With the new BMW 7 Series, the previous CLAR modular system is history. The luxury sedan again relies on a flexible architecture that can be used with all drives. How well? We have already been able to try it out with petrol and electric drives.
BMW thinks from the end. More precisely: "The customer may decide." At least that's what Robert Kahlenberg, Project Director at the 7 Series, said at the start of our exclusive driving date with camouflaged pre-series cars. That's why we don't cling to drive-specific platforms, but are open to petrol, diesel, plug-in hybrid and pure electric drive technologies. Today, before the market launch in November 2022, we are driving the newly developed six-cylinder petrol engine and the electric I7. There will also be at least a three-liter diesel and a six-cylinder hybrid. V12? Just as passé as the new V8. At least with us. Although… See above. Customer and stuff.,
But now into the encased cockpit, where you can see the close relationship with the current generation including widescreen, rotary push button, My Modes plus conventional steering column levers and steering wheel buttons. Even under the camouflage, 7-series drivers do not expect any revolutions, BMW does without full digitization, wants to inspire young customers, especially in the Far East, in addition to touchscreens in the rear door armrests, with a 31-inch 8K screen that swings out of the roof and that streams cinema atmosphere into the rear via 5G brings.
The new 7 Series is good for drivers and chauffeurs
But the 7 Series should be just as convincing on the front left as it is on the back right. Just how subtle the new in-line six rumbles in the distance, translated from the eight-speed automatic, practically not felt and hardly heard at low speeds. As if they had mounted 200 meters further forward by means of a virtual stem extension. But they don't have it, instead they shorten the wheelbase virtually - as they like to say - with all-wheel steering.,
Not sooo new at BMW, but the chassis features on the 7 Series aren't supposed to be sooo new either. Optimized and retuned in detail for this. Clear direction: comfort. The engineers don't even try to give the full-size sedan, which is only available with a (relatively long) wheelbase and now slightly larger track widths, any explicit sportiness.
Uncompromising in cushioning and body control
Instead: uncompromising. Clean body control also includes sensitive damping and fast, even more powerful electric 48-volt roll stabilization, albeit without actively supporting or even counter-tilting as elsewhere. Why not active? Jos Van As, Vice President Experience Driving Dynamics (in short: chassis pro), explains that something like this would of course have been tried, but I see inhomogeneity when steering through the zero position, especially in alternating curves. On the other hand, such systems generally felt synthetic.They don't want to give up the goal of the driver's car with all the comfort and fun in the rear. That's why the seven never becomes a rocking cutter, even without a roll stabilizer, as the petrol engine proves, which cushions sensitively, gives accurate feedback and always has the body under control Hardness, fingertips instead of finger hooks. Albeit without spread little finger, because when it presses, the big BMW makes meters in long sentences, curves energetically subject, whereby the three-liter thundered to higher speeds exceptionally moves acoustically closer to the pellicle. The comfort is otherwise maintained, which according to the engineers is due to the wheel dimensions (no run-flat), when selecting the cross-sections they would have placed a lot of value on "tire suspension". After all, practically no other chassis component can compensate for the lack of rolling absorption of bumps by the tires. It never hurts to use a stiff body, complex kinematics, model-specific subframes and thrust fields for force transmission, as well as details such as hydraulic bearings working in different directions.,
i7 with two machines and a lot of pressure
Model-specific. Here we are again with the further developed cluster, which, in addition to the petrol engines, also has to be able to cope with the half-tonne i7 including a rigid battery box (gross capacity around 105 kWh) and a low center of gravity. Better: allowed, just like the Stromer gets started with its two electric motors (fifth generation). A load impact when starting at full load is followed by the well-known mixture of extremely smooth running and plenty of torque. In the sport position, it tempts you to take a firmer grip on the steering wheel and adopt an ambitious driving style, including longitudinal and lateral acceleration. As with the petrol engine, its stable straight-line stability, which makes corrections not necessary but possible, is pleasing on the freeway. On the other hand, it whispers so solidly through towns and cities that you objectively miss neither the V12 nor the V8. Either way: In the end, the customer decides anyway.,
Conclusion
The seventh generation (G70) bridges the gap between the previous cluster architecture and the pure electric platforms of the new class from 2025. It combines distinctive comfort with fine driving precision and comprehensive assistance - both with new combustion engines and pure electric drive .
