"Don't be afraid of floating clouds to cover your eyes."
For the direction of the global automotive market, the BMW Group, which has a century-old history, has always had a clear strategy and accurate judgment.
Today, under the new wave of electrification, digitalization and sustainable development of the global automotive industry, the BMW Group is leading the large luxury car segment into the era of pure electric.
On April 20, bmw group's new BMW 7 series held its global debut in Beijing, showing the world for the first time the innovative BMW i7, which is not only the fifth pure electric product brought by bmw group to China, but also the flagship of bmw group's pure electric product lineup.
"The new BMW 7 Series is our pinnacle, combining trendsetting disruptive design with innovative technology. The innovative BMW i7 is the strongest of the 7 Series, the latest example of BMW's successful development and determined electrification transformation. BMW Group Chairman Chiptzer said.
As a new achievement of the BMW Group in the field of electrification, the innovative BMW i7 is equipped with the bmw group's fifth-generation electric drive system, and adopts advanced computing platforms and intelligent equipment, which technically has the possibility of L3 automatic driving; the intelligent cockpit brings a series of unprecedented innovation and artistic design, BMW surround interactive light belt, BMW suspension giant screen and glittering panoramic star orbit sky curtain, highlighting the breakthrough design concept everywhere.
More importantly, starting with the global debut of the innovative BMW i7, the BMW Group's electrification process has accelerated.
According to the plan, the BMW Group will mass-produce and trial-produce 15 pure electric models in 2022, and the "new generation" model based on the new structure will start trial production in 2024 and be unveiled in 2025. By the end of 2025, the BMW Group plans to deliver 2 million pure electric vehicles worldwide. At that time, a quarter of the BMW Group's sales in the Chinese market will be pure electric models.
Create a large luxury pure electric segment
For a long time, although the market capacity of D-class flagship models is limited, it largely depicts the development trajectory of luxury car forces and determines the image height of luxury brands.
As BMW's flagship model, it has been leading the automotive industry with its bold, avant-garde design style and brand philosophy since its birth in 1977.
This innate spirit of innovation combined with the future of electrification and digital development, from the inside out, has made today's innovative BMW i7.
In terms of appearance, the innovative BMW i7 has a strong sense of visual impact, the front face grille size is wider, the LED light source embedded in the grille is more refreshing, the headlights adopt a split design, the upper part is a crystal daytime running light, the lower part is a matrix LED headlight, and the two sides are designed with a cooling trough, providing a two-color body version.
In terms of interior, the innovative BMW i7 uses a two-frame steering wheel; a one-piece curved screen composed of a 12.3-inch full LCD instrument and a 14.9-inch touch-sensitive central control display to simplify the complexity and greatly reduce the number of physical buttons in the whole car; the newly designed panoramic star orbit sky screen creates a more spacious, modern and comfortable interior space; and users can also choose different theme modes through the new BMW iDrive and BMW operating system 8.0 according to personal preferences.
The new car has a huge change in the rear, which is equipped with a 31-inch floating giant screen with a resolution of up to 8K, and cleverly integrated into the roof system to play entertainment content in 32:9 format. At the same time, iQIYI and Huawei app stores have also been introduced internally to create a rear-row entertainment system tailored for Chinese users. Rear passengers can also control the rear entertainment system and comfort configuration through the 5.5-inch touchscreen on the door panel, and with the BAUER Vegen sound system, create an exclusive mobile private theater for the rear row.
It is worth mentioning that the new 7 Series is a BMW model inspired by China, jointly developed by the design department of BMW headquarters and the DesignWorks Design Studio in Shanghai.
"The new BMW 7 Series was developed in Germany and the design was inspired by China. China is not only the world's largest market for the 7 Series, but also a leader in future automotive design trends. We believe that today's China's movements will lead the world's direction tomorrow. "Gao Le, President and CEO of the BMW Group Greater China, once again highlighted the transformative power of the Chinese market.
According to official data, BMW delivered a total of 846,000 new cars in China in 2021, an increase of 8.9% year-on-year and accounting for nearly 34% of global sales.
