The new generation of BMW 7 Series was released, both in appearance and interior, compared to the previous generation of products have a very huge innovation, and even said to be a big change in the face, but to my feeling, BMW is actually still very conservative. Why is BMW conservative? Mainly for the following aspects:
First of all, flagship cars like the BMW 7 Series have a long research and development cycle.
Even if this generation of models has just been released, it is necessary to start developing the next generation of models, a top flagship sedan development cycle, usually up to 5 to 6 years, or even 7 to 8 years. So the design we see now is actually finalized many years ago. But now is an era of rapid aesthetic change, rapid change of technology. Iterative updates to cars are much faster than we thought.
Especially now, many new car-making companies have launched challenges to traditional luxury brands such as BMW. In fact, from the perspective of product research and development, the new power companies are more radical. On the contrary, IT seems that BMW's products do not give people a bright feeling.
For example, the new BMW 7 series, using a full LCD instrument, and the central control screen connected together with the large screen, this is not new at all, now more than 100,000 independent brand cars, are all conjoined large screens. There is also BMW that has eliminated the electronic gear that has been used for many years, similar to a large chicken leg, and replaced it with a smaller electronic gear. This is not new, and many other models have already done so.
Second, the user base of the BMW 7 Series is very broad.
What kind of group of users do you think of the BMW 7 Series? Traditionally, we think that the users of the BMW 7 Series are middle-aged people aged 40 to 50. And most of the time sit in the back seat, do not take the initiative to drive, hire a driver to drive. But that's not entirely the case.
When the new BMW 7 Series was released, it was emphasized that the Chinese market accounted for half of the global sales of the BMW 7 Series, and the average age was 38 years old, very young, and most of them chose to drive themselves. Therefore, the BMW 7 Series in the Chinese market must be a young and fashionable image.
This is because China's economy is active, and many young upstarts are born, but other overseas countries are not like China. Therefore, the users of the BMW 7 Series may have more young users in their 30s in China, but there are more users in their 40s and 50s abroad. Therefore, such a broad user base is difficult to take care of.
Therefore, the BMW 7 Series actually carries a very heavy historical burden, which is why the BMW 7 Series attracted such a big controversy after its release.
Third, in BMW's strategic planning, new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles are shared platforms
Now most traditional manufacturers have developed independent pure electric platforms, because pure electric vehicles are completely different from fuel vehicles in structure. But BMW is still adhering to the sharing platform of fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles. Including domestic BMW 3 Series and i3. Domestic BMW X3 and ix3. Now the 7 Series and i7 are the same platform.
In fact, from the sales of domestic ix3, it is not very successful, it is a good electric vehicle, but it does not have a good recognition. Because users buy electric vehicles, they hope that others can recognize them at a glance. So because even if it is very advanced, users will feel that this is "oil to electricity". So now the 7 series and i7 are released at the same time, and the shape is almost exactly the same.
We take the pure electric version of the i7 xDrive60 as an example, equipped with a dual motor drive system, 544 horsepower, 101 kWh of battery, WLTP range of 625 km, support 195kw fast charging. 625 km cruising, encountering winter cruising range shrinkage, that is, you can run ahead of 500 km. I would like to ask, such a mileage, can users be satisfied?