Saar: It becomes the first BMW product to house a full-electric powerplant, backed by the company’s fifth-gen eDrive tech.

BMW has showcased a number of products at the ongoing 2018 Beijing Auto Show, including the X2, M2 Competition and the India-bound X4. However, the product which brings a taste of future BMWs to the plate is the Concept iX3. It has made its world debut in China, which is the largest EV (electric vehicle) market in the world. Built on the same platform as the standard X3, the BMW iX3 becomes the first car from the company to house a fully-electric powerplant. Just to be clear, BMW is calling the iX3 as a Sports Activity Vehicle (SAV), a tag that BMW first gave to its X6 crossover nearly 11 years ago.

The blue lighting, closed-off kidney grille and the fact that it wears an ‘i’ badge makes the Concept iX3 a direct sibling to the BMW i3 and the BMW i8. That said, the BMW Concept iX3 features the company’s fifth-generation of eDrive technology. BMW says that a key benefit of this new electric drive tech is the grouping of the electric motor, transmission and power electronics within a new, separate electric drive component. The company didn’t elaborate further on this on how exactly it helps improve the onboard powertrain.

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But what BMW did mention was that the Concept iX3 gets new and more powerful batteries. The all-electric SAV has 270PS on tap from a 70kWh battery pack, which is enough to give the car a range of up to 400km. That’s not bad! And how quickly can you charge the batteries? Well, the fifth-gen eDrive tech allows the batteries to be plugged into fast-charging stations of up to 150kW. Do the math and you’ll arrive at a conclusion that if you have a charging station which can deliver 150kW, the BMW Concept iX3 can be juiced up in just about 30 minutes.

This SAV will become a cornerstone for BMW’s electrification plants, which the company calls BMW iNext and will debut in the year 2021.