BMW IX3 vs Chery Tiggo 8

What's the difference?

The BMW iX3 is a rarity in the market, a premium-feeling electric model that's not a whole lot dearer than petrol alternatives.

For those happy to trade some of the Tesla Model 3 and Kia EV6 GT's all-paw performance for a luxurious cabin, slick drive and badge cachet, the iX3 M Sport is a very attractive package. Until Audi's Q4 and Q6 e-tron arrive, the iX3 remains basically peerless in this part of the market.

No wonder, then, that BMW is Australia's third most popular electric car brand after Tesla and BYD. The vehicles capture everything the brand promises at a price that looks good on paper and better in the real world.

A bargain price, clever hybrid system, and a spacious interior with useful third row is a rare and potent combination which should continue to catapult Chery into a successful future.

Sure, the dull driving dynamics, sometimes befuddling software, and over reliance on touchscreens could and should be addressed, but at this price and with these ownership terms, the Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid is a tough proposition to argue with.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with accommodation and meals provided.

Now that we've seen the new X3, the current model is already dated. Not that it was a cutting-edge design at launch but there is precious little offensive about this mid-size SUV.

Fussy wheel designs, strange closed in grilles and clashing blue accents aside the iX3 M Sport remains a plenty handsome option as you approach.

Inside the cabin's shapes feel positively conservative next to BMW's latest efforts like the X2 and 7 Series but, in a way, this is no bad thing.

It's also nice that you can tailor this car's appearance to your liking without spending extra, the combination here rocks a nice blue paint with tasteful brown upholstery for a classy look.

You can have Oyster white leather or simple black and the paint colour palette is refined without being restrictive.

Unlike some of its rivals in this space, the Tiggo 8 has a fairly generic boxy SUV design. It’s not as interesting as many of its rivals, but it also strays away from being controversial.

The derivative grille design and light signatures make it blend into traffic nicely, making it an ideal SUV for someone who intentionally doesn’t want to stand out, at least not in quite the same way as something like the BYD Sealion 6.

There’s also nothing that looks proportionally off about it, and the strong lines and spoiler piece over the rear give it a (very) faint air of toughness.

Inside this plug-in hybrid version gets a significantly different interior compared to the combustion Tiggo 8 that launched in 2024. The design is much more contemporary, dominated by the huge central touchscreen which is much bigger than the one in both the Tiggo 7 and the combustion Tiggo 8, and there’s new switchgear for the indicator stalk and for the steering wheel buttons, too.

Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of the climate shortcut panel which remains in the Tiggo 7. Instead, you’re forced to navigate through new software which has a dedicated climate zone.

Still, it’s a glitzy looking interior with big screens and interesting material choices, particularly at this price. The Tiggo 8 even manages to avoid some of the blatant Mercedes-Benz worship as seen in the smaller Tiggo 7, and the synthetic seat trim is also distinct from the rest of the Chery range. In this plug-in Tiggo 8 it’s a kind of sturdy-feeling neoprene finish which looks a little bit like suede. It’s weird, but I don’t hate it.

The BMW X3 was developed with family buyers in mind and that has paid dividends because it has an extremely practical cabin with lots of thoughtful storage.

Each of the four doors has a bottle holder and generously-sized pocked for extra storage. There are two cup-holders in the centre with a wireless charging pad, secure spot for the key fob and USB port in easy reach. You can slide a roller cover down to hide valuables.

Key driving controls are smartly grouped together around the iX3's unconventional gear selector. Here, you'll find the start/stop button along with hard switches for drive mode selection, stability control and exterior cameras.

Right next door is where the rotary 'iDrive' controller lives with yet more physical shortcut buttons. Including the extra option to easily interact with the multimedia system on the move is a refreshing delight that you don't see in so many touchscreen-heavy EVs. There's also a physical stack for HVAC and seat heating controls.

The 12.3-inch touchscreen is responsive and bright with BMW's slightly older system having a more conventional appearance than the latest software in the iX2. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are wireless and still work flawlessly.

If there are some negatives, they would be some build-quality niggles. On the whole the materials are high quality and the car is well screwed together but the indicator stalks feel decidedly flimsy compared to BMWs of old and I noticed a rattle from the parcel shelf on the road.

The eight-way power adjust seats with tilt and under-leg extension are classic BMW, being sporty enough to hold you in but with enough padding to stay comfy. Though we will knock this car down for lacking power lumbar adjust.

Those in the back will be plenty comfortable even if they're taller than 180cm with ample head, leg and toe-room. There doesn't appear to be a major compromise to the floor height despite BMW stacking 10 lithium-ion modules beneath.

Vision out is excellent with an expansive glasshouse and full-length sunroof.

