Rolls Off the Line

The new BMW i7 is the first of its kind from the Bavarian marque. Well, almost. BMW i are no strangers to electric propulsion but the i7 raises every imaginable bar in the luxury saloon segment

- Jim Gorde

THE THING WITH CHIPS AND ELECTRIC cars is that very few are actually good and even fewer are great. Most are mediocre creations made for specific tasks and trying to do it all with either can lead to overheating or... worse. Not in this i7. The luxury saloon from BMW's electric stable, BMW i, is every bit a 7 Series. Yes, it shares a shell and underpinnings, being developed side-by-side with its combustion counterpart, but there is more. Regardless of what is politically correct for the marketing team, BMW are close to introducing the first-ever road-going electric Rolls-Royce model, the Spectre, and there are more than few hints of the double-R gene-pool in the i7.

To start with, the "long wheelbase" model is the standard one. There are no choices of wheelbase this time round and, whether the i7 xDrive60 (here), entry six-cylinder 735i, or the big V8 M760i xDrive, they all stretch out to 3,215 millimetres-five mm more than the last 7 Series L and 145 mm more than the previous standard 7. That's also only a few centimetres shorter than the standard-wheelbase Rolls-Royce Ghost. Besides, there seems to be more in common with the 7's super-luxury British cousin than just the architecture.

The new 7 Series may receive some flak for its styling, but views about looks will always be divided. The feel, agility, and performance metrics will always speak for themselves. There is definitely a larger percentage of Rolls-Royce quality and components than ever before.