Through the first nine months of the year, 7 Series are down in the United States by 8.8%. That tells us the excitement brought by the G70 generation seems to be cooling down. It s impossible to quantify how much the unusual front fascia has impacted sales. What we do know is that BMW s flagship is already preparing for a Life Cycle Impulse.
A short spy video recorded in sunny Europe shows a camouflaged prototype of the luxobarge. It looks as though BMW was testing the fully electric i7 judging by the license plate ending in E. Interestingly, the fullsize sedan has a matte Individual paint job, possibly Frozen Deep Gray. Maybe the disguise is playing tricks on us, but the kidney grille is a touch smaller?
We re also not sure what to make of the headlights. There are no apparent daytime running lights positioned above the main headlights. We d be tempted to say the 7 Series will once again have one-piece lights, but the camouflage could be deceiving. BMW also covered the prototype s rear, likely to mask presumably updated taillights.
Whatever is hiding underneath the camo, it’s the work of now-departed Domagoj Dukec. All BMWs coming until 2029 have already been penned by the old design team. The next-gen 7 Series will be designed by former Polestar boss Maximilian Missoni, now in charge of BMW’s upper midsize and large cars. In other words, all models from the 5 Series and up, plus the ALPINAs.
Although this i7 seemingly had the current infotainment setup, the 7 Series LCI is widely believed to get iDrive X. Arriving first on the Neue Klasse-based iX3 in 2025, the revamped infotainment will bring a larger central screen. The conventional instrument cluster will make way for a dashboard-wide head-up display, dubbed Panoramic Vision.
If the 7 Series facelift goes into production in July 2026 as previously reported, logic tells us it ll end up in the United States as a 2027MY car. Prepare to say goodbye to the i letter at the end of the names of the gas models. As already seen in the new 1 Series and X3, BMW is tweaking its naming strategy. With facelifts and next-gen cars, the i will be dropped, but the diesels will keep the d and plug-in hybrids the e. In the future, only purely electric models will feature “i” in their names.
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First published by https://www.bmwblog.com