Amenities include two USB-C charge points, a third climate zone, fold-out armrest with pop-up cup holders and generous storage in the doors.

Fitting child seats should be pretty simple with doors that open wide, two sets of ISOFIX ports (that you can't lose the covers of) and three prominent top tether anchors in the recline-adjustable backrest.

The boot is large with 510L of space at a minimum that expands to 1560L if you fold the 40/20/40 split backrest flat. There's a sense of solidity in that process, too, with sturdy levers and components.

So sturdy that the retractable luggage cover is quite difficult to remove, especially for shorter owners. Other niceties include a single shopping bag hook, LED lighting and 12-volt socket in the back.

No BMW X3 comes with a spare tyre so that should come as no surprise. The iX3 instead has a tyre repair kit. There is underfloor storage in the iX3, though, which is the perfect place to store both charging cables — Mode 2 and 3 — that are included.

The Tiggo 8’s cabin is enormous and has had various upgrades since the combustion car launched that make it both easier and less easy to use.

For example, the centre console redesign is more contemporary, offering pride of place to the wireless phone charging bay, offering two larger bottle holders off to one side. Some key driver functions appear on the right-hand side, including a drive mode selector dial and a handful of shortcuts for the most basic climate functions, like an auto AC button and front and rear defoggers.

This means the shifter has moved to the column on the right-hand side, with a multifunction stalk for the indicators and wipers on the left instead.

The armrest console box is an overcomplicated split opening design, but offers plenty of room inside. There are two large bottle holders and pockets in each front door, too, and there’s a large pass-through area underneath the bridge-style console which will be great for a handbag or something.

The seating position is quite adjustable, but you sit unusually high in the car, which makes it feel as though you’re peering down on the instruments.

As already mentioned, the full array of climate functions can only be controlled through the touchscreen, with no physical buttons outside of the handful on the centre console. Would it be so hard just to have a temperature and fan speed dial you don’t have to take your eyes off the road?

The software itself is typical of many Chinese cars at the moment. It looks good, but isn’t as functional or easy to use as you’d like. Some core functions are still buried in confusingly labelled sub-menus, particularly things like active safety features. It’s not the worst I’ve used (the Leapmotor C10 springs to mind), but it should be better given the massive screen is such a focal point of the cabin.

At least the Tiggo 8 doesn’t feel cheap in other areas, with generous soft-touch materials throughout the cabin. It might be fake leather and suede, but it does a good enough job of making the cabin feel plush and comfortable for longer journeys.

The second row is impressive. I had leagues of room in all dimensions behind my front seat position at 182cm tall. The generous amount of soft trims continue and the seat bases are comfortable enough, too. Storage comes in the form of seat-back pockets and large bottle holders in each door.

Maybe the most impressive feature is the third row. While I felt squashed into the rear row of the Mitsubishi Outlander, the Tiggo 8 offers just enough space for an adult to travel in some form of comfort. Access isn’t the easiest, but there’s so much space in the second row the the seat can slide forward to allow sufficient room for my legs. My head touches the roof, however.

There’s not much in the way of amenities back there, with a bottle holder and storage tray for third-row occupants, as well as a 12-volt outlet in the boot.

The boot itself seems large enough, although at the time of writing there was no official boot figure. For context, the combustion version offers 479 litres with the third row down, or 117 litres with it up, and this plug-in doesn’t seem significantly different to my eye.

Unfortunately though, the placement of the battery and DC inverter under the boot floor leaves no room for a spare. There’s only an inflator kit.

The Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid is also super affordable. With a price of just $45,990 drive away, it’s a terrible day to be the product planner for Mitsubishi’s upcoming Outlander PHEV facelift which used to be one of the only options in the space.

In fact, it’s bad news for any mid-size SUV, whether they’re combustion powered, hybrid, or previously good value.

For context, the outgoing Outlander PHEV started from $57,290 before on-roads, and even MG’s five-seat-only plug-in hybrid HS costs from $52,990. You can have the BYD Sealion 6 for less, at just $42,990 for a base essential, but it is also just a five-seater.

If it’s just a plug-in hybrid you want and you don’t need seven seats, the smaller Tiggo 7 bests them all, starting from a new low of $39,990 drive-away.

Regardless, the low price and big hybrid battery (we’ll talk more about this later) don’t stop the Tiggo 8 from being packed with standard gear. 

Highlights on the entry-level Urban spec include 19-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights and DRLs, a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster, a 15.6-inch multimedia touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 50W wireless charger, synthetic leather seats, ambient interior lighting, six-way power adjust for the driver’s seat, a 360-degree parking camera, and even an acoustic windscreen.

