Road Test Editor Zac Palmer gives a closer look at the luxurious 2023 BMW i7 xDrive60
Autoblog contributor Mark Takahashi wrote:
It's been seven years since the BMW 7 Series was last redesigned, and for 2023, we have an all-new seventh generation on the way. If you believe in lucky numbers, this bodes well for BMW's flagship luxury sedan, but there's even bigger news. Along with the all-new 7 Series, we're also getting an all-electric i7 variant.
The 2023 BMW i7 goes on sale at the end of 2022, with a starting price of $120,295 (including $995 destination). On a single charge, the EPA estimates it can travel between 296 and 318 miles depending on wheel choice (bigger equals less), but we wouldn't be surprised if it exceeds its official figures in real-world driving. A lithium-ion battery pack in the floor with a usable capacity of 101.7-kWh powers the motors on the front and rear axles for all-wheel drive. Combined, they produce 536 horsepower and 549 pound-feet of torque. As much as 605 lb-ft of torque can be momentarily summoned in boost mode by tapping the paddle on the left of the steering wheel.
The i7 is DC fast-charge capable up to a 195-kilowatt rate, which BMW estimates will replenish the battery from 10% to 80% in 34 minutes. As an added incentive, owners can enjoy three years of unlimited free charging on the Electrify America network. On more typical 22-kW level 2 chargers, a full charge from empty should take 5.5 hours. By comparison, the Mercedes-Benz EQS has an EPA-estimated range of either 340 or 350 miles depending on model and should charge from 10-80% in 31 minutes.
To read more about the 2023 BMW M340i xDrive and other BMW news click the links below:
https://www.autoblog.com/2022/11/05/2023-bmw-i7-review/
https://www.autoblog.com/cars-for-sale/make1-BMW/vcond-Used,CPO
TranscriptZAC PALMER: Hello and welcome back to the Autoblog Garage. I am Zac Palmer with Autoblog, of course. And right here next to me is the 2023 BMW i7 xDrive60. So this is the all-electric 7 Series that we have here. It's a totally new generation of 7 Series for 2023. I've been really excited to get my hands on one of these. But how about we start with a quick walk around, look at the design? Right up front here I think is probably the most controversial part. Not many people on staff like the way it looks. I don't really like the way it looks either up here.
But we have the most dramatic kidney grille you could possibly think of right here. At night, it has actually lit up in a full LED surround. It is extremely, extremely dramatic. I don't think it's really proportional to the rest of the car, but you certainly make an entrance and everybody stares at it. Now, some of the cool parts of this front end. These lights right here. These are made up of Swarovski crystals. They really, really shine and glow at night. Even in the day, they look super dramatic in the sunlight. I think they're really, really cool looking.
Of course, you got your split headlights down here that BMW is moving to, that means your low beam and high beam are stuck down in there. The rest of the front end, though, you know, it sort of looks like a regular 7 Series. You won't see many differences between the electric and the gasoline version. Moving along the side here, we can check out the wheels on this bad boy. These are winter wheels and tires on the car. So these are only 19s. It's not anywhere near as showy or flashy, as you could get these-- you could go up to 21-inch wheels on this car.
It looks a lot better I think, a lot more proportional to the just super tall stature of this thing. It's almost giving me Rolls-Royce vibes with how just gargantuan it is. And I should mention that they lengthened the 7 Series for this generation 5 inches longer. Most of that went to the back seat. But moving along the side here, you got these new flush door handles, which are really neat. I'll show you guys later, they automatically open and closed with the button touch. Then in the back, we have some more dramatic lights. I say dramatic, but it's definitely a little more subtle than the front.
These LEDs have a really nice intricate design in there with the BMW logo. Just really, really love to look at that. And then the i7 logo just a slight little blue tinge to it, because that's BMWs theme for electric cars. They always do blue accents. And then same deal with the BMW logo itself. It's surrounded with a nice blue. And, of course, down below, because this is electric, no exhaust tips, nothing at all, just a nice clean, clean look. So that's the outside, but we should hop inside because that's where all the magic is on the 7 Series. Now to get into the i7, you wouldn't think that it's just a regular door opening. No, this is an electrically operated door, very luxurious.
All you got to do is press the little button there. It will sense that the way is clear. The door will open for you, no problem. You hop on in. Still don't have to press anything. Just hop in, put your foot on the brake and it closes. So welcome to the interior of the BMW i7. Now the first thing that I want to direct your attention to is the materials for the seats. These guys are made out of cashmere and wool. It's a combination of the two. And it feels so soft and luxurious. I really, really love that. It's an option. Now, it is combined with really nice leather up at the top and leather on your head rest, of course.
But there's more to it than just that. You got crystals everywhere, glass crystals, specifically. Some of the finer touches I like are on the center console here. The iDrive knob, it's made out of this really clear glass crystal that you can see through, same with the shifter, the start stop button, the volume controls, even your seat controls on the side here, really pretty decorative crystals. Now there's a lot more glass in here too, and this is where the lighting really comes into play. You notice all along the dash right here some really, really pretty glass trim. This is also backlit. You can see it's sort of a purple color right now, but you can change that to a bunch of different colors, really, really shows itself at night.
You notice a lot of the controls are in here too. So you've got some air intensity controls, the defrosters, also your glove box. You just sort of tap that right there. There goes the glove box. That's pretty neat. I like the design of this interior a lot. I could use some more physical buttons. You notice right here it is fairly limited with what you get. Everything is in the actual touch screen. So all of your climate controls, heated/cooled seats, heated steering wheel all in the BMW iDrive 8 system. It's all part of the curved display that you'll see on a lot of new BMWs these days. It looks nice.
