Abstract: BMW is further strengthening the Chinese market, the new BMW 7 Series with Chinese elements as the design language, and shouted the slogan of "home in China"
Text | Li yang
Edited by Li Haoyin
On April 20, the new BMW 7 Series ushered in the world premiere in Munich and Beijing at the same time, in addition to the traditional fuel version of the 7 Series debuted, the pure electric version of the i7 also debuted on the stage.
Chiptzer, Chairman of the BMW Group, said at the scene: "The new BMW 7 Series is our pinnacle, combining trendsetting disruptive design with innovative technology. The innovative BMW i7 is the strongest 7 Series model and the latest example of BMW's successful development and determined electrification transformation. ”
▲ BMW I7 world premiere
It is reported that the BMW i7 and the latest 7 Series fuel version are built from BMW's latest generation of CLAR architecture, and the two cars also have many similarities in appearance. In the era of new energy, BMW is one of the few international car companies that has not mass-produced an exclusive new energy platform. In this regard, there are views in the industry that question whether BMW, which does not have an exclusive platform for pure electricity, can create a truly luxurious electric vehicle. But in fact, luxury electric power itself has nothing to do with the platform, smart cockpit, autonomous driving, and service experience are more important.
BMW i7 is known as the strongest 7 series, but also carries BMW's full understanding of luxury electric vehicles and the latest technology, it is close to 5.4 meters of body and armed to the teeth of the digital configuration, whether it can shake the luxury car market, but also to some extent represent the success or failure of BMW's round of electrification and digital transformation.
BMW's strongest 7 series color geometry?
From the appearance point of view, BMW's latest 7 series has undergone subversive changes compared with the past, with a clear Chinese style design language. The 5,391 mm long, 1,950 mm wide and 1,548 mm high volume also conforms to the "atmospheric" aesthetic of the Chinese market.
As Gao Le, President and CEO of the BMW Group Greater China, said, the engineering development of the new BMW 7 Series in Germany and the design inspired by China fully demonstrate the BMW Group's strong commitment to 'home in China'. China is not only the largest market for the 7 Series, but also a leader in future automotive design trends.
At the interior level, the "leather + cashmere" combination was used for the first time, and the crystal decorative accessories, solid wood decoration, and metallic sound cover formed a huge stylistic contrast with the previous 7 series. The steering wheel shape has become a double-width style, and the left and right buttons have also been optimized to avoid unnecessary physical buttons as much as possible, and its functional operation is mainly carried out through car-machine interaction. This is BMW's so-called "Shy Tech" invisible technology concept.
▲ BMW I7 interior
The design is stunning, but the power is decent. Like the iX, the BMW i7 is powered by the fifth-generation BMWeDrive system. The endurance level will have a cruising range of more than 600 kilometers. Among them, the i7 battery capacity is 101.7 kWh; the maximum charging power is 195 kW; the dual motor releases the maximum output power of 400 kW (544 horsepower), the zero to 100 km acceleration takes only 4.7 seconds, and the minimum energy consumption of 100 km/h is 18.4 kWh.
Compared with Mercedes-Benz's competitor model EQS, its 100 km/h acceleration is 6.4S, the battery capacity is 111.8kWh, the NEDC endurance is 813km, and the power consumption is 14.2kWh. In contrast, the EQS has a greater battery life = excellent, but the i7 has a stronger acceleration capability.
However, compared with the model S, the benchmark of real luxury electric vehicles, it is slightly insufficient. The Model S three-motor all-wheel drive version has a maximum horsepower of more than 1,000 hp, a time of 2.1 seconds to complete 0-100km/h acceleration, and a maximum speed of 322km/h.
However, BMW also has its own advantages, and its driving experience has never disappointed consumers. Dual wishbones and air suspension are already standard in BMW, and the dual-shaft adaptive air suspension can be dynamically adjusted according to the speed and vehicle load, and together with the active electronically controlled anti-roll bar, the overall rear wheel steering and the front and rear electronic limiting system to improve handling and balance the weight burden of the battery pack.
Can the BMW i7 leverage the Chinese luxury car market
Appearance, interior, and power are the troika of traditional car aesthetics, but in the era of intelligent electricity, it is no longer the standard for measuring a new car. In contrast, smart cockpits, autonomous driving, and service experiences are more important.
Wilson analyst Hu Wanying analyzed the concerns of consumers on Caijingqiche (ID: caijingqiche): is the cockpit really smart, the level of automatic driving is geometric, and how is the service experience? When the product and all the above services are packaged together, when the card is swiped to buy a car, does it make the consumer feel that it is worth the money?
In terms of automatic driving, the i7 vehicle is equipped with more than 30 assisted driving sensors, in line with the most intelligent aesthetics of consumers at present, BMW officially said that i7 has the hardware basis of L3 level automatic driving, but it is still in the category of L2 level automatic assisted driving.
The intelligent experience of i7 is undoubtedly BMW's leading technology integration, and its clar platform can support BMW's new generation of electrical and electronic architecture, 5G interconnection technology, Gigabit Ethernet, etc., in terms of interconnection functionality, computing power and intelligence. The "iDrive 8.0" system is equipped with 5G mobile network technology to further upgrade the digital experience, and the total transmission speed can reach 30 Gbit per second, and the response time is negligible.
However, intelligent experience is a very personal feeling of the field, the same function in different models of experience differences greatly, BMW's luxury electric concept is accurate, all up to consumers to decide.
▲ BMW I7
From the data point of view, BMW 7 series history is quite good, after 45 years of development, in the global cumulative sales of more than 2 million vehicles, china is currently the most important market for BMW 7 series, almost half of the sales are from the Chinese market, so the new 7 series to "home in China" as the slogan, the design is also as close as possible to fit chinese elements.
In 2021, BMW won the luxury car sales championship after six years with sales of 2.522 million units, and BMW is also the only brand in the top three German brands to achieve positive growth in the Chinese market. At the beginning of 2022, BMW shouted the slogan of investing 26 new cars in China and launching the biggest product offensive.
However, from the perspective of new energy data, BMW's electrification products in the Chinese market are still a long journey. The annual sales volume of 48,000 units increased by 69.6% year-on-year, far lower than the average growth rate of new energy vehicles in China (168%). This is still BMW's achievements by relying on price cuts, such as the pure electric BMW iX3 in addition to the official price reduction of 70,000 yuan, the preferential margin in the 4S store once reached 120,000 yuan / car.
Nowadays, bmw i7, which is completely in line with China's aesthetic development, is undoubtedly an important bridgehead for BMW to strengthen the Chinese market, and under the trend of the era of luxury concept gradually shifting to intelligent experience and human service, whether the i7 can pry the Chinese luxury car market still needs time to give an answer.