The BMW heads off for a run down the M3 and proves its prowess with the inevitable tip trip. By John Challen

P11d: £53,240 BiK: 2% Range: 270 miles On fleet range: 284 miles  Efficiency: 3.5mi/kWh

Back to back, the iX1 is not that different sizewise to the Velar it replaces

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Given it’s at the lower end of BMW’s SUV portfolio, the iX1 (X1) is a car that you’d expect to be pretty compact. In actual fact, it’s not that much smaller than an iX3 (X3), which is another of the reasons that I’m very happy to be running it.

I made no secret of the fact that the iX3 was a superb car but, with three growing Challen Jnrs, I did have my reservations on how they would get on with its smaller sibling. In reality, there’s plenty of room inside, along with loads of spaces for various items that any of us might bring on a given journey. But it doesn’t feel big. Sat alongside a Range Rover Velar that I recently spent some time with, driving the two was like chalk and cheese. That might sound obvious but, relatively speaking, they don’t look THAT much different, size-wise.

While the Velar has its many positives, manoeuvrability isn’t high on the list, but the BMW seems to handle tight spaces with ease and the turning circle of 11.4m has been useful on a few occasions. To be honest, in the small time I’ve spent with the car, I’m close to putting it on a par with the iX3, which is high praise indeed.

I’ve sampled some of the tech onboard and I’m happy to report that the reverse park assistant worked like a dream. I’m always a bit wary about handing over complete control to the car, but it popped itself onto the driveway outside Challen Towers with ease. Adaptive regenerative breaking is still yet to be fully investigated but, given how the rest of the car performs, I have high hopes…

The BMW has showcased its practical side with a first trip to the local tip/recycling centre

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The first chance for the BMW to really stretch its legs – and test the driving range – was by going to, er, BMW!

A trip to the HQ in Farnborough to drive the hydrogen iX5 gave me the opportunity to quiz the technicians over what I thought was a quirk about the car.

As the weather has been kind – and hot – since we took delivery of the car, its climate fan has been working overtime. However, from the off, the settings seemed to be ‘geared’ wrongly. As such, the difference in fan power between ‘very low’ and ‘low’ was huge – but minimal between the other options. The clever tech guys pointed out it was switched to ‘automatic’ settings, so the system basically knew what it was doing and I was worrying about nothing!

Out on the road, the iX1 is proving a great companion and any concerns I had about those 20-inch wheels have largely gone out of the window as the ride quality is perfectly acceptable – with a dash of ‘sporty’ thrown in. Performance is decent, as is expected from most BEVs, with miles being covered in a pretty refined cabin. There’s a touch of road noise to contend with, but only what would have previously been masked by the engine in an ICE version of the car.

Meanwhile, the BMW has also proved its versatility with its first trip to the local tip/recycling centre. One Sunday spent building flatpack furniture meant a LOT of cardboard and plastic was generated, but the iX1 – with its three individual seats all folded – swallowed the lot with ease.

A delve into the BMW app sorted the radio stations issue

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I’m the first to admit that I’m a) not that great when it comes to technology and b) a creature of habit. So, when a new car arrives at Challen Towers, I’ll preset the radio stations before I do anything else – and hope and pray that navigating between them doesn’t require going through a series of taps on the touchscreen. Thankfully, those days are mostly over, but I wasn’t quite prepared for what I had to do to complete that relatively straightforward task in the BMW.

It turns out that the driver can’t choose their favourite stations as presets without logging into their car through either the app or their BMW account. Bit weird and certainly something I’d not encountered – and a task that left me wondering why. Was BMW suddenly going to start bombarding me with ads for new albums from my favourite bands/artists? Was it worried I might cheat on it with a Mercedes-Benz or Audi? Who knows…?

Anyway, it turns out that getting connected was more straightforward than I thought – and five minutes before a meeting was all I needed for the iX1 and I to be, er, one with each other. Choices made and I was able to flick between channels with ease. Meanwhile, on the app, I still need to do something else in the car’s setting to allow me to see a record of my previous journeys. When I popped onto the app to find out the exact details, I kid you not, dear readers, it froze on me! Trying again, I eventually discovered I was instructed to “Activate ‘My Trips’ in your BMW”.

Technology, eh? At the heart of creating solutions to problems that didn’t exist!

The all-electric version of the X1 SUV is well equipped and looks the part

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