You were probably a little disappointed to see BMW’s limited color palette for the iX3. Aside from mundane shades of black, white, grey, and silver, there are only a handful of proper colors. This Ocean Wave Blue sure looks nice, as do Fire Red/Vegas Red and Eucalyptus Green, but the all-new electric SUV certainly deserves a bigger splash of color. Thankfully, a wider variety of hues is on the way.
We did a bit of digging and found that the new iX3 will indeed receive the Individual treatment starting in the middle of next year. BMW hasn’t revealed which shades it will offer, but we at least know they’re coming. In the meantime, Frozen Space Silver will be available at launch, followed shortly by Frozen Ocean Wave Blue. It’s worth clarifying that these matte finishes are not part of the Individual catalog.
The future availability of special colors confirms BMW designed its Debrecen factory with Individual hues in mind from the outset. The Hungarian plant features a paint shop capable of spraying 30 vehicle bodies per hour in a fully automated process. If the iX3 proves popular, the shop has additional capacity to handle more cars.
Spanning 33,000 square meters across three stories, the paint shop is the first in the BMW Group to run entirely without fossil fuels. The iX3 won’t enter series production until November, but the facility has been operational for over a year. Initially, BMW tested it with iX1 bodies before moving on to iX3 “NA5” prototypes.
Debrecen’s paint shop abandons the old wet-scrubbing method in favor of eco-friendly dry separation. Overspray is captured with limestone powder, reducing water consumption and energy demand by running the booth on 90% recirculated air. Only 10% requires heating and humidifying, instead of all of it. Even the used powder gets a second life in the cement industry rather than ending up as contaminated wastewater.
Following an investment of more than €2 billion, the new Hungarian plant will have an annual production capacity of 150,000 units. For now, only the iX3 will be built there. It’s worth noting that the electric SUV for the US market will still come from Debrecen, even after BMW begins production of the model at the San Luis Potosà factory in Mexico from 2027.
