BMW iX3 at Royal Berkshire: Neue Klasse Meets Old-School

Ascot, more than anywhere, understands horsepower. It has spent centuries breeding it, grooming it, weighing it and inviting people in elaborate hats to bet on it. The BMW iX3 50 xDrive brings 463 horses of its own to the party, although none of them eats oats.

This makes Royal Berkshire a particularly fitting place for the two to meet. Set just outside Ascot amid 15 acres of landscaped grounds, its 300-year-old red-brick mansion carries its history with the easy confidence of a tailored tweed jacket. The iX3, meanwhile, is almost painfully new. It is the first production model from BMW's ‘Neue Klasse’ generation and carries the burden of demonstrating what the company thinks its electric future should look, feel and behave like. Old money versus new software you might say.

It's said that large SUVs usually look at home outside country house hotels. Their size suggests luggage and Labradors. The iX3 fits the scene but not by pretending to be traditional. In Ocean Wave Blue, with 22-inch wheels and its slim lights joined to two narrow, upright kidney grilles, it looks clean, modern and unusually coherent.

BMW has spent several years stretching its grilles until they resembled architectural features. Here, they have been returned to something nearer the size of actual kidneys. This is progress.

The approach to Royal Berkshire is less theatrical than the long, cinematic driveways found at some country estates. That suits it. The gravel opens onto a handsome forecourt and the house simply presents itself with rounded bays, tall sash windows, chimney pots and a stone portico. You do not expect a footman to announce your arrival, which is fortunate because an electric car offers very little warning that it has arrived at all. In fact, the loudest part of pulling up is the gravel.

Royal Berkshire was originally built for the Churchill family and has accumulated its character over three centuries. There are period proportions and proper country-house details but the atmosphere is deliberately relaxed.

The hotel's preferred description is 'a home from home', a phrase capable of causing anxiety if like me, your own home contains floor laundry, unfinished DIY and a collection of important documents from the last ten years in an overfilled letter rack. Happily, this is the aspirational sort of home from home: comfortable chairs, attentive staff and somebody else responsible for breakfast.

The iX3 also tries to make advanced technology feel homely, or at least quickly understandable. Its dashboard is dominated by BMW Panoramic iDrive, which I adore. A band of information called Panoramic Vision sits across the base of the windscreen, placing speed, navigation and other useful details high in the driver's eyeline, while a 17.9-inch central display handles the broader digital workload.

The test car also added the 3D head-up display through its Technology Plus Pack, because apparently one windscreen can now support several competing layers of information without becoming too much of a distraction.

It works better than that sounds to be honest. The display becomes familiar quickly, the essentials are sensibly positioned and the sports steering wheel retains proper physical controls. There is still enough computing power here to run a small regional airport but the future has not confiscated all the buttons in the iX3 it seems.

Walk through Royal Berkshire and a similar balance emerges. The hotel has 66 rooms and suites spread between the Mansion House, Oak Wing and a selection of larger signature rooms. Some lean into the building's traditional character, others are more contemporary. This prevents the common country-hotel problem where every room looks as though it was furnished by a distant relation of Laura Ashley.

The better point is that the hotel feels easy. Corridors lead where logic suggests they might. Public rooms invite occupation rather than respectful observation. You can settle into the Polo Bar, move out to the terrace when the weather behaves or wander through the grounds without first obtaining a note for your next of kin.

The gardens are a substantial part of the appeal. Beyond the broad lawn is a formal water garden, clipped hedges, mature trees and a fountain that introduces exactly the right amount of movement into an otherwise still scene. During my visit, the long summer had turned parts of the lawn the same colour as my Norfolk Terrier. This was not unattractive. It merely gave the landscape a slightly Mediterranean confidence.

A car at this price is not merely transport, it is an object you will see every day and occasionally turn around to look at after parking. The iX3's surfaces are simpler than those of its predecessor, its handles sit flush and the body has a tautness that disguises its scale. At 4.7m long and 2.0m wide (including mirrors), it is a serious item. It weighs 2.3 tonnes, which is roughly equivalent to a well-appointed garden shed containing another, smaller well-appointed garden shed.

The power numbers suggest brute force but the experience is measured. Two motors provide xDrive all-wheel drive, 463hp and 645Nm of torque, with 0-62mph taking 4.9 seconds. That is absurdly quick for something with five seats, a towbar and the frontal area of a bookcase.

