BMW iX3 drives over 1,000 km on public roads without recharging

Stopping for a charge is often described as one of the worst downsides for an EV over an ICE vehicle. However, BMW has set out on a mission to prove you don’t even need to stop on longer journeys with an EV.

In a video experiment by BMW, six employees of the company embark on a mission to drive the new BMW iX3 over 620 miles from Debrecen, Hungary to Munich, Germany. The locations are not random - Debrecen is where the iX3 is manufactured and Munich is where BMW is headquartered.

In the video, they admit that the result is exaggerated and that they needed to stray away from regular driving habits like driving on highways or going through traffic lights. Therefore, a special route, optimized for efficiency, was planned before the drive in order to ensure maximal efficiency.

The distance between the two locations is a little over 559 miles if you take the shortest route. However, that would drain the battery much quicker. For a more realistic range test of the BMW iX3 we will conduct our own testing once we get our hands on one in the beginning of next year.

As the most efficient way is 616 miles in length, the guys at BMW decided to stretch it up just a bit to pass the coveted 620 miles mark. The new route goes through other important cities for the development of the iX3 along the way and is now 626 miles long.

The major accents for the test are the omission of stop-and-go traffic, traffic jams and traffic lights as much as possible. In the video they show how they glide through a roundabout and use it as efficiently as possible to not lose momentum while entering or exiting it.

Efficiency is maximized so much that they don’t want to use headlights unless necessary, air conditioning and radio are completely banned. Those are extreme measures that make this experiment more irrelevant in the real world. After all, why would you buy a luxurious vehicle to not use any of its functions, even the most basic ones?

Some major checkpoints for the iX3 are Budapest and Vienna as major European capitals. Then they go through St. Poelten where they stop over for the night. Steyr is the next major location and this is where the electric motors for all BMWs are built. Towards the end they pass Landshut, where the energy master is built.

The end point is the BMW headquarters in Munich, where they reach with some 12 miles of range left. This journey proves that the BMW iX3 can be highly efficient and can reach far away destinations if you’re careful enough. As much as this result shows impressive potential, it also underscores the gap between staged tests and realistic use.

You can watch the full video down below: