The seventh-generation of BMW’s flagship 7 series sedan has arrived with lots of changes và many improvements. It’s also the first iteration of 7 to lớn be available with completely electric propulsion. We recently had the opportunity to drive the two different variants of the new 7 in the mountains & deserts near Palm Springs, California and came away mostly impressed with the experience but also with some concerns that apply not just to lớn the 7 but the tự động industry as a whole.
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2023 BMW 760i Sam Abuelsamid
The first thing you’ll notice about the 7 is a major shift in the design. Prior generations always had a sleeker look that was in keeping with the generally sporting nature of the BMW brand. This 7 is a much more visually imposing beast, especially from the front.
Beginning with the 7, X7 và XM, BMW is introducing a new front kiến thiết language for its vị trí cao nhất luxury models. Instead of the traditional pair of headlights on each side, these feature a horizontally split lighting array. The upper slot features slim, LED driving lamps while a slower slot features a pair of LED headlamps.
In between is the extra large twin kidney grille. The big grille first appeared a couple of years back on the mid-cycle update of the previous 7, & interestingly, the new actually looks slightly smaller although BMW says it isn’t. It’s just an optical illusion created by the taller face of the new model. The more imposing appearance carries through to the rest of the 7 with a two-inch taller roofline, & higher beltline, all in service of providing some space at the bottom of the car to accommodate the battery pack of the electric i7.
I’m still not entirely sold on BMW’s use of the large kidney grilles, but overall the 7 looks better in the California sunshine than it did in a darker sự kiện space in Manhattan where we first saw it last April. With an extra 5.1-inches of length & 1.9-inches of width, the new 7 retains the brand’s classic long-hood proportions và looks handsome on the road or in a parking lot. Like the upcoming XM, the 7 also has a slim LED light around the perimeter of the kidneys that helps ensure that anyone seeing the oto at night will know exactly what brand it is.
2023 BMW 760iSam Abuelsamid
BMW’s decision to lớn use a flexible architecture for most of its latest models that can accommodate internal combustion engines or electric propulsion certainly gives it flexibility khổng lồ shift the mã sản phẩm mix based on customer demand,but it also brings some compromises. For example, the i7, like the i4 retains the transmission tunnel in the floor, even though it isn’t needed. Similarly, the long hood looks good, but BMW has opted not to lớn include any front storage on its EVs.
2023 BMW i7Sam Abuelsamid
The examples we got to drive were equipped with BMW"s new automatic powered doors. Any or all of the doors can be opened from the key fob, điện thoại app or by touching the door handle. A dozen ultrasonic sensors that are typically used for parking assist are integrated into the 7 including into each of the door handles. If the oto is in a tight parking space or a pedestrian or cyclist is too close, the sensors will detect this & stop the doors from opening. From the inside there is a cảm ứng control at each over of the dash and on the rear door panels to xuất hiện or close the doors. Does anyone actually need powered doors lượt thích this? Almost certainly not, but when you are buying a $100+ luxury car, you get what you want, not just what you need.
2023 BMW i7Sam Abuelsamid
The interior is where things get more interesting. Lượt thích other recent BMWs, the 7 now features a large curved display featuring the 12.3-inch instrument cluster and 14.9-inch central touchscreen area. Back in 2001, when the fourth-gen 7 debuted with the first iDrive central controller & voice recognition, one of the reasons given was that with more features being added to cars, especially in premium segments, it was becoming increasingly difficult to lớn integrate controls for everything. In the two decades since, the problem has only gotten worse.
Both iDrive và voice recognition have improved dramatically in the past two decades and especially in the past few years. But at the same time, the number of features included has exploded. For example, in 2001, we didn’t have massaging seats, ambient light bars, 31-inch theater screens or doors that powered mở cửa and closed. All of these and much more are available on the new 7. The latest iDrive OS8 retains a fairly similar overall interface khổng lồ the prior versions with the central screen featuring a series of widgets that can be scrolled through. However a tap on the apps icon reveals many, many more functions. Trying to use these or find what you’re looking for while driving or even as a passenger can be maddening.