In fact, as one of BMW's largest automotive markets in the world, Chinese consumers are influencing the development of the global automotive industry to some extent, especially in the field of digitalization and electrification.
"Chinese luxury car customers are much younger than users from other countries, only less than 40 years old. In this regard, technology plays an important role, which we call the charm of technology. Gao Le said that the engineering development of the new BMW 7 series was developed in Germany and the design was inspired by China, and the expectations of Chinese customers were fully considered from the product concept stage.
"The new 7 Series is a big step forward in design, and the life cycle plan of a model is 7 years. When designing a car, it is necessary to be forward-looking, and it needs to be designed for the taste of consumers after 7 years, and the new 7 series has achieved a leap in design. Gao Le said.
As the flagship model of the BMW Group is also a pioneer in the application of innovative technology, in the future, the innovative BMW i7 will point the direction for the entire BMW product family, and the highlights of its innovative design and technology configuration will gradually be popularized to other models. At the same time, the promotion effect of the flagship model on the brand will also radiate to other models.
The electrification offensive is in full swing
In recent years, China's auto market is undergoing earth-shaking changes. On the one hand, the wave of electrification and digitalization has swept the automotive industry. As a center of innovation, Chinese consumers have a higher demand for smart electric vehicles; at the same time, with the rapid development of China's economy, the income level of Chinese residents has increased significantly, and the consumer demand for luxury cars is also increasing; in addition, under China's "3060 double carbon" goal, low-carbon travel has also been placed in an unprecedented important position.
In the face of a sustainable future, BMW has planned a clear route from many areas.
As early as the end of last year, the BMW Group officially coordinated its corporate strategy with China's development goals, comprehensively upgraded the "2025 China Strategy" - adhering to the principle of "China first", giving priority to the needs of the Chinese market in new product development, and continuously strengthening the co-creation of win-win results with Chinese partners. Looking ahead to 2025, the BMW Group will accelerate electrification, digitalization and sustainable development in China, keeping pace with China.
With the advent of the innovative BMW i7, the BMW Group supports sustainable development in China with a comprehensive and continuous product offensive.
"The innovative BMW i7 is the leader in the acceleration of electrification in the BMW Group. It is expected that in 2022, the BMW Group will mass-produce and trial-produce 15 pure electric vehicle models, covering about 90% of the luxury car segment, and BMW will also provide 5 pure electric vehicle models for Chinese customers. Gao Le said.
"BMW's long-term judgment of China is unchanged. China still has the conditions for growth, China's travel demand will continue to exist, and China's luxury car market may grow to the level of 5 million units in the next few years. Gao Le pointed out, "In the future, fuel vehicles will still have a large share and will not return to zero, and electric vehicles will also achieve a large share." Now in the transition period towards electrification, no one knows how fast the electrification transition will be. The strategy of introducing models with different power-driven forms at the same time during the transition period is entirely correct. ”
To that end, the new 7 Series is also BMW's first large luxury sedan to offer multiple drive forms, including all-electric, plug-in hybrid and advanced fuel engine drive systems.
The innovative BMW i7 is a vivid representation of the BMW Group's sustainable strategy.
It is understood that the BMW i7's battery and vehicle production all use green electricity, and the application of high-quality recycled materials further reduces carbon emissions. The BMW i7 offers customers a stylish Merino leather/cashmere combination interior. The new car also uses high-standard recycled aluminum in a targeted manner, significantly reducing carbon emissions in the supply chain. The launch of such a pure electric large luxury car once again confirms the BMW Group's development concept of "no sustainability and no luxury".
The new lineup of large luxury cars is the embodiment of the BMW Group's ability to leverage its strengths and fully assume its responsibility to customers, society and the environment. These exciting products prove that the BMW Group is firmly innovating and paying real attention to customer needs, combining successful development and firm transformation.
In the face of a sustainable future, BMW has anchored a clear route, and while accelerating the electrification offensive, it will also set a new benchmark for the large luxury car segment and lead a new trend of sustainable travel in the future.