New 7 Series reveals BMW's changing mindset

Munich

WILL it be lucky 7 for BMW? On Tuesday (April 19) the luxury car maker pulled the wraps off its new 7 Series, a car it attaches so much symbolic importance to that it held 3 separate launch events in Beijing, Munich and New York City.

The new 7 Series happens to be the seventh generation of BMW's flagship model. The brand will start rolling the car out to global markets in November, with a possible launch in Singapore by the end of this year.

In a sign that mindsets are changing at a car company once famed for its silky six-cylinder engines, the new 7 Series' unveiling was spearheaded by the i7, a pure electric version. The brand now forecasts that half its sales will come from electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030.

Almost nothing like its predecessor, the redesigned 7 throws a spotlight on what BMW thinks a contemporary limo should be.

"When it comes to technology this car has everything that a car can possibly have," Pieter Nota, the board member in charge of Customer, Brands and Sales at BMW Group, said at the Munich launch. "It's a masterpiece of engineering and ahead of its time, and it lays the foundation for our push into the luxury segment."

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In line with a wholesale revamp, BMW dispensed with building the car in two lengths (hardly anyone bought the short wheelbase version) and instead focused on a single version. At nearly 5.4 metres nose-to-tail, the enormous new 7 is nearly as long as a Rolls-Royce Ghost.

A large, upright grille dominates the front of the car, while the headlamps are split into a slender upper portion made up of backlit Swarovski crystals, and a lower portion where the main lights sit. If you don't like the double lamp design, too bad: BMW head of design Domagoj Dukec said this is a new lighting signature "which will be for all BMWs." The front grille's frame is also lit at night, although only in markets that allow such a feature.

Inside, BMW's designers obviously thought hard about new materials to make occupants feel pampered. A strip of gleaming crystal that stretches across the entire dashboard houses something BMW calls the Interaction Bar, which is a row of touch-sensitive switches (one of them closes the door automatically so you no longer have to stretch for the handle). Traditional materials such as leather and wood are still available, but so is a new organic one: Cashmere upholstery, anyone?

But if anything reveals BMW's evolving approach to luxury, it's that the fastest version of the new 7 Series is electric. The i7 version comes in two power outputs, and the more powerful i7 M70 variant's 660 horsepower motors should launch it to 100 km/h in less than 4 seconds, giving it sportscar performance. BMW reckons the i7 models should be good for around 600 km on a full charge.

The bulk of 7 Series sales, at least for Singapore, will likely come from two petrol versions powered by the same 3.0-litre turbo engine in different states of tune. With 286 hp, the basic 730i gets to 100 km/h in 6.7 seconds, an acceleration time that borders on stately in the electric car era. The 380 hp 740i does the same in 5.4 seconds.

The i7 also highlights BMW's strategy to build combustion and electric versions of the same vehicle, in contrast to Mercedes-Benz. Its rival from Stuttgart also builds cars in combustion and electric form, but also has an expanding line of cars built on dedicated EV architecture.

That approach spawned the EQS, an electric companion to its own flagship S-Class and a direct competitor to BMW's i7. Mercedes-Benz Singapore is previewing the car at a concept store in Great World Mall for an indefinite period, and intends to launch it here by July.

Both embody different ways to build electric cars, but they also reveal a new battlefield in the luxury car wars. While small handheld screens have come to dominate our lives, enormous displays look set to rule car interiors. The Mercedes EQS boasts the Hyperscreen, a collection of of three displays that spans the dashboard's width, measuring 56 inches from corner to corner.

The 7 Series' riposte is the BMW Theatre Screen, a 31.3-inch panoramic display with 8K resolution, designed expressly for the towkay in the back. Raise the window blinds, turn up the surround sound system and once the screen extends down from the ceiling, it turns the rear of the car into a cinema on wheels. It can also stream content from Amazon's Fire TV service using the car's built-in 5G connection.

Whether BMW's wide new Theatre Screen will outshine Mercedes' glittering Hyperscreen dashboard remains to be seen, but the new big boys of the evolving German luxury car world make it clear that one thing hasn't changed: size still matters.