If you have an unhealthy habit of stalking BMW’s website like we do, you might have noticed a recent omission. Initially, the iX3 configurator in Germany started giving errors. Then the base price vanished before the electric crossover was wiped out. Naturally, we decided to ask the luxury automaker what’s what. The answer we got is rather interesting.
BMW is no longer accepting orders for individually configured iX3s because it’s busy clearing out a backlog of orders in Europe. The “G08” is approaching the end of its life cycle to make room for the all-new successor based on Neue Klasse rather than CLAR. The outgoing model will go out of production at the Dadong factory in Shenyang, China in the second quarter of 2025.
In an e-mail to BMWBLOG, Johannes Lacher, Spokesperson for Product Communications BMW, said:
“The BMW iX3 has a substantial order backlog in Europe extending well into the year 2025. The production of the iX3 is planned to end in Q2 2025. Given this order backlog and production timeline, we have decided to no longer accept orders for individually configured iX3 vehicles. As a result, the iX3 is no longer available for configuration on our online configurator.”
BMW’s spokesperson also reminded us a Neue Klasse-based electric crossover will take its place in the lineup from the end of 2025: “The first model of the Neue Klasse will provide a segment-appropriate, fully-electric offer.” Maybe we’re reading too much into this but the fact Johannes Lacher didn’t refer to the model as an iX3 has us wondering whether the EV will bear the same moniker. We shall see.
Unlike the outgoing CLAR-based iX3, its successor (codenamed “NA5”) is likely to be sold in the United States. For European markets at the very least, BMW will assemble the vehicle at its new Debrecen plant in Hungary. The Spartanburg factory in South Carolina is going to make six electric vehicles by the end of the decade but their identities haven’t been disclosed yet. Not all will ride on the NK platform since we have it on good authority the unannounced iX5, iX6, and iX7 will stick to CLAR.
