On April 20, BMW officially released its new generation of 7 Series and i7 models. The new car will be available in November this year.
The BMW 7 Series and the innovative BMW i7 debut in China are actually BMW's first attempts, which also proves the importance of the Chinese automotive market to BMW. At the same time, Gao Le, President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China, said that the design of the new BMW 7 Series was inspired by China, and also specially stated that the new BMW 7 Series is based on the perception of China's traditional humanistic spirit and contemporary enterprising spirit, so it pays more attention to the combination of momentum and affinity in design.
The BMW 7 Series has now been replaced for the sixth time, and in this generation, the BMW 7 Series has finally undergone a significant change. First of all, in terms of appearance, the BMW 7 Series adopts a larger "big nostril" type front grille, which has a more powerful aura and a very significant improvement in vehicle recognition.
There are also many consumers who feel that this design is ugly and does not conform to Chinese elements. However, some consumers think that the larger the "big nostrils", the better the BMW looks, so this "big nostrils" design is also a benevolent person, the wise person sees the wisdom.
At the same time, the front of the BMW7 Series adopts an upward posture, and with the light groups on both sides, the BMW7 Series is particularly offensive from a distance.
However, it is worth mentioning that the replacement of the sixth generation of BMW7 series, BMW finally gave up the design language that has not been changed for decades, greatly changed, this change also completely subverted BMW's previous design concept, and even BMW has made earth-shaking changes in the interior.
In the interior design, the most conspicuous place is the change of BMW multimedia screen, this generation of BMW 7 series finally adopted a large screen design in line with the trend of the times, the design of the center console is also very simple, even the physical buttons have been greatly reduced, such a design has not appeared in any previous BMW model of any generation. Even the mood light BMW uses diamond-cut design elements to further enhance the interior texture.
In the back row, the BMW 7 Series is also equipped with a 31-inch 8k ultra-wide screen, which can highlight its own technology atmosphere and business atmosphere. At the same time, this screen can also be folded, folded to the roof when not looking, which is the only model in the market that has this function.
The new BMW i7 is BMW's fifth all-electric model in the Chinese market and the flagship of BMW's lineup of all-electric models. The innovative BMW i7 also marks the entry of BMW's flagship-class models into the era of electrification.
The earliest starting time of the new energy industry is 2017, but BMW Group has not entered the new energy industry, but chose to officially enter the new energy industry in 2020, in the long run, BMW Group has actually been doing the layout into the electrification era, and finally released its first pure electric SUV - IX3 after the layout was completed. At this point, BMW officially entered the new energy industry, and the i series has also become the naming index of BMW's new energy models.
According to the latest data released by bmw group, in 2021, BMW's annual domestic sales 846237 vehicles, an increase of 8.9%; global annual sales of 2521525 vehicles, an increase of 8.4% year-on-year, of which BMW brand 2213795, MINI brand 302144, Rolls-Royce 5586 vehicles, these sales data are also proof BMW will also go further and strive to be the first in the sales list.
In the first quarter of this year alone, BMW's cumulative sales in the Chinese auto market reached 208,500 units, of which the sales of pure electric vehicles reached 3 times that of the same period last year.
Electrification is an opportunity for all automakers, and seizing this opportunity will do more with less.
As Mr. Duke, head of brand design at BMW Group, said: Electrification and digitalization open up a new world, just like opening Pandora's box. However, BMW, as a car company with a century-old heritage, has 120,000 employees and 31 factories, and the brand is responsible for employees, brand history, and a large group of car fans.
BMW as a luxury brand, is to innovate the design, but BMW's model replacement cycle is 7 years, 7 years of replacement cycle compared to other car companies will be more disadvantageous, but once replaced is a bright existence.
The i-series is not the traditional impression of oil to electricity
The platform used by BMW i7 is the CLAR platform, but the CLAR platform is not a pure pure electric platform, so most netizens call the i7 oil to electricity, and the positioning of the CLAR platform does include gasoline, plug-in, pure electricity of the extremely flexible platform.
After the emergence of the CLAR platform, it quickly filled the gap of BMW pure electric models, and since 2018, BMW has filled its own electric models with all levels of the market, from the middle end to the high end.
Will i7 be domestically produced?
From a long-term strategic point of view, the i7 should not be domestically produced for the time being, and there are three reasons why it will not be domestically produced: first, due to the impact of the epidemic, the production efficiency of the factory will be very low, and second, BMW's market share in China's electric vehicle market is still very small, and there are many competitors at the same level who are more outstanding in the new energy industry. Third, at present, most Chinese consumers still do not recognize new energy products, or insist on choosing traditional cars.
The positioning of the i7 also marks that it is not a big toy that everyone wants to choose, and it is a big toy for rich people after all. If the sales volume of the i7 in China is high in the future, it is possible that the BMW Group will consider putting the i7 into production in the Chinese market.
Written in the end: BMW 7 Series and i7 are BMW itself after four or five years of research and development to dare to push out the model, and now the replacement of the design style is a bold attempt of the BMW Group, to be different from other competitors, in order to highlight their own advantages, to attract consumers. Entering the era of electrification is also a strategic layout of the BMW Group. At this stage, what BMW needs to do is to improve resilience, improve technology, upgrade the three-electric system and platform again, and meet the future development.