BMW Group is on schedule to release the new electric BMW iX3 onto the market by the end of 2020.

Production will get underway in China in late summer as planned and the first of these electric vehicles will be delivered to customers by the end of the year.

The testing required for homologation of the new BMW iX3 has now been completed in China and Europe at the same time.  Arno Keller, head of Development at BMW iX3 explains: “This is the first time we have completed the entire homologation process for a fully electric model in China and Europe at the same time. The staff on our testing team mastered this unique challenge with tremendous dedication and efficiency.”

Preparations for production of the BMW iX3 were stepped up in Shenyang in parallel. BBA has been building BMW iX3 pre-production vehicles at Plant Dadong in Shenyang since the middle of last year. The 200th pre-production model recently came off the assembly line and test drives on Chinese roads began – allowing development and test engineers to make final adjustments.

“We are right on schedule with our BMW iX3 pre-production vehicles and will launch standard production in late summer, using state-of-the-art technologies such as custom installation of the new high-voltage battery and artificial intelligence for monitoring parts,” explained Robert Küssel, BBA Plant Director Dadong. “We are also producing the fully-electric BMW iX3 and the BMW X3 with combustion engine on the same production line. This enables us to achieve high efficiency and flexibility in production,” Küssel continued.

The electric iX3 is based on the BMW X3 to create a premium mid-size Sports Activity Vehicle with emission-free driving.

 The BMW X3 is the brand’s first model available with both conventional petrol and diesel engines, a plug-in hybrid system and a pure electric drive train.