Is 3,000 orders a big deal? It depends on how you look at it. The figure isn't the hundreds of thousands of pre-orders that a car like the Tesla Model 3 was able to find when it launched. But BMW sold 181,000 vehicles in Germany in the first nine months of 2025, and in that context it is significant. Especially when you consider that BMW didn't have a formal pre-order or reservation process to draw customers in. It's also vastly more sales than the high-performance BMW XM has managed at home.
The figure came from Head of BMW Germany Christian Ach. "We received over 3,000 orders for the iX3 in the first six weeks after its launch at the IAA in Munich," he said to German publication Automobilwoche.
It's more than BMW had expected, and right now it's more than the company can build. Ach told the site that the company's planned production rate would not be able to meet demand. The company could end up scrambling to find the ability to build more, but that risks having too much capacity when that additional demand has been met.
iX3 Will Start From $80,000 In Germany, Much Less Here
When the new iX3 goes on sale in Germany, it will start from €68,900 ($80,500). That's for an iX3 50 xDrive, which has two motors making 463 horsepower and 476 pound-feet of torque. The same one will come to the US for around $60,000, and will deliver an EPA estimated range of around 400 miles.
Other versions of the iX3 will come later. The lineup will likely expand to include lower-powered and lower-priced vehicles and higher-priced and more powerful M versions.
The Model Y-fighting SUV will come with BMW's latest electric motor technology. It uses 800-volt fast-charging to help top up the battery with up to 230 miles in 10 minutes. The 400-mile range puts it well ahead of the 327-miles of the Tesla. It should also drive like a BMW thanks to the "heart of joy" central controller that co-ordinates power, braking, steering and drivetrain responses up to 10 times more quickly than BMW could manage before.
After the iX3, the next electric BMW should be the i3. Not a replacement for the oddball subcompact BMW sold through the 2010s, but an electric sedan in the 3 Series space. That car will replace the i4 with BMW's latest and greatest. We don't know the battery size yet, but if it gets the same 108 kWh pack as the iX3, it could push it closer to 450 miles of range thanks to higher efficiency.
