A BMW dealership in Ontario has covered 1,011 km (628 miles) on a single charge in a 2027 BMW iX3 50 xDrive. Geoff Hills of Performance BMW in St. Catharines drove every one of those kilometers himself, from Niagara Falls to a little past Québec City, in just under 15 hours.

The car was the dealership’s launch unit of the NA5 iX3. Hills says the team watched BMW’s own 1,000 km drive and decided to try it themselves once their first car arrived. They finished 3.3 km ahead of BMW’s run from Hungary to Munich, on bigger wheels and with one person behind the wheel the entire way.

How Performance BMW Got 1,011 km Out Of One Charge

This was a hypermiling run, and Hills is upfront about it. The iX3 stayed in Max Range mode the whole way, with the climate control off, the windows up and the radio off. He calls it “a deliberate max range test” and says it isn’t typical of the range an owner should expect.

One thing worked against them. Performance BMW’s iX3 rode on 21-inch wheels, while BMW’s engineers fitted the smaller 20-inch wheels for their run. BMW’s EPA figures show what that costs: on 20-inch summer tires, the iX3 50 xDrive is rated at 434 miles (698 km), while the 21-inch summer and all-season setups drop to 398 and 399 miles, or about 640 km.

Over just under 15 hours, the iX3 averaged 10.8 kWh/100 km, which works out to about 5.8 miles per kWh. Covering 1,011 km in that time means an average speed of roughly 68 km/h (42 mph), so this was a long, patient day. For comparison, BMW China’s 805 km loop around Qinghai Lake in the long-wheelbase iX3 averaged 12.6 kWh/100 km.

Hills was the only person to drive the iX3. Performance BMW ran a chase car and brought a videographer along, but there were no driver swaps. Fifteen hours alone in a cabin with no heat, no air conditioning and no music is its own kind of endurance test.

How Does This Compare To BMW’s Own 1,000 km Runs?

BMW’s European run started at the Debrecen plant in Hungary, where the iX3 is built, and ended at BMW Welt in Munich after 1,007.7 km (626.1 miles), with 2% charge left. A six-person BMW development team handled the drive, avoided highways, skipped the HVAC and ran the car on 20-inch wheels. BMW said at the time that no electric BMW SAV had gone farther on a single charge.

Performance BMW’s 1,011 km tops that, but it isn’t the longest single-charge iX3 drive. In August, BMW China drove an iX3 50L xDrive, the long-wheelbase version built for China, 1,030.2 km (640 miles) from its Shenyang plant to its R&D center in Beijing and still had 5% left. That car uses the same 108.7-kWh battery as the standard iX3.

What Range Should iX3 Owners In Canada Actually Expect?

Natural Resources Canada certifies the 2027 iX3 50 xDrive at up to 698 km on the same test cycle the EPA uses, up from the 650 km BMW Canada had estimated before certification. That number applies to the most efficient wheel and tire setup. On 21s, the EPA figures put it closer to 640 km. Canadian pricing starts at $75,900 CAD.

Nobody is driving to Québec City in January with the heat off, so treat 1,011 km as a ceiling rather than a forecast. Speed, temperature, terrain and cabin heating all pull real-world range below what Hills managed.

First published by https://www.bmwblog.com