Definitely looks modern, but it's not the easiest to use for, you know, somebody behind the wheel. You got to tap around a little more than I would like to. A few other things I will point out, a really great little wireless phone charger here, your phone stays in quite nicely, good sized cupholders. And I also really like this steering wheel design. BMW did remove some buttons from here, but it actually hasn't bothered me that much. It's kept a lot of the things that you use the most. And I really appreciate that. So we've looked at the front, but how about we have in the back and check out some of the most luxurious features of this i7?
So welcome on into the back seat of the i7. Of course, just like the front, you can close the door electronically, just the little button right there. So I don't really have to do anything at all, of course. Now, in the back here, this has the rear executive package, which means you have the full reclining seats, specifically this one behind the passenger. So all you got to do is go into your little handy, dandy touch screen over here on the door and click your seat button, and there is a quick shortcut to the full lounge. You press that. The front seat is going to start moving forward. My seat is going to start going into its full lounge position, and away we go.
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So there we are lounge position, reached like so. You can see the front passenger seat moved all the way forward. It ejected a little foot rest there for me. So even if you're extremely tall, you can still comfortably fit back here. I'm 5' 10, and I still have room to spare up there. And you can see this whole seat has extended, my legs are supported, my head is supported by this beautiful little pillow back here. I could go to sleep, honestly. This is quite comfortable. And just like the front, these seats are, you know, filled with a cashmere and wool material. It is so, so comfortable back here. But things don't really stop there.
Of course, on your little screen here, you got all the possible controls you could think of. So you got a massage right there. You can select between any number of massages. I believe there's about 10 of them that you can pick between. Of course, you also have heated and cooled seats back here. There's like five different intensities of heat or cool you can choose. And the heat is actually extra good, because you also have heated surfaces. So your armrests on either side will warm up if you turn the heated seats on. So, you know, if your arms are feeling cold, well, now they're no longer cold.
And a few other things that I will point out in here, the blinds you have full control back here. So just press a little button and you can close all of the blinds, get the whole place blacked out if you don't want anybody around. And you can open them all just the same. But this things real party trick, which I'm sure you've all been waiting for, is the theater mode. So press the little My Modes button, go in, and there's five different modes in here that you can choose from, but the theater is the one you want. You press that one on top, and all of a sudden, this beautiful 38-inch 8K screen folds down, everything closes around you to make sure that the car is as blacked out as possible.
And, of course, yeah, it's a touch screen. So go ahead and touch English language there. It's also a Fire TV. So you can fire something up. Log in into your favorite TV apps. This thing has 5G data connection that you can pay for. It is pretty much a lap of luxury back here. You can watch movies, TV shows as somebody chauffeurs you around. There is nothing else like this. You know, you can get screens on the backs of the seats, but to have a massive screen like this back here is something new and entirely different in any automobile out there, and it is quite the party trick. I love it. I would really, really use this a lot if I was being chauffeured around on the regular.
So now that everything is in its theater mode, how about we put it back real quick? It's as easy as going into the displays here. You press the little fold up button. Your giant screen folds back up as though it was never there. So I open all the shades with the little tap of the button right there. And there are a few last tech things that I want to point out for you guys. One right here, a wireless phone charger in the back. That's not a common feature in cars, but this i7, of course, has it. But you do have a couple of traditional ways to plug-in your devices, some USB-C ports right there.
And should finish things off with just a little audio talk because this thing has a 36 Speaker Bowers and Wilkins Diamond Surround Sound System. It is killer, honestly, one of the best sound systems I've ever heard. There are speakers everywhere, like I said, 36. You got them in the ceiling up here. You got some really beautiful intricately cut metal speaker grilles. You even have speakers in the headrests back there, so you can lay your head back and relax and listen to the music, basically, surround every part of your body. It is a really immersive experience. But from there, how about we go check out the utility of this thing? It's a big old 7 series. So let's check out what kind of trunk space we have.
So walking back to the trunk here, we can see we have a nice little button that presents itself as an easy way to open the trunk. Of course, it is electrically operated. Now, you look back in there, you can see your approximately 11 cubic feet of space. BMW claims it's pretty deep. There's a good amount of space back there for a number of suitcases I think. But I will point out that the electric 7 Series has a smaller trunk than the gasoline version, because of the battery, the floor is a little higher. So you don't have as much deep space in there to store stuff. So if cargo is at a premium, maybe the gasoline 7 Series is the way to go, but this ain't so bad, honestly.
So now that we've looked at that, let's do a little powertrain talk to finish things off. So welcome back out to our oxide grade BMW I7. Let's talk a little powertrain right here. So this has only one powertrain option, and it is a dual motor setup. You've got one motor on the front axle, one motor on the rear for two electric motors for all-wheel drive. They total output of these two, 536 horsepower and 549 pounds feet of torque. So that gets it to 60 miles per hour in about 4.5 seconds. Quick enough, not scaldingly quick, not Tesla Model S Plaid quick, but brisk enough to feel fast.
And the battery underneath here just over 100 kilowatt hours. It's a pretty large battery, about 300 miles of range per the EPA. That's enough to get you going on a long highway trip. It's no Lucid Air with 500 miles of range. But I think it's a really nice happy medium. And I should also mention that the charging on this is a really fast too, almost 200 kilowatts charge speed. Pretty impressive stuff. So that was the BMW i7. I hope you guys join us next week, but make sure to like, share, and subscribe, and comment down below what you think of this big BMW.
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