BMW’s smallest electric SUV is getting a new face. Underneath, it keeps the same 66.5-kWh battery it launched with.
Fresh spy shots from Baldauf show the 2028 iX2 wearing Neue Klasse styling for the first time. The camouflage is thin enough to tell the story, and the story is mostly skin deep.
The Neue Klasse look arrived with the second-generation iX3. It killed off the oversized kidney grilles that defined BMW for most of the last decade and replaced them with something smaller, sleeker and far less shouty.
Since then, the design has spread to the i3, the 7 Series and the X5. The X2 is next in line.
Combustion versions of the X2 were caught wearing the update in July. Now the electric iX2 has been photographed with the same treatment.
This is a mid-cycle facelift, not a new generation. The proportions are virtually unchanged from the current car.
Up front, BMW has rebuilt the fascia with the small Neue Klasse kidneys and all-new headlights. One shot catches the turn signal lit, giving us an early look at the daytime running light signature.
It appears to form a V. That would add yet another light graphic to a family that already includes the iX3’s diagonal slash and the X5’s X-shaped lamps.
Walk around back and the ambition fades. The awkward rear window and decklid spoiler are untouched, so the iX2 keeps the heavy, chunky tail that has drawn criticism since launch.
The taillights are new, but only just. The housings look much like the current units, with the LED graphics inside rearranged to match the rest of the family.
Inside is where BMW spent real money. The cabin gets the Panoramic iDrive display stretched across the base of the windshield, plus the angular central touchscreen from other Neue Klasse models.
Expect the iX3’s unconventional four-spoke steering wheel to come along too. For a facelift, that is a lot of new hardware to put in front of the driver.
Then comes the part the styling can’t hide. The iX2 is not expected to move to the Neue Klasse platform.
It stays on the current FAAR architecture. That means no access to the latest-generation batteries and electric motors that headline the iX3.
Buyers will likely see the same two configurations, depending on market. The eDrive20 makes 201 hp and 182 lb-ft of torque, while the xDrive30 makes 308 hp and 364 lb-ft.
Both draw from the same 66.5-kWh lithium-ion pack. BMW may enlarge it for the update, but nothing has been confirmed.
That sets up an awkward showroom moment. The iX2 will look like the newest BMWs from the driver’s seat and the front bumper, while the iX3 parked beside it is new in all the places you can’t see, from cell chemistry to charging speed.
How BMW prices that gap, and how it explains it to shoppers cross-shopping the two, is the real question. If the answer is a modest discount for an older battery in a newer suit, plenty of buyers may decide the extra money for the iX3 is the smarter spend.
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