2023 BMW i7Sam Abuelsamid
Fortunately, the voice recognition system is now tied into most vehicle functions & can execute most of what you might want to vày such as turn on seat heaters or ventilation. You can even say “Hey BMW, crack xuất hiện the windows” & it will drop the windows a couple of inches for natural ventilation. However, it’s still not quite full natural language processing. For example, if you want to open or close the sun shades in the rear windows, you have to lớn refer to them as sun blinds. Nonetheless, voice control does go a long way toward overcoming the challenge of creeping featuritis.
2023 BMW i7 first driveSam Abuelsamid
The interior of the 7 continues to lớn raise the bar on premium feel. Like the iX, the 7 features Swarovski crystal details for the seat adjusters và iDrive controller, shifter switch và volume roller. While it looks a bit more ostentatious than the machine knurled controls in recent Genesis vehicles, the larger facets actually make it easier to lớn get a grip & provide precise inputs. Once we found the seat controls, they proved to lớn be very comfortable and three different coverings are available. The six-cylinder 740i which wasn’t available to test is covered in a synthetic leather called Veganza while the i7 & V8 760i get Merino leather. A third BMW Individual option is a combination of Merino leather and cashmere wool which feels particularly warm and inviting.
The new 7 gets a standard four-zone climate control system with front vents that are hidden in the gap between the upper & lower portions of the dashboard, much like the Tesla mã sản phẩm 3/Y. Unlike the Teslas which require you khổng lồ go into the touchscreen to lớn adjust the direction of airflow, the BMW does have some dedicated controls near the vents.
2023 BMW i7 first driveSam Abuelsamid
The rear seat is as roomy as you would expect in a oto with a 126-inch wheelbase, but it also features plenty of technology. Controls for the rear temperature, windows, seats & doors are accessed through a 5.5-inch touchscreen display in the door armrest. As in the front, there are lots of interface layers to lớn go through as the featuritis extends everywhere. When equipped with the rear executive lounge seat, a few taps on that screen will slide the front passenger seat all the way forward, extend the ottoman và recline the right rear seat.
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2023 BMW i7Sam Abuelsamid
This makes for an excellent viewing angle for the optional 31-inch rear theater screen. This ultrawide screen has built in Amazon Fire TV so you can stream just about anything to it. However, its 32:9 aspect ratio is far wider than almost any nội dung you can get, which means you will have the option of letter-boxing most nội dung or stretching/cropping to fill the screen. While BMW doesn’t offer a split screen option so rear passengers can watch different content, the video clip can be shifted left or right so either passenger can get a more direct view.
2023 BMW i7 first driveSam Abuelsamid
With the screen lowered from the roof, the driver has no rear visibility except for the outside mirrors. Unfortunately, BMW hasn’t yet fitted the 7 with a digital camera mirror system although sources at the automaker are saying that it will be added with the theater screen package sometime in 2023.
2023 BMW 760i first driveSam Abuelsamid
For North America, 7 buyers will have three propulsion options to choose from. The 740i comes with an upgraded 375-hp 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline six cylinder engine and rear wheel drive. The 760 gets an updated 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 with 536-hp going to lớn all four wheels. Both gas engines are paired with a new 48V mild hybrid system integrated with the ZF 8-speed automatic transmission. Unlike the previous generation which used a belted starter generator, this one has the electric motor in between the engine and torque converter to lớn provide better responsiveness and additional torque boosting.
2023 BMW i7Sam Abuelsamid
The third option is the battery electric i7 which features an electric induction motor không tính tiền of rare earth magnets at each axle và a 101.7-kWh lithium ion battery under the floor spanning most of the distance between the axles. The motors deliver a combined output of 536-hp and 549 lb-ft of torque. The i7 gets a more efficient heat pump climate control system to lớn mitigate the impact of weather on driving range. The driving range itself hasn’t been finalized by EPA yet, but it is expected khổng lồ be about 300 miles. While this may seem light compared to the claims of Tesla and Lucid, so far BMW EVs have pretty consistently outperformed the EPA range estimates.
