For a while, the Germans were lagging behind on the EV front - how do BMW and Merc's flagships fit into the new world order? ⚡️
Why have the Germans been so slow? Complacency? Perhaps. More likely, the car business has changed profoundly in just a few years. Internal combustion masters, they were ill-prepared for the seismic shift to software prominence, and slow to master the voodoo art of interfaces, apps and programming.
And of the more everyday car qualities, for those unbothered by apps and interfaces? Well, as we'll see, the EQS rides majestically and could well be the world's quietest car at speed, assisted by its near-silent electric drive and the world's most aero-efficient production car body .The BMW iX is also a new-from-the-ground-up EV. If the EQS is the electric S-Class, then the iX is the electric X5, though more spacious.
As with the EQS, the iX showcases its maker's latest software and new iDrive control system, and it sees BMW throw every bit of electro tech it can at the dazed and confused first-time driver. As with the EQS, it'll take a lifetime to master all the gadgets and gizmos but let me give you a few of the headline acts. There's an interior camera that can take selfies – no thank you – and, more usefully, can show whether you've left a coat on the back seat.
Our EQS test car is the single rear-motor 450+ Exclusive Luxury model rather than the faster twin-motor 4x4 EQS recently unveiled. Here on London's streets, traffic thinning as the night ticks on, it's swift and smooth nonetheless. You're ensconced in a classy cabin of fine wood, leather, faux metal, clever artificial materials and massaging and climate controlled seats. Sink your head into the pillow-soft headrests and you won't want to get out.
There is much else to like inside the cabin. The materials are superb, the craftsmanship mostly top-drawer. It's an incredibly smooth car to drive, flattering the driver and almost impossible to drive erratically. Performance is perfectly adequate – 0-62mph in 6.2 seconds won't see off a Tesla Model S but it's all a luxury car needs. On the motorway it's superb, matching a Phantom for quietness, refinement and relaxation.
At first acquaintance, the iX feels the sportier drive. It's more responsive around town at lower speeds. It accelerates harder, has sharper, weightier steering and quicker 'throttle' response. Yet it's also harder to drive smoothly. Push hard on a winding road and the iX soon betrays its SUV-ness: it rolls more than the EQS, stumbles into understeer and, as with nearly all big SUVs, you suddenly feel like you're driving a bus. It's a 2.5-tonne SUV, after all.
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