A day ago, Mercedes-Benz released its flagship EQS pure electric SUV, and Audi released the Urbansphere, a four-seat luxury electric MPV concept car. BMW is not far behind, on April 20, it updated the entire lineup of large cars in one go, and the new seventh-generation BMW 7 Series and the new mid-term redesign BMW X7 led by the new pure electric large sedan BMW i7 have made their world debuts.
This generation of "7" somewhat subverts our perceptions
Since its birth, the BMW 7 Series has lasted 45 years of development and has sold more than 2 million units worldwide. Today, China is the most important market in the world for the BMW 7 Series, with nearly half of its sales coming from China. The seventh generation of the BMW 7 Series will be produced at the Dingefin plant in Germany, engineering and developed in Germany and inspired by China.
Once upon a time, if you were asked about BMW's most iconic design, I believe that most of the answers should not run out of the kidney-shaped grille and angel eye headlights. With the adjustment of BMW's design in recent years, the size of the grille has become larger and larger, extending up and down like two "kidneys", and the shape of the angel eye has gradually simplified from a hexagon to an L-shape, until the seventh generation of the 7 series and X7 this time.
First of all, the size of the central mesh of the seventh generation 7 series is larger, and an LED light source has been added inside to enhance the sense of ceremony. However, the biggest change is the use of split headlights on both sides, above which are inverted L-shaped daytime running lights, but the shape is very narrow and long, and it is even difficult to see the structure of the internal light strip. Below is a far and near integrated laser headlight, which extends downward at the outer border and merges with the newly shaped bumper below in the air intakes on both sides. The front face of the BMW X7 is basically the same.
The lines at the rear of the car are more streamlined than before, even somewhat slippery, with the classic Horned Chrome trim moved to the C-pillar and the addition of matrix geometric dark grain to the rear windows. The taillights are somewhat the opposite, canceling the through-line design, using the traditional split type slender taillights, some BMW 8 Series flavor, the lower bumper shape is more prominent, and the tail shape is more rounded. In this way, coupled with the hidden door handles, 21-inch wheels, and the overall shape of the seventh generation 7 Series, there is some sporty and dynamic style.
For the spy photos and renderings exposed before, some fans are not even willing to believe that after the real car is unveiled, this is a new BMW design language that subverts our cognition.
The body size of the seventh generation 7 series reached 5391× 1950×1548mm, and the wheelbase was 3215mm, which was basically the same as the current model, but the seventh generation 7 series would no longer distinguish between the long wheelbase and the standard wheelbase, only retaining a long wheelbase specification, and still adding the L logo in the domestic market. The new X7 measures 5162×2000×1819mm, wheelbase is 3105mm, and for the first time on a production model, a 23-inch wheel is provided, making the visual effect more prominent.
Front curved screen + iDrive8, performance improvement
The seventh generation of the 7 series uses a larger size of the floating double screen in the front row, combining a 12.3-inch instrument panel with a 14.9-inch central control screen, the display has a graphic resolution of 200 ppi, with a frameless shape design and anti-glare display technology, and adopts a curved design, tilting about 6 degrees in the direction of the driver, showing a sense of surround for the driver.
Under the screen is still BMW's latest iDrive8 system, equipped with two head streaming apps customized for the Chinese market, iQiyi and Tencent Video, to provide Chinese users with a richer in-car entertainment experience. In addition, the iterative WeChat car version experience is more simple, convenient and humanized: users can directly wake up WeChat through the voice command of "open WeChat"; the new "one word is reach" function can directly interact through task instructions; through the long/short press of voice keys on the steering wheel, instruction interaction can be quickly realized.
The newly upgraded BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant debuted on the 7th Generation 7 Series, where the Chinese digital team conducted in-depth market research and a new upgrade to the visual image, supporting front and rear wake-ups, and adding up to 20 new functions, including opening and closing doors, activating designated seat massage, etc. The new "double eyes" design makes the visual image of the new BMW Smart Personal Assistant more personified and provides a breathing ball of light. In addition, inspired by BMW's classic angel eye headlights, 6 kinds of emotional visual designs have been newly launched.
The 7th Generation 7 Series also features seven different themed modes, including four new themed modes for the first time– Relax, Expressive, Digital Art and Theatre. Among them, the "digital art model" is jointly created by the BMW Group and Ms. Cao Fei, an internationally renowned multimedia artist and designer of the 18th BMW art car, and the newly carved and exquisite interface is perfectly presented in an artistic form, and vividly interprets the infectious aesthetic design through the visual effects of intricate light and shadow, light and shade transformation.