Regardless of nguồn choice all the 7s come standard with a four wheel self-leveling air suspension & adaptive dampers. The 760i and i7 also get four-wheel steering with up khổng lồ 3.5-degrees of steering angle và a 2.5-ft smaller turning circle at low speeds.
2023 BMW i7 first driveSam Abuelsamid
We had the opportunity khổng lồ drive both the 760i & i7 & despite having weights of 5,300 & 5,900-lbs respectively, they proved khổng lồ be very pleasurable lớn drive. They offer similar acceleration khổng lồ 60 mph although as expected the i7 seems to lớn leap off the line just a bit quicker before giving way to lớn the lighter V8 as speeds climb. This gets particularly noticeable at speeds above 80 mph where the i7 seems to start losing some of its urgency while the 760i pulls a bit harder well into triple digits.
Whether cruising on the highway, trolling through town or blasting along a curving mountain road, the new 7’s body seems to just glide around. It doesn’t have the floaty feel of a 1970s large American car, but rather, just perfectly controlled body motions with the interactions between the road & suspension happening seamlessly.
2023 BMW i7 first driveAll Rights Reserved
Like many more recent BMWs, the và seems to have lost much of its steering feedback. Selecting thể thao mode simply increases the steering effort without providing more information about the road. On the plus side, the new 7 does feature four-wheel steering which provides some added stability at higher speeds by turning the rear wheels in the same direction as the fronts. At low speeds the rear axle steers in the opposite direction to lớn tighten up the turning circle by about 2.5 feet.
The 7 features a new generation of driver assist capabilities developed with Mobileye. The former tri-focal front camera system has been reduced lớn just two cameras, but the longer range camera has been bumped up lớn 8MP to lớn accurately detect objects at longer distances. There are also five radar sensors & a dozen ultrasonic sensors. This new system is now capable of providing a hands-free driver assist at speeds up khổng lồ 85 mph.
2023 BMW i7 first driveSam Abuelsamid
Like GM Super Cruise & Ford BlueCruise, Highway Assist which is part of driver assist professional uses an infrared camera to make sure the driver is staying attentive during hands-free operation & maps ensure that the system is only activated on divided highways. Overall the highway assist worked well, keeping the 7 centered in the lane và a pair of green lights on the steering wheel spokes as well as icons in the cluster và heads up display indicated when the system was active. Whether using the hands-free highway assist or hands-on drive assist plus, a tap on the turn signal stalk will initiate an automatic lane change as soon as the sensors give the all clear. The lane change on demand worked smoothly and didn’t require an exceptionally large gap in traffic.
We didn’t conduct a full-in range test of the i7, but its 101.7 kWh battery has received EPA range estimates of 296 khổng lồ 318 miles depending on which of the three tire và wheel combinations are fitted. Given the real world results previously achieved with the i4 & iX, the i7 should easily meet or exceed the EPA numbers in real world conditions. That’s not in the same ballpark as the Lucid Air or even the Mercedes-Benz EQS, but most owners are likely to need a bio-break before the battery is depleted.
2023 BMW i7 first driveSam Abuelsamid
Overall, despite its kích thước and heft, the 760i and i7 proved khổng lồ be surprisingly enjoyable to lớn drive. BMW và other automakers should perhaps start to show a bit more restraint in adding more features that most drivers will rarely if ever use. Nonetheless, for those interested in a very luxurious electric sedan with a more traditional looking shape than the Mercedes-Benz EQS or Lucid Air, the i7 should be on the consideration list if you can live with the controversial face. The 2023 BMW i7 xDrive60 starts at $119,300 while the 740i starts at $93,300 & the 760i begins at $113,600.
I’ve spent my adult life working in and around the automotive industry. After earning a mechanical engineering degree from GMI I spent the next 17 years working on electronic control systems that help cars stop, go và change direction before I drove away to write about what other engineers were creating. Since then I’ve been trying to educate my readers, viewers và listeners about how the latest automotive công nghệ works, what it can do & perhaps more importantly, what it can’t do. Since 2014 I’ve been combining my communications & engineering knowledge as a principal analyst with Navigant Research covering alternative fuels, advanced driving technologies and connected vehicles. I also co-host the Wheel Bearings podcast at https://wheelbearings.media/
