BMW Is Killing the iX in America. It’s Actually the Right Call.

BMW is officially pulling the plug on the iX in the United States after the 2026 model year. The automaker confirmed the news to Car and Driver, ending a four-year run for what was supposed to be its flagship electric SUV. This isn’t some surprise—the iX has been quietly underperforming for a while now, and BMW is basically admitting it’s time to move on.

The iX Was Supposed to Be BMW’s EV Flagship. It Wasn’t.

When the iX debuted for the 2022 model year, it landed with serious fanfare. BMW gave it that controversial kidney grille treatment, a supple ride, an absurdly quiet cabin, and solid real-world highway range. The design was polarizing—genuinely striking, the kind of thing that made people either love it or hate it immediately. For a moment, it felt like BMW was actually *doing something* with electric SUVs.

Then reality set in. Sales figures tell the story: BMW shifted 15,383 iX units in 2024 and 12,587 in 2025—a brutal 18.2 percent year-over-year drop. For context, the regular gas-fed X5 crushed it with over 76,000 units in 2025. Even within BMW’s own EV lineup, the iX got lapped. The i4 sedan outsold it by a country mile, hitting 20,114 units in 2025 alone. The message was clear: Americans wanted the sedan, not the eccentric SUV.

That’s not exactly shocking in hindsight. The iX’s styling is undeniably bold, but “bold” and “actually sells” are two very different things. It carved out a niche, but the niche was too small to justify keeping it around.

This Is Part of a Bigger Purge

The iX isn’t dying alone. BMW is also axing the i4 sedan from the U.S. lineup—another underperformer that couldn’t compete in its segment. These aren’t failures in isolation; they’re casualties of BMW’s strategy to clear out its current-generation EV lineup and make room for something fresh: the Neue Klasse era.

BMW’s statement to Car and Driver doesn’t hide the math: “Our success in the U.S. is driven by a broad and flexible powertrain portfolio… As part of this progression, we are concluding U.S. allocation of the BMW iX as we prepare for the next generation of our fully electric vehicles.” Translation: We need shelf space for the new stuff.

The iX will live on in other markets—Europe, Asia, and elsewhere still get it. But here in America, it’s gone. Its replacement? An electric version of the next-generation X5, which BMW hasn’t officially revealed yet but has clearly been planning. That’s a smarter play than the iX ever was: the X5 nameplate carries weight, and SUVs actually sell here.

The Real Winner: BMW’s New Generation

Here’s what makes this less depressing: the iX3 is coming, and it’s the first of BMW’s Neue Klasse models for America. This new generation is supposed to bring real technological jumps—better battery architecture, updated eDrive tech, and (hopefully) designs that don’t divide the internet quite so harshly. BMW is betting that the iX3 and whatever electric X5 they cook up will do what the iX couldn’t: actually move volume.

That’s a legitimate bet. The original iX was a showpiece—a “look what we can do” car that proved BMW could build an electric SUV. But proving you can do something and actually selling it profitably are different games. Four years in, BMW figured out it wasn’t winning the second game, and instead of doubling down on a loser, it’s pivoting.

The iX gave its life so that the next generation doesn’t have to. Whether that next generation actually delivers is another story. But killing the iX in America? That’s not a retreat. That’s just smart portfolio management masquerading as bad news.

Via Car and Driver, Road & Track — Original article