Early signs suggest BMW may have a hit on its hands with the first Neue Klasse model for China. The problem? Dealers don’t have the long-wheelbase iX3 (NA6) on their showroom floors yet. In many cases, they’re essentially selling pictures of it alongside a sheet with technical specifications.

People have been placing deposits without seeing the vehicle in person beforehand, unless they’ve visited the Beijing or Chengdu auto shows. The electric crossover opened for pre-orders on August 21, with three versions to choose from.

Prices start at RMB 269,900 ($40,000) for the iX3L 30, an entry-level trim that the rest of the world doesn’t get. The midrange iX40L xDrive carries a RMB 299,900 ($44,700) sticker and seems like a terrific deal compared with its global standard-wheelbase counterpart. The same is true of the iX50L xDrive, at RMB 339,900 ($50,500). These prices are uniform across the country.

Encouraging Early Signs For The BMW iX3 Long Wheelbase

The response has apparently been strong. According to Chinese publication 36Kr, several BMW dealers in major Chinese markets have been extremely busy registering pre-orders. One sales representative declared that “once the pre-sale price was announced, the sales team has barely stopped working, working until 10 PM every day. There are just too many interested users.”

BMW’s more than 500 dealerships in China aren’t expected to receive display vehicles until the end of October. Some engineering cars have been touring the country, but there aren’t enough vehicles for customers to walk into a showroom, sit inside and take a test drive. One BMW salesperson with a decade of experience reportedly summed up the situation by saying: “We’re not selling cars. We’re selling pictures.”

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Customers Are In For A Long Wait

Nevertheless, people are putting down their hard-earned money. BMW will kick off deliveries in November, with a full-scale rollout unlikely to happen until early 2027. According to 36Kr, delivery times for newly placed orders stretch to about five months. That’s a long wait in China’s fast-paced new-car market, where competition is absolutely fierce. Some customers might not be willing to wait that long and could instead opt for a rival brand that can deliver the EV sooner.

BMW certainly needs a few winners in China, where sales have been plummeting for the past few years. Demand peaked in 2021, when the Group, together with MINI, sold 847,900 cars, but that figure fell to just 626,000 cars last year. 2026 is likely to be even worse, as half-year results showed a 20.4% drop compared with the January-June 2025 period.

Source: 36Kr via Car News China

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