The new BMW 7 Series: evolutionary design and high-tech features

Production Cars 11 Jun 2015

BMW has revealed the new generation 7 Series flagship, with a look that evolves the DNA of the current model and a high-tech, luxury interior focused on comfort and connectivity.

The design of the new flagship adopts elements from the current design DNA of the brand, such as the muscular hood and front end and the L-shaped headlights, on top on the trademark proportions and styling cues, from the Hofmeister kink of the window frame to the kidney grille, which in this model features active shutters.

The structure makes use of a number of carbon fiber structural elements and other lightweighting technologies, which allows to achieve a total weight savings of 130 kg compared to the outgoing model.

The interior features a host of high-tech features, including an advanced interface controllable by customized gestures and capable of speech recognition, a new, larger head-up display wireless charging functions.

The car is offered with a BMW Touch Command – a tablet app that can operate the car’s infotainment system as well as other functions like seat adjustments.

The Sky Lounge Panorama Roof features a LED lights pattern that creates an atmospheric motif mimicking a starry sky, also matching the six colors of the cabin ambient light to create a range of different ambience atmospheres.

Another light-based feature is the Welcome Light Carpet, the illuminates the car surrounding with white light patterns.

Additional technologies include the Remote Control Parking that allows for semi-automated parking manoeuvres.

A morph animation showing the evolution of the design of the 7 Series

Below we report additional details on the exterior design, selected from the press release. Also check the full image gallery.

Exterior Design

At 5,098 millimeters in length, 1,902 mm in width and 1,478 (1,485) in height, the new BMW 7 Series is the largest series-produced car the brand has ever built.

Like its predecessor, the new BMW 7 Series is also offered in an “extended” variant, with a 14 cm longer wheelbase that allows for extra rear space.

Both body variants display familiar BMW proportions, headlined by a long hood, short front overhang, long wheelbase and set-back passenger compartment – all complemented by a smoothly downward-sloping roofline.

Among the exterior features is the visible air flap control in the grille: the air flap is only open when there is an increased cooling air requirement, remaining closed the rest of the time. This improves aerodynamics as well as giving the front end an even more eye- catching appearance due to the visibly increased number of bars in the large BMW kidney grille.

The headlight units extend up as far as the grille, while the light graphic of the familiar BMW twin circular headlights is leveled off at its upper and lower edges. Both in standard full-LED form and when optional BMW Laserlight is specified, the headlights have an extremely detailed design that accentuates the sophisticated technology at work.

The lower air intake stretched wide across the front end, the chrome bars in the outer edges of the intake and the horizontal contours of the LED foglamps underline the car’s broad-set stance.

The prevalence of outward-curving surfaces when the new BMW 7 Series is viewed from the side give the car a powerful appearance.

The door handles are incorporated with great precision into the character line, which now takes the form of a double swage line.

The wrap-around window frame taking in the Hofmeister kink is a single-piece element for the first time in a series-produced model, highlighting the detail-led quality of the new BMW 7 Series.

The Air Breather surround in the front side panel spawns a chrome trim strip which runs along the lower edge of the doors. This creates a high-quality accent, its horizontal form accentuating the car’s finely balanced appearance and low centre of gravity.

The exterior mirrors appear to grow organically out of the window frame, a slender stalk providing the sole connection between mirrors and car body.

The direction of the double swage line extends into the upper contour of the body and the light strips of the rear lights.

The two L-shaped light units are connected with one another by a chrome bar extending the full width of the rear end.

Two non-metallic and nine metallic colour shades are available for the exterior paintwork of the new BMW 7 Series.

Depending on the model variant, the new BMW 7 Series comes as standard with 17- or 18-inch light-alloy wheels, while the options list and Original BMW Accessories range offer a selection of other light-alloy wheels in 17- to 21-inch sizes.