David NicholsonWhat is the challenge I set the 2026 BMW iX3 electric car? Well it’s to reach Inverness around 570 miles from London starting with a full battery and making a single charge stop of just 15 minutes.
Since 2021, the MyUrbanCar website has focussed on providing real world road trip reports to give people an idea what EV road trips are really like. Yes I’ve used my years of experience to drive efficiently but at the UK speed limit where traffic and road conditions allow. These trips do not involve unrealistic hypermiling.
To put the Inverness challenge in perspective lets run through how much charging was needed with previous EV’s
- London to Gretna return in a 2019 Tesla Model 3 Performance minus
670 miles (1080km) round trip with 6 stops and a total charge time of 1 hour and 53 minutes - London to Crianlarich via Glasgow one way in a 2019 Tesla Model 3 Performance
476 miles (768 km) with 3 charge stops and a charge time of 1 hour 29 minutes - London to Aberdeen via St Andrews and Banchory in a 2024 Tesla Highland Model 3 Long Range dual motor
556 miles (895 km) with 4 stops totalling 1 hour and 13 mins. However we did start this trip with 83% charge so had it been 100% a 1 hour charge might have been possible. 1 Charge stop only added 7% so with a few less miles we might have only need 3 stops. - While I didn’t note the details a full battery plus 15 minute charge stop from London reached the Tesla Anglesey Supercharger and after a 15 min top up just made it to Hopwood Services south of Birmingham on the way back. That’s about 428 miles in the 2024 Tesla Model 3. It’s in the game because of its extraordinary efficiency but let down by a slow charging battery. Peak speed is still quick but the average over a 10-80% charge is sluggish as it peaks fast then slows sharply.
🛣️The road test details
- 0 miles
London 5.44am – Departure at 16c outside temperature
100% charge
Initial destination set to Alnwick Ionity charger 321 miles away. I did use max range mode from home to the M1 ramp in as their was no way the car would be exceeding 60 mph or needing especially rapid acceleration till the motorway. This got me 4.1 miles per kWh before the motorway started.
Range estimate with this destination was 387 miles and estimated state of charge on arrival (SOC) of 14% at Alnwick - 43.5 miles/ 1 hour from London
6.44am for 10 mins – Toddington services 06.44am Biological and coffee stop
90% charge having averaged 3.9 miles per kWh
Average speed including London and some of M1 motorway 43.9 mph
Estimated SOC Alnwick 17%, Edinburgh 2% - 266.9 miles/ 4 hours 36 from London
10.36am for 11 mins. Durham Services. Biological and coffee stop
37% charge having averaged 3.9 miles per kWh.
Average speeds were 58.7mph since London, 63 mph since Toddington and 69mph on the M1 (since Toddington) before a big traffic jam on A1.
Estimated SOC for Alnwick 24% 55 miles away / Edinburgh 3% 139 miles away, At this point I decided to skip Alnwick and go directly to Edinburgh. - 404.8 miles from London
13.13pm Ionity Edinburgh Shawfair
2% charge and 14 miles of range remaining with efficiency of 3.9 miles per kWh from London
Average speed 57mph with 103.8kWh used after recovering 18.4kWh from braking.
166 miles to go to get to Inverness charger. 12 C temperature in Edinburgh. I did use max range mode on the final 10-15 mile stretch only and reduced speed to 60 mph. - Edinburgh Battery Charging details
354 kW peak on a 350kW charger.
2 mins to 10%
4 mins 20%
5 mins to 22%
9 mins 40%
10 mins 43%
11 mins 46%
12 mins 49%
13 mins 52%
14 mins 55%
15 mins 58% 242 miles
Estimated SOC for Inverness 17% 166 miles away or 4% for Brora 222 miles away - 442.8 miles from London
2.30 pm Moto Kinross for 27 mins. Biological and Burger King stop
Final stretch to Inverness
Screenshots from the BMW app with charge times to 10%, 45%, 48%, 49% and 53%. In each case we picked the moment the charge first reached the % SOC.
🥇A gold medal finish for the iX3 Neue Klasse
Final Test stats
573.5 miles from London
573.5 travelled + 77 miles range remaining on arrival in Inverness = 650 miles or 1,046km!
18.02pm arrival Mercure Inverness
11C outside temperature with 7c mins on drive. Light rain showers. Final stats
18% state of charge(SOC) / 77 miles remaining range
Travel time 10 hours 58 mins/ average speed 52.9 mph/ 3.8 miles per kWh
Energy use – 92% drivetrain/ 3.7% electronics/ 3.1% climate/ 1.2% battery conditioning
The iX3 50 exceeded the 15 minute goal – so what would have been possible?
Well bearing in mind the car has a generous 18% left in the battery with 77 miles of range on arrival we:
- could have Spent less than 15 minutes charging in Edinburgh and still reached Inverness
We know from the car app exactly what charge level was for each minute of charging. We also know that we left Edinburgh with 58% and arrived with that 18%.
So if we’d stopped charging at 40% we would have arrived with 0%.
