Bad news if you thought BMW might tone down the looks of its mega-grille cars for 2022: it’s doubling down on the controversy, and the new 7 Series is possibly the most divisive yet. Leading the charge for BMW’s rival to the Mercedes S-class and Audi A8 is the all-electric i7, a 544 horsepower e-limo that also has the Tesla Model S and Lucid Air in its snouty sights.
I’ve got good news and i’ve got controversial news on the upside i’m about to show you the most technologically advanced car that bmw has ever made what might upset you is that this is the new face of luxury bmws crikey so here it is the i7 a new nameplate in bmw’s history for what you’re really looking at here is the new bmw 7 series and it’s a sign of our
Changing times isn’t it in the olden days a car like a 7 would have launched with a big v8 or a v12 engine but these days of course electric is the priority so while there are norm core 7s coming as well with petrol and diesel and plug-in hybrid power this is the really big deal especially if you’re a tesla model s a mercedes eqs or a lucid air it’s the i7 but
We’ll come back to comparing the i7 to its rivals on spec in a bit because we need to talk about the looks yeah if you thought bmw was going to tone things down after the xm the ix and the m3 the 7 series has got bad news for you because they’re doubling down on it bmw doesn’t give a monkeys what you think of their styling bmw says it’s aiming for a range of
Cars that deliberately don’t look alike their buyer’s worst nightmare is a 7 series being mistaken for a 5 series each car is supposed to have its own identity i’m not sure what identity this is evil robot hippo the main idea up front is that they’ve split the headlights so the main headlamp lives down here and then the face of the car is kind of formed by these
Led running lights which are actually impregnated with swarovski crystals obviously and then because there’s not quite enough light on the front of the i7 they’ve illuminated the grille as well and as you can see this split headlamp motif is going to be the new face of all new luxury bmws they’ve already given the mighty x7 a 7 series face transplant lovely as
We take a very long walk down the side things calm down a bit because well this is a traditional saloon or a sedan if you prefer whereas the mercedes eqs can be optimized aerodynamically for being fully electric this is much more upright than a traditional saloon car because of course the seven will have to contain engines and gearboxes and a radiator whether
Or not you like how this car looks is going to depend on where you’re watching this right now and i don’t mean in bed or on the toilet see if you’re european possibly not but apparently the american and the chinese market they’re the ones that want more chrome more grill more attitude so this is really giving the people what they want in the markets that matter
Now back here the badge i7 x drive so four-wheel drive dual motor and a 60 that’s a power classification don’t worry about that what you need to know is that this has got 544 horsepower which coincidentally is exactly the same amount of power you get from the 740i v8 the battery is a huge 102 kilowatt-hour job which can charge at up to 20 kilowatts meaning you
Can add 112 miles of range in about 10 minutes range well bmw claims 382 miles or 615 kilometers now that’s a lot but the slippery mercedes eqs and the lucid air will go a lot further on a charge this i7 will do not to 62 miles an hour in 4.7 seconds and tops out at 149 miles an hour but if that’s not quick enough wait for the i7 m70 which is coming with over 600
Horsepower but what if you’re not quite ready to go all electric well under here you will be able to find straight 6 and v8 engines depending on what market you’re buying your 7 series in but for us in the uk all seven series will come with a charging cable and that’s because we’re only getting the i7 and the plug-in hybrids now the really interesting one of those
Is the m760e because that’s going to have a combined 571 horsepower which will be plenty to whisk you between your meetings now you’re back at the office okay long enough outside i think this is limousine the real action is in there not in the cheap seats let’s open these automatic doors and jump in the back so what is all the fuss about in the back of the
I7 i mean yeah got loads of leg room lovely comfy pillows in the headrests and seats are comfortable look even got cup holders but no what you really want to be back here for is when you delve into your little touch pad and enter theater mode and at this point the blinds close a han zimmer soundtrack plays and you get a 31 inch screen which i am going to ask to
Shut up now let’s just turn you down look at this a ultra wide screen 8k definition with 5g internet connectivity and amazon fire tv built in forget playing i spy this is the ultimate in rear seat entertainment now i’m operating everything back here by this smartphone that seems to have somehow melted itself into the door you can do things like put the rear blind
Down and then there’s the clever seats as well if i press this button here this seat takes on a life of its own that’s now going to fold itself completely out of the way it obviously knows if someone’s sitting there and doesn’t squash them into the glove box then the back of it becomes a foot rest and any second now my seat will start to morph into a lounger so
You can pretty much lie down while being driven along obviously you’ll have a chauffeur and enjoying whatever’s on the screen i mean it’s possible to completely forget that you’re still in a car here a road legal car amongst the traffic this is well it’s the full netflix and chill on your own experience what worries me here is how mercedes and audi will react
The german car makers are permanently locked in a battle to out gadget each other bmw invents the x6 everyone copies it mercedes creates the cls the others have to react so how on earth are they going to top bmw here it might be easier to stop building cars and just fit a steering wheel to a movie theater actually before i get completely relaxed we ought to have
A poke around my chauffeur’s new office as well you might think that all the good stuff has been saved for the back but i have to say this is a sensational cabin don’t know where to start look at this seat control it’s made of glass this speaker grille i don’t know it could have come from an egyptian pharaoh’s tomb steering wheel looks futuristic we’ve got this
Curved display that wraps around so it’s still a bit drive orientated like bmws of old but this has gone fully touchscreen don’t worry you can still use the idrive controller down here which i like and then totally new graphics up front the woods just up here and the lovely movement on these cup holder covers just think that is fabulous the vents have all been
Hidden away you wiggle this little toggle and that change where the air blows and you’ve got touch sensitive controls on the polycarbonate finisher here to direct the air and then there’s things like the ambient lighting it’s all backlit through this surface and as i cycle through the modes for example i stick it in sport completely changes the ambience of the
Cabin you can turn this down if it’s a bit much for you but yeah i’m a bit of a tart and i really really like this seat feels fabulously comfortable we’ve got cashmere and wool upholstery very grown up isn’t it much more of a vegan interior vibe you can have in here and yeah as a whole you don’t feel shortchanged in the front of here i think i actually prefer
This to the current s-class that’s just one big screen in the eqs of course with the hyper screen even more pixels this feels more like a car less of a pane of glass with a steering wheel in the middle of it but it’s welcoming and it’s such high quality the thing about these huge palaces that try to be the best car in the world is they’re really crystal balls
Previewing the tech and features we all get on our normal cars in about five or ten years maybe a load of what’s on the i7 today will be in a 3 series or even a mini by the end of the decade so the question for you to ponder is which features do you like and which do you hope that bmw leaves behind now go away because i’ve got some serious binge watching to do
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FIRST LOOK: BMW i7 – All-Electric Luxury Saloon with a Backseat Cinema | Top Gear By Top Gear
