Welcome back to the podcast. Today, BMW IX3 starts strong. Lucid gravity disappoints and the Porsche

Cayenne EV range tested. Plus, stay tuned later in the show. I'll tell you one of the most

interesting pickup trucks around just got more, well, interesting. We'll start with news of BMW saying

the IX3 has collected more than 3,000 orders in Germany alone in the six weeks after debut,

outpacing orders for the combustion X3. And that eases BMW's concern about meeting expected

initial volume. The IX3, the new one, bundles new motors, new electronics, new batteries,

I guess that's why they call it the Neuaclasser. BMW is saying it's the

most efficient and advanced EV they've ever made, and that for its size as well in the marketplace.

Production will begin at the new facility at Debrezen in Hungary, established for the Neueh

Class of vehicles, with first European deliveries beginning in spring, US in the summer

next year, BMW is prepping the Mexican plant as well, but that may be for US deliveries, that may

not, we don't know, it might come from Hungary. So far, BMW has revealed only the dual motor IX3

50x drive. That's 463 horsepower. It's 62 miles an hour in 4.9 seconds. And the battery

pack is 108 kilowatt hours. It's WLTP range 500 miles, 805 kilometers, which BMW says is the

longest range EV in Europe. I'll tell you why that's not true in a moment.

And the German starting price is 68,900 euros. That's 80,000 US dollars equivalent, but bearing in

mind that that German price would have to be the out-the-door price because we don't advertise

prices over here without taxes and extra things like that.

You have to advertise the price with VAT and that's the price you would pay.

So a starting price, which is high but not unreasonably high for that kind of vehicle,

unlike the BMW 3, until the BMW 3 series launches, rather, with the same package and the same engineering but in a

smaller lighter car which could go further for now the IX3 wins it is a long range EV and 500 miles

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