At the same time, the CPU capacity of the car-machine system has been increased by 100%, the GPU has been increased by 500%, and it has taken the lead in equipping it with UWB ultra-wideband technology to support the new digital key plus. At a distance of 3 meters, the vehicle begins to wake up, the headlights, taillights and cabin will be lit up with soft lights, and the welcome light blanket will be lit. Within a range of 1.5 meters, the vehicle will be unlocked and the exterior mirrors will be opened. Open the doors, the all-in-one floating curved screen inside the car plays a welcome animation, and the vehicle system loads the driver's personal settings.
The giant screen in the back row gets on the car for the first time and breaks your imagination
If the front row isn't enough to wow you, then this time the back row hides a surprise, the seventh generation 7 series is equipped with a suspended giant screen above the rear row. This is a 31-inch ultra-wide panoramic display with a resolution of up to 8K, integrated in the top of the car, supporting 32:9 mode to play entertainment content, and rear passengers can also switch "cinema mode" through the 5.5-inch armrest touch screen on the door panel, which is called BMW rear entertainment system.
The back-row entertainment system ecology not only introduces the domestic head streaming media application iQIYI, but also provides Chinese users with massive, high-quality, high-definition entertainment content such as movies, dramas, variety shows, and children's animations. In order to bring users a better and unified visual interaction experience, iQIYI in the rear entertainment system has carried out visual customization, which is highly suitable for the new BMW iDrive design language, matching the overall visual effect of BMW's floating giant screen, and iQIYI will also provide more Dolby digital content and self-developed high-quality 5.1 surround sound entertainment content.
In "Cinema Mode", the interior mood lighting and sun blinds will be automatically adjusted, complemented by the 1965kW Bowers & Wilkins 4D Diamond Surround Sound System, creating an exclusive mobile private cinema for the rear. In addition, on the BMW i7, BMW also joined hands with the Grammys, Oscar and Golden Globe winners - the internationally renowned composer Hans Zimmer to create a BMW electric vehicle sound wave simulation, designing exclusive sound effects for each "theme mode", each sound effect has a rich sense of layering, and all echo the visual effects presented under different "theme modes".
The system also introduces huawei application markets to experience multiple categories of in-vehicle applications such as audio-visual entertainment, news reading, and children provided by Huawei's application market. At present, tencent video, Youku video, Kugou music, cloud listening, baby bus, fish picture book and other applications have landed on the new BMW 7 series rear Huawei application market, and there will be more applications on the shelves in the future. BMW is also one of the first luxury car brands to feature Huawei's app market in a rear-seat entertainment system.
The 7 Series with the richest power combination in history
The seventh generation of the 7 Series is the first BMW large luxury sedan to provide multiple drive forms, and it is implemented under the CLAR platform architecture, and is available in pure electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel engine versions, especially the new BMW i7, which is the BMW Group's first pure electric luxury flagship sedan in the world and the model we are most concerned about this time.
As the most powerful model in the 7 Series family, the BMW i7 is equipped with the fifth-generation BMW eDrive system, with a maximum power of 544 horsepower, a peak torque of 745 Nm, an acceleration of only 4.7 seconds at 0-100 km/h, and a cruising range of 625 km under WLTP conditions. The fuel version will offer an optimized 3.0T B58 inline six-cylinder turbocharged engine and a new V8 engine with a 48V light hybrid system. The 3.0T engine has a maximum power of 380 and 286 hp, respectively, and the 4.4T V8 engine has a maximum power of 544 hp. The plug-in hybrid version of the M760e xDrive uses a hybrid system consisting of a straight-six engine and an electric motor, with a maximum power of 571 horsepower.
In addition, the new BMW 7 Series offers L2 level advanced driver assistance features and technically has the possibility of L3 autonomous driving. The Automatic Driving Assistance System Pro includes traffic congestion assist function, lane change assist system, forward collision warning, emergency brake assist, lane correction function, active cruise control system, etc., and can provide optional automatic parking assistance system Pro on the basis of the basis of 200 meters, with a 200-meter track reversing function.
The redesigned BMW X7 has announced overseas power data, xDrive 40i model is equipped with a 3.0T six-cylinder engine + 48V light mixing system, matching the 8-speed Steptronic automatic transmission, the maximum power is 380 horsepower, the peak torque is 540Nm, and the 0-100km/h acceleration is about 5.8 seconds. The M60i xDrive model is equipped with a 4.4T V8 engine + 48V light mixing system, with a maximum power of 530 hp, a peak torque of 750 Nm, and an acceleration of about 4.7 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h.
Che Yun summary
BMW's seventh-generation 7 Series is expected to be available worldwide in November, with fuel-fuel and all-electric models and plug-in hybrid models in 2023. In order to accelerate the pace of electrification in China, in 2022, together with the BMW i3, BMW i4, BMW iX, and BMW iX3 that have been launched so far, BMW will have 5 pure electric vehicle models in the domestic market, including the BMW i7. By next year, it will have 13 pure electric models, and by the end of 2025, the BMW Group plans to deliver more than 2 million pure electric models worldwide, and a quarter of sales in China will be pure electric models.