Not only is this impressive equipment, but the Tiggo 8 is more than just a seven-seat version of the Tiggo 7, with a larger touchscreen and some standard kit like the 360-degree parking camera and wireless charger, which don’t come on the most basic version of its sibling.

The top-spec Ultimate, which costs $49,990 drive-away, adds heated and ventilated front seats, two additional speakers (bringing the total to 12), a head-up display, a panoramic opening sunroof, privacy glass, illuminated scuff plates, and a message function for the front passenger.

It’s hard to see how the Tiggo 8 isn’t good value full stop, and it's a plug-in hybrid!

In this case there isn't much under the bonnet except for electric gubbins. The single electric motor – that uses no rare earth materials – resides at the back and generates 210kW/400Nm.

Those outputs are fairly close to a petrol X3 30i, though of course this model is rear-drive only.

Thanks to the rapid response of electric motors, the iX3 M Sport can sprint from 0-100km/h in 6.8 seconds (claimed).

BMW has chosen to give the iX3 a long-travel progressive throttle pedal that makes grunt easy to meter out. However, the regenerative braking could do with a little more refinement.

There are two settings, 'D' — just like letting off the throttle in a combustion car — and 'B' which is quite strong. The blending between regenerative and physical caliper-on-rotor braking is vague, though, which can make low-speed moves a bit jerky.

Chery’s Super Hybrid system is a little different from other plug-ins on the market. It pairs a 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine (105kW/215Nm) with a ‘dedicated hybrid transmission’ (DHT). This is a transaxle which contains a large electric motor (150kW/310Nm) and uses a set of clutches and gears to blend the power sources.

The end result of this is a drivetrain that feels a bit like a CVT but isn’t the much derided rubber-band-on-a-cone set-up. To Chery’s credit, it almost feels like driving an electric vehicle, such is the relatively smooth power delivery and seamless blending of the power sources depending on speed.

Just don’t expect to tow much more than a tinny as capacity is limited to just 750kg.

The iX3 M Sport's WLTP rating is a respectable but not groundbreaking 461km on the combined cycle. The reality is a little bleaker, our test car displaying 316km on its digital instruments at 100 per cent charge.

Going against what you might expect for an electric car, the iX3 was not very efficient in town, we initially saw 24kWh/100km on the read-out which is quite high.

It is better suited to a longer, steady-state run. Our regular 200km country and suburban test loop dropped the consumption to 18kWh/100km for a real-world driving range of 411km.

When it's time to bring the charge levels back up the iX3 will take on AC electricity at 11kW, for flat to full in seven and a half hours.

Public fast-charging caps out at 150kW (DC) though averages to 104kW over a 10-80 per cent session. This should take 21 minutes, says BMW.

We only observed a maximum of 101kW on a DC charger though the pylon did not appear to be performing at full energy with other vehicles having similar issues.

The Tiggo 8 has a headline electric driving range of 95km, although this is rated to the more lenient NEDC cycle. Usually you can expect more like 75km in the real world, but these plug-ins tend to vary greatly from their official figures for better or worse, so stay tuned for a longer test to see what the real-world figure is.

Regardless, it draws this range from a 18.3kWh battery pack, that is capable of charging up on both DC and AC, which is rare for a plug-in. On the faster DC chargers, it is capable of topping up at a maximum rate of 40kW for a claimed 30 to 80 per cent charge in 20 minutes. Combined range, using a full tank of fuel and full charge can have the vehicle travel up to a claimed 1200km.

The overall fuel efficiency is 1.3L/100km, a somewhat useless figure. The actual figure will depend entirely on how you use the car. Have a short commute and charge at least at one end of it? It may as well be zero.

What’s particularly clever though is how Chery has put significant work into the software map of the hybrid transmission to keep it as efficient as possible, even when the battery is drained. 

The vehicles we tested on the launch were all hovering around the mid-5.0L/100km mark, even with the batteries long drained to their reserve level. The brand’s engineering people say the software map is specifically designed to achieve less than 6.0L/100km even when the battery is dead.

Again, not every plug-in hybrid can claim the same.

Despite no saucy straight-six, V8 or twin-cam four-cylinder there is an inherent 'BMW-ness' in the iX3 M Sport. The way it steers, accelerates and rides all match the brand's DNA.

It is not a plush SUV, with some firmness to the suspension even in Comfort mode on the adaptive dampers — this may have something to do with BMW's 40PSI front and 45PSI rear tyre pressure recommendations — but without ever being crashy.

Build up a little more speed, beyond 60km/h for example, and the body settles nicely with a solid, assured stance.

There's no evidence of suspension noise and road noise is very well insulated as well, even without the up-spec M Sport Pro's acoustically insulated glass. 

