The itinerary sounded like the sort of journey that should still make an EV driver nervous: cross Romania, climb its highest mountains and drive the Transfăgărășan before returning to Bucharest. But I didn’t just want to see whether the iX3 could complete it—I knew it could. I wanted to see whether it could do so without forcing me to slow down, conserve energy, or plan the entire trip around charging stops.
BMW Romania asked me if I would like to drive an iX3 from Bucharest in the south of the country all the way to Șona, a tiny village in its center, the home of one of the country’s most famous contemporary painters and some ‘pyramids’. The trip involved driving around 220 miles on the first day and slightly more on the return leg, which also involved going over Romania’s most famous mountain road, the Transfăgărășan.
