, very happy!

www.ixforums.com

Just got back from a 300mi+ trip yesterday and can say the iX also continues to outperform the rated range while Tesla always underperformed the rated range. So far, while it is summer, my 22" wheel iX is getting ~360mi highway range as long as I stay ~75mph & below.. on what is a 324mi rated car. My 310mi rated Model 3 never really came close to that, and was probably more like 280mi range in good weather, much worse in winter (no heat pump).

In the US, the non-Tesla charging network is for sure a worse experience. Can't speak for UK.

 

[patrick40363]

Hello,

TLR
I'm in Tesla, considering moving to iX and wonder if the experience is in any way comparable.

Hello!

Early EV adopter here. I'm in my third Tesla (early S, before S and X with full AP) but I'm utterly disenfranchised by the brand's incomprehensibly awful service capability. I've been evangelical about their ability to produce great vehicles, despite questionable build quality, and couldn't have envisaged porting into anything else until recent troubles with reliability (sh*t happens) have forced me to confront the incapability of the service centre network to provide any kind of reasonable standard. Poor experience, decreasing reliability = time to look & surprisingly bewitched by the iX50.

My X is long range meaning I'm quoted 260 as typical expectation of range, but regularly run a 150 mile route and I'm left with <25% range (in the dead of winter it's touch and go that I'll cover the distance). I've always been relaxed about that because supercharging network is convenient to easy to access (no need for multiple cards or logins etc) and will always offer >125kw/h (325mph for at least 20 mins before tapering quickly to half of that and then the last 20% is a crawl, so that a charge to full will always take >80mins).

AP is a massive bonus though. It's not foolproof, you do have to remain alert to daft ghosts in the system, but it generally makes long drives a far more pleasant experience).

My q is whether this feels similar in any way to the experience of the iX owners here. Are you comfortable with charge speeds, network capacity, home charging and promised range etc? Any horrors? Is the semi autonomous driving capability in any way close to Tesla AP?

Thanks so much for any guidance you are prepared to offer. Very much appreciated.

I bought my Tesla in 2015 when their customer service was unbelievable. If it had stayed at that level my next car would have been a Tesla. I ordered an IX last month and am looking forward to getting a new car. My wife has a model 3 that we will keep for a while.

 

[Supercharger]

Thanks both - really very helpful insights into the relative experience of ownership.
I figure that I'm going to have to trade some of the AP benefit & rely less on supercharging network, but win on build/ride quality and after care/dealership & servicing strength. If the iX is able to outperform (or match) claimed range then that's a huge bonus (thanks SteveBk) as it'll remove the need for on the road charging from my most frequent trips.

Any thoughts on charging speed? Is it comparable? Also, any UK owners able to describe how much the car does for you when set to AP equivalent. @Brendan - thanks so much for your detail on capacitive steering vs 15s prompts from Tesla AND the link to the vid : very much appreciated).

Thanks!

 

[Supercharger]

I bought my Tesla in 2015 when their customer service was unbelievable. If it had stayed at that level my next car would have been a Tesla. I ordered an IX last month and am looking forward to getting a new car. My wife has a model 3 that we will keep for a while.

Very interesting. My first was an S in late 2014 (so very similar) and my wife is also in a 3!
I suspect there must be a few Tesla oldskoolers who are similarly frustrated.

 

[Legin]

My UK iX40, over 3500 miles gets 3.1miles per kWh. On a full 77kW charge, gives total range of 240miles. I use all the auto systems and do lots of driving at 75mph using D drive. The car ride and driving comfort is great. Best car I have ever driven.

 

[electric_journey]

Thanks both - really very helpful insights into the relative experience of ownership.
I figure that I'm going to have to trade some of the AP benefit & rely less on supercharging network, but win on build/ride quality and after care/dealership & servicing strength. If the iX is able to outperform (or match) claimed range then that's a huge bonus (thanks SteveBk) as it'll remove the need for on the road charging from my most frequent trips.

Any thoughts on charging speed? Is it comparable? Also, any UK owners able to describe how much the car does for you when set to AP equivalent. @Brendan - thanks so much for your detail on capacitive steering vs 15s prompts from Tesla AND the link to the vid : very much appreciated).

Thanks!

@Supercharger Isn't the fundamental difference between Tesla AP and every other manufacturer's driver assistance system that Tesla uses vision (cameras) and others use radar? And that's one of the reasons why Teslas can slam on the emergency brakes at 70mph whilst on AP because the vision thinks it's seen a hazard when it was simply a reflection off a bridge or something?

