BMW's iX5 Peaks at 464 kW at IONNA, With No Average Rate Published
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BMW's iX5 Peaks at 464 kW at IONNA, With No Average Rate Published
BMW says the 144 kWh pack goes from 10 to 80 percent in 22 minutes, which works out to about 275 kW on average, well under the headline peak.
A BMW iX5 60 xDrive reached 464 kW at an IONNA charger with Alpitronic hardware during an international media event in Southern California, 4 kW above BMW's 460 kW rating, Electrek reported on Oct. 20. The article does not say what state of charge the car was at when it hit the peak, or how long it stayed above any given rate.
Electrek's own caveat is that 460 kW "is the peak rate, not the sustained rate during the entire charging session." The SUV goes on sale in the US in the first quarter of 2027, with production at BMW's Spartanburg plant beginning by the end of 2026.
What the claimed 22 minutes implies
BMW's claim, repeated by InsideEVs, is 10 to 80 percent in 22 minutes on a pack with 144 kWh of usable energy. That is 70 percentage points of the pack, or about 101 kWh, delivered in 22 minutes. The average works out to roughly 275 kW. Those are the Terminal's calculations from BMW's two figures, and they assume the 144 kWh is the usable figure InsideEVs says it is.
The number that matters here is not 460 but 275: the average is about 60 percent of the peak. A peak tells a driver how the car behaves for a few minutes at a low state of charge; the average is what sets how long they stand at the charger.
The second claim cross-checks. BMW said 10 minutes of charging adds 170 miles, per InsideEVs. At the manufacturer's 435-mile estimate on 144 kWh, that is about 56 kWh in 10 minutes, or 337 kW on average over the first stretch of the session. That is higher than the 10-to-80 average, which is what a curve that tapers as the pack fills would produce.
- BMW rated peak460 kW
- Peak measured at the event464 kW
- Implied 10-to-80% average275 kW
Source: BMW figures via Electrek and InsideEVs, Oct. 20, 2026; the 275 kW average is the Terminal's arithmetic from BMW's 22 minutes and 144 kWh.
The platform behind the number
BMW says the Gen6 eDrive architecture runs at 800 volts and delivers up to 30 percent more range and charging speed than Gen5. It uses cylindrical cells that BMW says hold 20 percent more energy than Gen5's prismatic ones. All of these are company claims.
The two reports do not agree on everything.
| Spec | Electrek | InsideEVs |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $79,800 | $81,250, including destination |
| Power | 578 hp (425 kW) | 570 hp |
| Range | Up to 435 miles, EPA pending | 435 miles, manufacturer estimate |
| 10 to 80% | 22 minutes (BMW) | 22 minutes |
Both give 593 lb-ft of torque and 0 to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds. Electrek also refers to the car once as the iX5 50 xDrive and elsewhere as the 60, so the trim in the photo caption is the one to trust.
The site's earlier BMW i3 test story ran the same kind of pack arithmetic on a range claim. For a rival's charging figures, see the Mercedes-AMG GT SUV launch.
What would change my read is a logged charge curve from an independent tester, from 10 to 80 percent with the state of charge at each rate. EPA range figures for the iX5 are pending, and sales begin in the first quarter of 2027.
Sources
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