The steering is light in Comfort mode which makes it ideal for urban driving. It also has three turns lock-to-lock which is a lot for a sporty-ish BMW, however that is largely down to the improved steering angle. Without an engine or AWD system, the iX3 has a great turning circle of just 12.1 metres.

Moving things up a notch into Sport adds extra weight to the steering which helps judge the grip on good roads, which is pretty decent from the 245/45R19 Yokohama Advan Sport V107 tyres.

When you approach the limit, the iX3 is very secure but significant mid-corner bumps can unsettle the car, bringing its 2180kg tare weight (a 325kg penalty over the xDrive20i) sharply into focus. Pull it back a touch, though, and the iX3 M Sport is plenty rewarding on a country road.

Mostly, the iX3 is a refreshingly natural electric car out on the road. You could put anyone in the driver's seat and they'd be smooth just like in a combustion car.

The Tiggo 8 leans into the traits on display in the smaller Tiggo 7. This means a too-high seating position trading driver ergonomics for visibility, a vague steering tune defined far too much by software, and an overly soft ride quality.

There are various trade-offs here, but it’s about the opposite of a driver’s car. The steering lends hardly any feel to what’s going on at the wheels, and the floaty ride conspires with the tall seat base to feel a bit disconcerting when cornering at high speed.

However, the positives include ease of use and relative comfort. The steering is light enough to make the Tiggo 8 pretty manoeuvrable at low speeds, and the soft ride has the Tiggo 8 floating over road imperfections with relative ease.

It’s also quick, with the electric motor providing urgent acceleration, but this is somehow not very engaging or fun regardless. Plus, slamming the accelerator down, particularly in Sport mode, will overwhelm the front tyres.

This car maintains over 20 per cent of its total battery capacity in reserve, in order to have a large buffer to draw from in hybrid mode to facilitate the smooth electric driving, but this also allows more room to store regenerated energy from idle time or braking compared to a plugless hybrid.

It seems to drive as an EV most of the time, although it lacks a true one-pedal driving mode despite having three levels of regenerative braking.

The cabin is impressively quiet, particularly at lower speeds. It’s genuinely hard to tell when the combustion engine is on to assist the electric driving functions, and the standard acoustic glass keeps most of the nasty ambient noise out. However, at speeds above 80km/h, road noise eventually finds its way into the cabin.

There are many rivals that provide an overall better balance of driving dynamics and handling with comfort, but this Tiggo 8 shoots for a more comfort-oriented family buyer who just wants a quiet and fuel-efficient SUV.

There’s plenty of safety kit for the Tiggo 8 with nothing left to options or based on grades.

The key stuff is present, including auto emergency braking (AEB), lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert and braking, traffic jam assist, door open warning, a speed limit information system, and driver monitoring.

I bet you want to know if they’re well calibrated? After all, Chery’s Omoda 5 was slammed on its arrival for an infuriating lane assist system and overbearing driver monitoring, two of the most frequently offending systems for interfering with the drive experience.

I am pleased to report though these systems have been toned down significantly. Oddly, I found the driver monitoring system was fussier in the Tiggo 8 than the Tiggo 7, verging on being annoying, but it could have been the different road conditions we were on. The lane system on the whole was pretty tame, and the traffic sign alert was easy enough to tone down to a barely noticeable audible warning.

However, the lane centring software on the adaptive cruise was a bit frustrating, strongly tugging on the wheel if it disagreed with your interpretation of the centre of the lane.

It’s far from one of the worst systems in recent memory, and nice to see Chery take on the feedback and improve the cars with each release.

Plug-in hybrid versions of the Tiggo 8 are yet to be rated by ANCAP, but the combustion car was rated a maximum five-stars to the 2023 standards. The Tiggo 8 is equipped with nine airbags, however it is worth noting there is no child seat mounting system in either of the third-row seats. 

The iX3 M Sport is now covered by a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty in Australia.

Servicing is due on a conditional basis with the multimedia system prompting the owner when to visit a dealer.

BMW offers serviced packages for electric vehicles that last six years/unlimited kilometres, with the iX3's pack costing a reasonable $2325 over that time.

The Tiggo 8 Super Hybrid is covered by seven years and unlimited kilometres of warranty, seven years of roadside assist, and seven years of capped-price servicing, following the successful formula of once-underdog Kia.

The servicing price varies year on year according to the capped-price schedule, between $299 and a particularly expensive service at the 90,000km mark which costs $1291.31.

The average yearly cost works out to $453.45 if you keep the car for the full seven-year duration. Not the cheapest we’ve ever seen, but all things considered, it’s pretty good.