I don't think AP is anything special, it's just regular driver assistance tech isn't it? [which is available on so many cars from Toyota to VW]

I've used driver assistance tech in so many cars from 2015, whether it's MB, BMW, Jaguar, Hyundai, VW, Volvo and they all more or less do the same thing of keeping you a safe distance from the car in front, and some do a better job than others of also keeping you centred in the lane and offering some steering assist in gentle curves on the motorway. They all are splendid at reducing fatigue on long trips.

I had a Tesla Model 3 in the UK, but because I use driver assistance tech on most of my drives, I hated the phantom braking episodes of the Tesla. That was one of the reasons I handed it back to Tesla. I've driven the S and X too, and whilst the supercharger network is amazing, for me, the ride and general refinement (wind noise, tyre noise) of the S and the X, and especially the 3, are why I would not have a Tesla myself. I'm comparing ride/refinement of a Model 3 to a MB C class/BMW 3 series, and ride/refinement of S/X to MB E/S class, BMW 5/7 series.

Now that I'm older, I value luxury even more (in terms of a super smooth ride and a super quiet cabin) and my 3 hour test drive with an iX40 blew me away, at how amazing the ride was (even on 22s without air suspension) and just how silent the car was (no noise from motors, tyres, wind)

I live in the suburbs of London and I don't have a home charger (and don't even need one) - I have like so many rapid chargers within 1 mile of me, it's not an issue. Regarding how comfortable I feel with the iX and longer trips, the charge curve and the charging infrastructure, high speed charging infrastructure is evolving in the UK over the next few years, plus this is the flagship EV for BMW (surely they will be rolling out updates to improve the car's charging/range over the next few years?) - So yeah, having an iX in the UK and doing regular long trips might not be as easy or reliable as a Tesla (given that public chargers are sometimes broken or just don't seem to give the expected power) but for me, I'm after a proper luxury vehicle that happens to be powered by electricity (the iX) rather than a fantastic super efficient EV that enables you to drive long distance without worrying about charging but is a sub-optimal luxury car for the price (Tesla S and X)

BTW - I drove a Mercedes EQS this week and if you're after max range as your top priority, I suggest you consider that too (or the EQS SUV). The EQS appears to have a genuine 440+ mile range in the real world, based upon my extensive test drive and is super efficient.

 

[electric_journey]

@Supercharger The other thing to mention is that in my experience of driving and living with various EVs from legacy companies is that their attempts at software (whether in the car or the app) are rather crappy when compared to how Tesla do software. They are light years ahead of every other firm.

 

[Supercharger]

@electric_journey thanks for the detailed reply it's very much appreciated.
Although I've encountered phantom braking a number of times, it's far from a frequent occurrence in my experience which is why I'd probably position Tesla AP as a major benefit that I'm most nervous about sacrificing (it's far more than extended adaptife cruise control) and I guess understanding the degree to which the BMW version dilutes that experience is what I'm still not yet sure about but your insight is very useful as I think we share a similar ambition for refinement. Tesla producing supercar pace in large family vehicles with frequent OTA updates is surely the hard bit.... Why they find it so difficult to add some quality to the cabin and build quality is perhaps a function of (or an insight to) their priorities.

I really do appreciate all of the feedback to date - absolutely nothing to suggest the transition from Model X to BMW iX would feel in any way a downgrade; even with limitations on software and network variability considered. Thanks again!

 

[electric_journey]

@electric_journey thanks for the detailed reply it's very much appreciated.
Although I've encountered phantom braking a number of times, it's far from a frequent occurrence in my experience which is why I'd probably position Tesla AP as a major benefit that I'm most nervous about sacrificing (it's far more than extended adaptife cruise control) and I guess understanding the degree to which the BMW version dilutes that experience is what I'm still not yet sure about but your insight is very useful as I think we share a similar ambition for refinement. Tesla producing supercar pace in large family vehicles with frequent OTA updates is surely the hard bit.... Why they find it so difficult to add some quality to the cabin and build quality is perhaps a function of (or an insight to) their priorities.

I really do appreciate all of the feedback to date - absolutely nothing to suggest the transition from Model X to BMW iX would feel in any way a downgrade; even with limitations on software and network variability considered. Thanks again!

@Supercharger Canvassing opinions on a forum is fine, but I feel your best bet is to find a friendly BMW dealer and get an extended test drive (minimum of an entire day) and see how the iX is for you on a long motorway trip, including the driving assistance tech and how easy (or difficult) it would be to rapid charge using public charge points vs your Tesla. That should answer all your queries, in terms of how it actually performs against your own expectations.