Yet around Ascot and Sunninghill it feels happier than its dimensions suggest. Visibility is good, the steering is naturally weighted and propulsion, regeneration and braking blend with unusual fluidity.

BMW calls the system responsible for this the 'Heart of Joy'. It coordinates the drivetrain, brakes, recuperation and parts of the steering. Despite sounding like a premium setting on a breadmaker, the result is very convincing because the car responds without unwanted fuss or fanfare, which suggests that multiple internal computer chips are finally no longer at odds with each other.

It’s true that you are never completely unaware of the mass. Physics has not been removed by an over-the-air update on this one. On 22-inch wheels, there is some firmness over sharper imperfections and no 2.3 tonne SUV becomes a sports saloon merely because its software Engineer is an enthusiast. But the body is well controlled, the ride settles at speed and the iX3 carries its weight with impressive dignity.

It is calm when you want calm, yet accurate enough to make a good road worth taking rather than simply tolerating.

That calm suits Royal Berkshire. This is not a hotel continually tapping you on the shoulder to explain how luxurious it is. Its strongest quality is comfort without theatre. Fork, the restaurant, looks across the grounds and majors on contemporary, familiar dishes rather than gastronomic parlour tricks.

The Polo Bar handles drinks and afternoon tea, while the terrace provides the obvious place for both when the sky permits. Sometimes luxury is a tasting menu involving smoke and tweezers. Sometimes though, it is a decent chair, a cold glass and nowhere else you need to be.

The hotel's proximity to Ascot, Windsor and some of the country's best golf courses means there is plenty to do, but the grounds encourage a degree of healthy idleness. There is a secret walled garden, lawns large enough to make a stroll feel purposeful and enough mature planting to shield the estate from the sensation of being close to anywhere useful. Royal Berkshire is accessible without feeling suburban, which is a more difficult trick than it sounds.

The iX3 performs a related trick with range. Its 108.7kWh usable battery gives this specification a quoted 735km, or about 457 miles. My editor had already put that ability through a rather more demanding examination, covering 1,400 miles across France in four days and declaring the iX3 a ‘range buster extraordinaire’. My rather more modest Berkshire outing gave me no reason to disagree. Less range anxiety, more a mild concern.

Its 800-volt system accepts up to 400kW, adding as much as 231 miles in ten minutes or going from 10 to 80 per cent in 21. Finding a charger capable of the full rate is another matter but blaming the BMW would be like criticising Royal Berkshire because the M3 was sulking on the way there.

Practicality has survived the technology. There are five seats, up to 1,750 litres of luggage room and another 58 litres under the bonnet. This car's £1,025 towbar can help exploit the two-tonne towing limit, useful for boats, horseboxes or a particularly enthusiastic hunt for antique furniture.

The price requires more contemplation. The iX3 50 xDrive M Sport began at £60,250 but Ocean Wave Blue, those 22-inch wheels, the glass roof, Technology Plus Pack and several further comforts took this car to £71,462.50 including delivery.

Substantial certainly, although broadly where the premium electric SUV market has decided to live, presumably after checking the local house prices in Ascot. The options are tangible though. The glass roof lifts the cabin, Harman/Kardon supplies an excellent soundtrack and the parking technology earns its keep in a car this wide.

After time with both, the similarities become clearer. Royal Berkshire does not rely on its age and the BMW does not rely on novelty. The hotel uses history as atmosphere rather than an excuse. The iX3 uses new technology to meet recognisable needs, which are more range, faster charging, clearer information and an easier journey. There are flashier country-house hotels and more ostentatious electric SUVs but both understand that luxury works best when it sometimes reduces effort.

The hotel offers 15 acres in which to slow down. The BMW offers enough range to stop planning every journey around a plug. One is built from brick, timber and accumulated memory. The other is built from cylindrical battery cells, four electronic 'superbrains' and a great deal of German knowhow.

Royal Berkshire shows how a good place can evolve gently over 300 years without losing its character. The iX3 suggests a car company can make a comparable leap in one generation.

https://www.bmw.co.uk/en/index.html

Model: BMW iX3 50 xDrive M Sport
Price (as tested): £60,250 (£71,462.50).
Transmission: Automatic
Drivetrain: BMW x-Drive
Power: 463hp
Torque: 645 Nm
0-62mph: 4.9 seconds
Top Speed: 130 mph
Electrical Consumption: 16.7 kWh/62 miles
Electrical Range: 456 Miles

Unladen Weight: 2,360 kg