BMW’s first electric SUV for North America, the iX, delivers both style and substance.

BMW’s first mass-produced electric car was the i3, a small hatchback with a daring design and clever engineering aimed at maximum efficiency. Now the Bavarian automaker is going in the opposite direction.

The 2022 BMW iX retains some of the i3’s penchant for quirky styling, but it’s a large crossover SUV (or sports activity vehicle, SAV, as BMW likes to call it) that trades ultimate efficiency for space and luxury. After BMW’s last-minute decision to cancel the iX3 (an electric version of the popular BMW X3), the iX also became the first BMW all-electric SUV for North America. It joins the BMW i4 sedan in the automaker’s new wave of EVs for this market, and takes aim at electric luxury SUVs like the Audi e-tron, Jaguar I-Pace, and Tesla Model X. The Rivian R1S could be considered a competitor as well, but it hasn’t entered production yet.

The iX launches solely in xDrive50 form. A sportier iX M60 model and the more efficient iX xDrive40 are scheduled to reach dealerships later in 2022, but for now we’ve collected our impressions of the xDrive50 for this first-ever BMW iX review.