I found a BMW dealer who spent 1 hour in their iX demonstrator pointing out how to setup and explore the different settings with the car (there is a LOT!) and then gave me the keys and told me to take as long as I wanted that day to test drive it for. The extended test drive revealed a lot more about the car (and the longer I drove it, the more I found it bloody brilliant) and helped me reach a point where I was fully comfortable with placing an order.

Tesla's priority since day one has always been shipping cars out to customers as quickly as possible (to meet their ambitious growth targets) and energy efficiency. Hence, simple interior design and a relative lack of soundproofing (to keep weight down) - That's fine for many people, but I don't want to spend upwards of £50k on a car and turn to the Tesla owner community to find out how to add DIY soundproofing to the car.

 

[SteveBK123]

Note that the dealer test drive vehicles may not have Driver Assistant Pro - my dealers did not.

 

[Moesess]

My IX m60 blows my old model x away. My car had so many issues and the service was equally as bad. It felt like I was in an airplane cockpit when I drove my X. It was so loud and you felt every bump. I honestly will never own a Tesla again.

 

[alan]

i am currently driving Model Y, and my IX should arrive in Dec. want to ask can any of you able to view youtube/netflix on the center display, while the car stops? i've seen some video about iDrive 7 has screen mirroring function for android phones, but i don't see anyone mentioned it on iDrive8.

also, for the bmw garage opener, can it auto open/close when near your house, similar to the Homelink from Tesla?

Thanks

 

[Paladin1]

i am currently driving Model Y, and my IX should arrive in Dec. want to ask can any of you able to view youtube/netflix on the center display, while the car stops? i've seen some video about iDrive 7 has screen mirroring function for android phones, but i don't see anyone mentioned it on iDrive8.

also, for the bmw garage opener, can it auto open/close when near your house, similar to the Homelink from Tesla?

Thanks

Homelink in BMW does not work automatically (with GPS). You still need to press one of the mirror buttons. It does have automated features for rolling down your window though, or a 180 degree camera view that I have found useful.

 

[alan]

Homelink in BMW does not work automatically (with GPS). You still need to press one of the mirror buttons. It does have automated features for rolling down your window though, or a 180 degree camera view that I have found useful.

Thanks for the reply 😀

 

[Supercharger]

My IX m60 blows my old model x away. My car had so many issues and the service was equally as bad. It felt like I was in an airplane cockpit when I drove my X. It was so loud and you felt every bump. I honestly will never own a Tesla again.

This is very reassuring - similar experience. Thank you.

I'm just about to place my order for an iX50 with some extras. Thanks to all on here for the advice and links to various resources. Much appreciated.

 

[physicsofx]

I traded my 2018 Model X Long Range for the iX after a short test drive. I knew the charging network for long trips was going to be an issue but was ready to take a chance and try something different. I was frustrated by the build quality of my Model X. I never really liked the falcon wing doors. I live in an area with all types of weather and significant snow and ice. Tesla did not really engineer for these conditions. I will miss autopilot for trips. I used it in spite of its shortcomings and found that it could be quite useful (I was VERY careful using it). I like sentry mode and dashcam features of the Tesla but those really aren't improvements in driving characteristics. The handling and ride quality of the iX is much smoother and quieter than my Model X (no shuddering on acceleration for example). Braking performance is improved and I really think BMW selectable and adaptive modes for regenerative braking are better than Tesla's methods. I have taken two trips of ~500 to 1000 miles and found the range estimates to be accurate. I have yet to try it in cold. I don't have the driver assist package as mine was a canceled order from another customer. I also live over 100 miles from any Tesla service center. This turned out to be a problem for me where I would end up wasting at least 2 days to get the car serviced at Tesla. I am happy to have a local BMW dealer. I have 21" wheels. I am comfortable with driving range at 75 mph around 300 miles whereas with the Model X my range was probably closer to 220 miles at 75 mph in similar conditions. I support Tesla's innovations but think they need to be careful about build quality and some design elements.

 

[joelo]

Add me to the list. After driving Tesla S cars since 2015, the IX is far superior in every way. It is the electric luxury vehicle I was hoping someone would build, and now it is here. Range also greatly exceeds what is claimed. Highly reccomend real leather and Bowers and Wilkins sound system.

 

[Bay Area Celt]

Theres no comparison. Better in every way apart from charging network, in the metrics that mean anything to me as a day to day user in most use cases. I had Model 3 Performance. A joke car for quality. Fast is nothing without quality and control.