The sleigh has achieved its job for hundreds of years. It’s iconic, it’s timeless, and it’s in all probability the one automobile on Earth that may declare “chimney entry” as a core characteristic. However each December, there’s a second—often proper across the time the elves begin stress-baking gingerbread prefer it’s a coping mechanism—when actuality faucets Santa on the shoulder and says, gently however firmly, “You may want a backup plan.”
This yr, that second occurs in a workshop on the fringe of the North Pole (Arjeplog involves thoughts) , the place the sleigh is up on a raise and a mechanic elf is making the type of face you solely make while you’ve simply found an issue that comes with the phrases “structural” and “seasonal” in the identical sentence.
Santa tries to maintain it gentle. He all the time does. He cracks a joke concerning the sleigh “nonetheless feeling tight,” regardless that it’s squeaking like an previous door in a haunted home. The elf doesn’t snicker. As an alternative, he factors to a clipboard and begins studying off the well mannered model of the reality: the runners are worn, the steering is obscure, the brakes are principally wishful considering, and the reindeer have reached the purpose the place they’re asking whether or not “time beyond regulation” is an precise idea or simply one other Christmas fable.
Santa sighs. “So what do you advocate?” The elf smiles, as a result of he’s been ready all yr to say it.
“BMW.”
The Non-Negotiable: xDrive
Not a basic, both. Not a nostalgia decide. Not one thing that appears like thunder and broadcasts itself to each sleeping youngster and each suspicious neighbor with a doorbell digital camera. If Santa goes to do that correctly in 2025, he wants one thing quiet, trendy, quick in the way in which that feels easy, and competent in climate that swings from Arctic ice to Florida rain inside the identical hour.
He wants xDrive. It’s non-negotiable. Santa’s route isn’t one highway, it’s each highway. It’s the slick driveway that by no means will get shoveled, the cul-de-sac polished to a shine by freezing rain, and the mountain village the place the snowplow is a rumor handed down from era to era. Rudolph can nonetheless lead, in fact, as a result of custom issues, however even Rudolph deserves a yr the place his job is navigation, not pulling.
The Choose for 2025: The New BMW iX3
And that’s how Santa leads to the motive force’s seat of the new BMW iX3.
It’s the sort of selection that is smart the second you cease considering prefer it’s 1997. The iX3 is an SUV, which suggests it matches the job description earlier than you even get to the tech. It has the stance, the practicality, the “I can do that all day” vitality. But it surely’s additionally the primary huge style of BMW’s Neue Klasse period, which suggests it comes with that refined feeling of moving into the subsequent decade earlier than everybody else has even discovered the important thing.
Why Electrical, Not Combustion?
Now, the plain query is the one Santa’s traditionalists would ask first: why the iX3 and never a combustion-powered automotive? Why not one thing with a giant, hearty engine word that looks like a Christmas choir warming up?
As a result of Santa doesn’t want noise. He wants float.
Drive the brand new iX3 and also you get that uncanny sensation EVs accomplish that properly—easy, easy, and quietly fast, just like the automobile is skating over the floor of the world slightly than trudging by means of it. That’s the closest factor a contemporary automotive can provide to the way in which a sleigh feels when it’s doing what it’s alleged to do: gliding with ease, unbothered by the chaos beneath, making velocity really feel like magic as a substitute of effort. A combustion automotive could be thrilling, certain, nevertheless it’s additionally busy. It vibrates, it chatters, it all the time feels prefer it’s working. The iX3 feels prefer it’s merely… shifting, as if the legal guidelines of friction are elective while you’ve obtained instantaneous torque and easy energy supply in your facet.
It’s additionally the sort of velocity that doesn’t wake the newborn, doesn’t spook the canine, and doesn’t set off the neighbor who hears a faint noise and instantly checks the safety feed. In that sense, an electrical SUV isn’t simply logical. It’s virtually poetic. Santa has all the time been a stealth operator. The sleigh bells are nice for the films, however for those who’re making an attempt to maneuver by means of the world unnoticed, silence is the actual superpower.
The Santa Take a look at: Area for the Bag
The opposite factor Santa wants is house, and never the obscure, advertising sort of house the place producers let you know a suitcase matches completely for those who rotate it 3 times and take away the wheels. Santa wants precise usable room, the type of cargo space that doesn’t flinch while you throw in a sack that seems to include the stock of a whole toy retailer. The sort of house that may swallow oddly formed bins, last-minute presents, and no matter unusual “simply in case” tools the elves insist on bringing alongside as a result of somebody watched a survival video as soon as and now no one feels protected with no backup plan.
Positive, an iX5 or iX7 is perhaps higher, however Santa nonetheless wants to attend a couple of extra years for that.
Pit Stops, Not Gasoline Stops
Then there’s charging, which is the place Santa’s schedule begins to resemble motorsport greater than vacation custom. Santa doesn’t do lengthy stops. He does pit stops. A second right here, a second there, simply sufficient time to inhale two cookies, nod respectfully on the milk, and disappear once more like a caffeinated ghost. The thought of losing time at a gas station has by no means match the mythology. Charging that feels fast and purposeful does.
A Cabin That Helps, Not One That Calls for
Inside, the iX3 is the sort of place Santa can really work. Not within the “I’m replying to emails” method, however within the “this night time is lengthy and my again will not be made from reindeer leather-based” method. Santa doesn’t want a cockpit that calls for a tutorial at 2 a.m. He wants consolation that retains him recent, a cabin that stays calm when the world outdoors seems like a snowstorm simulator, and tech that helps the mission slightly than turning the mission right into a person interface. And that Panoramic Show and navigation might assist him be much more environment friendly along with his deliveries.
In the long run, the funniest half is that none of this looks like Santa betraying custom. It looks like Santa doing what he’s all the time achieved: adapting, quietly, to maintain the operation working. The sleigh isn’t useless. It’s seasonal. It’ll be again, polished and proud, the second the elves end no matter restore course of they insist is “undoubtedly inside spec.” However for 2025, when the world is noisier, cameras are all over the place, and the climate is extra unpredictable than ever, Santa’s backup plan must be one thing that feels trendy with out shedding the magic.
So sure, this yr Santa trades the sleigh for a BMW.
He drives the iX3.
Rudolph nonetheless leads, in fact.
He simply doesn’t have to tug.