Arriving with 5% in Inverness would have needed about 10.5 mins of charging while a more relaxed 9% would have meant a 12 minute charge. - could have still charged for 15 mins and driven further than Inverness
The logical choice for this option would have been to drive to Brora which was a further 57 miles north of Inverness. The car calculated that it would arrive with 4% range on arrival which was about 17 miles remaining. If I had done this the car would have got 630.5 miles (1,014.7km) from London with a single 15% charge. That exceeds the EVDB average 1 stop range figure for the iX3 50 by… 142.5 miles without hypermiling. There are good reasons for this performance beyond driving style including traffic, efficiency mode, an efficient spec for the car and stopping to charge at 2% SOC rather than 10% (remembering that 10% range at my trip efficiency is stopping with 40 miles of range still remaining Wise in the remote highlands but not needed in Inverness)
💷How much did the trip cost?
- 66.928 kWh in Edinburgh-15 mins for £30.12
- 7.016 kWh in Inverness on slower charger 3 mins for £3.16
- 67.309 kWh in Inverness on quicker charger 23 mins £30.29
- 95 kWh Lake District overnight hotel charge for no cost
- 35.584 kWh Walsall 9 mins for £16.01
- 62.3 kWh Street charger back to 80% for £26.91
- Final 20% charge to 100% at same 43p per kWh would have cost £9.34
- So final cost was £115.83 for 1,211.4 miles (1949.6km) or 9p per mile
🚦Our Test conditions in UK
speed limits
➕In the UK there is a general efficiency advantage compared to much of Europe with a motorway and dual carriageway speed limits that max out at 70 mph or 112.6 kmh. This compares with similar roads on the continent having
- 110 kmh or 68.3 mph for a French route nationale
- 120 kmh or 74.5 mph for Swiss motorways
- 130 kmh or 80.77 mph for French and Italian toll motorways
➕/➖Outside Temperature
This varied from
England from London to Berwick on Tweed- 15C / 59F
Scotland Berwick on Tweed to Inverness – Generally 12C / 53.6F apart from inland near Aviemore where temps fell to 7C /44.6F
road condition and congestion
➖Road surfaces
On the other hand smooth tarmac is quite rare and UK road surfaces tend to be quite coarse. This may help wet grip but I think it probably increases power consumption
➕Congestion
Another efficiency advantage is heavy UK traffic volumes and traffic management enforcing lower speed limit when motorways are congested. This means long sections of motorway have limits adjusted to 60 mph (95.5 kmh) or 50mph (80.4 kmh). On the A1 section in Northumberland quite a long time was spent behind a slow lorry carrying horses.
Car settings
➕Heating and ventilation
I usually set my iX3 to standard efficiency mode. This sets ventilation to eco but if you lower of raise the temperature then AC and other features become available. For this trip I left ventilation in eco as the temperature was comfortable. The only time I needed enhanced ventilation is when I wanted to recirculate air to stop diesel fumes from vehicles ahead of me entering the cabin.
➕tyre pressure
My iX3 tyres have a recommended 2.9 bar (42 psi) pressure but I did top them up to 3 bar or 43.5 psi before departure.
➖ Sound system
Despite the urban myth about needing to turn off the radio to get long range in an EV the 365 watt Harman Kardon surround sound systems played my favourite spotify selections for the whole journey!
➕The car itself is in an efficient spec, notably those wheels which the most efficient 20″ tyres available. Full details in our review here.
Summary
When I decided to switch away from Tesla to the iX3 50 I knew it would be an exceptional long distance EV. Nevertheless, surpassing the stretch goal with such ease was a remarkable result. What’s even more remarkable is the BMW iX3 50 is the 6th longest range EV in the current Top Gear count down. In fact number the number 1 longest range car on the list at the time of writing is the new BMW i3 using the same battery and technology but in a more efficient saloon shape. The i3 also matches the iX3 on charge speed but on the WLTP test travels 13% further on the same energy. If it replicated that in my hands then London to John O’Groats off the back of 15 mins of charging looks eminently doable and the stretch goal would be grabbing the ferry to St Margaret’s Hope ferry terminal in Orkney and driving to the north to the Swanny brewery.. about 730 miles from London.
Some video and screenshots from the trip
Some photos of the trip starting with Inverness. then heading south on General Wade road towards Killin and the falls of Dochart, past Loch Tay then south towards the Lake district. Unfortunately crossing the border on the M6 involved a big delay as a car transporter had caught fire. Luckily the staff at the Ravenstone Manor were fab and let me order to dinner by phone ready for my arrival that ended up after the kitchen closed. Lovely hotel with a nice friendly bar to relax in after a long day. The next morning I walked from the hotel to a “Wainwright” called Long Side. While I climbed to 734 metres (2,408 ft) and returned through some very atmospheric forest the iX3 carried on filling the battery back at the hotel.
After leaving the hotel after the walk (218 floors climbed my phone said!) I had an excellent lunch at the Fellpack in Keswick which was open all afternoon. Service was friendly and good too. Only downside is getting out of the car park in late afternoon leads onto a very congested road when everyone leaves town at the same time! Allow 30 mins to do the half mile!
I enjoyed a stay at the Lion and Pheasant in Shrewsbury (not related to the Lion Hotel almost next door!) before heading back via a quick top up charge in Walsall.
📷Trip Gallery
Final stats for the round trip back to London
These show the trip data in
- miles and efficiency in miles per kWh
- miles and efficiency in Watt hours per mile ( like a Tesla
- Metric in km with kWh per 100 km
