This is the BMW i7. And it's arguably the most high-tech vehicle on sale today.
Look beyond the gadgets though, and there are plenty of them, and you'll find an incredibly
well-executed luxury car. And today, I'm gonna tell you all about it. Before that, like the
video, subscribe to the carsales channel, and give us your thoughts on the i7 in the comments below.
The i7 is the electrically-powered flagship of the new BMW 7-Series range. Pricing starts at around
$300,000 before options and on-road costs, and other cars you might consider are the
Mercedes-Benz S-Class and EQS, Porsche Taycan, and even the Bentley Flying Spur.
BMW offers a five-year unlimited kilometer warranty, as well as a five-year Chargefox
subscription, and six years free servicing. While servicing is condition-based, also will
vary depending on how you drive the car. Okay, so probably the most contentious thing about
the new i7 is the way it looks. Some will love it, some will probably hate it, but apparently,
7-Series owners wanted something with a bit more presence. The i7 certainly has that because it's
absolutely enormous. Only the one stretched wheel base is now offered, but it's 130 mil longer,
50 mil wider, and 65 mil taller than the old 7-Series, which wasn't exactly a Ford Fiesta.
This spread headlights are now a design signature of BMW's flagship models. They feature Swarovski
crystals for extra sparkle, and provide a personal light show every time you open the car. Speaking
of opening the car, this is the i7's first party trick. The doors are automatic, and any
combination of them can be programmed to open via the key. Now, this is pretty fancy, but without
wishing to deflate BMW's balloon, also pretty silly. As you can see, they're pretty slow to
open and close, won't open if you're on more than a very slight incline, and let's face it, opening
a door isn't that difficult, except that because of the electric motors and such, the doors are now
so heavy, that you almost need the assistance. Anyway, let's hop inside. Where to start?
Well, you might notice the seats look a little bit different, and that's because this car is fitted
with the Nappa leather wool cashmere combination, which is actually very nice, as well as this
ashwood trim. You can also choose from carbon fiber or oak. The seats are heated, ventilated,
plenty of massage functions. Driving position is very good, I've got a massive head up display
ahead of me, but the main point of difference is what BMW calls this interaction bar. As well
as being a massive strip of ambient lighting, also got these little rollers for the air vents,
but what air vents, I hear you say? Well, they're actually hidden down here and up here behind the
bar, which is quite cool. We've also got buttons to open the glove box, and to auto open the doors
on each side. The joint infotainment screen uses BMW's latest iDrive 8, and well, this screen kind
of tells you everything you need to know. There is an incredible amount of technology in here,
and it is a bit intimidating, and to be honest, I don't find this latest iDrive quite as easy to
navigate as the last couple, though I'll admit I'm not the most tech-savvy person around.
If you're a bit confused, the easiest thing is probably to just ask the car what you want it
to do. It can open the doors, or adjust the temperature or the fan speed, or the radio
station, or the seat, or the lighting, and a million other things just by saying, "Hey, BMW."
While a smartphone mirror ring is standard, as well as wireless charging,
or it can also pair an eSIM to the vehicle for reasons that will become clear shortly. Obviously,
you can get the digital instruments to display all manner of information. One of
the coolest features is the augmented reality navigation. Using the front camera feed,
it can overlay arrows and markings on the road to show you exactly where you need to place the
car. And if you're driving somewhere unfamiliar in particular, it's actually really helpful.
So, one of the mindblowing things about the i7 is its parking capabilities.
Forget sensors or 360 degree cameras, that's just child's play. The i7 can
learn different maneuvers, and then execute them by itself once it recognizes that it's
reached the starting point. Let me give you an example. So if I pull up here, press Parking,
Record New Path, and then if I just drive slowly, the car is then recording via all its cameras and
sensors, where I'm going, and what I'm doing. So, I'll just steer over here, select Reverse,
pull into this car spot. There we go. Piece of cake. Right. Go Save Recording,
give it a name, so you can go home and office, and mum's house, and whatever else.
So now, if I go back to the starting point of that recorded maneuver, which I'm doing right now,
the car then recognizes via GPS where I am, and it comes up on the screen,
Start Recorded Path. So, I press that button. Now, the car is just doing its own thing.
I don't have any feet on the pedals, hands on the wheel, nothing. It does it very,
very slowly for safety reasons, into a maximum of four kilometers an hour. But if things are in the
way of that recorded path, it can actually steer around them autonomously, as long as it doesn't
have to divert too far off what's recorded in its brain, I guess. So, here we go. It's
doing all the little adjustments. And remember, I turn right here, and then it will turn left. So,
on the screen here, and in front of me, I've got the actual recorded path overlaid, so I can see
where the car is going, but it does everything. Steering, brake, accelerator, gear changes,
selected reverse for me. You can record up to 10 different maneuvers of up to 200 meters, and this
is actually a very simple one. You can record like different turns and twists, and everything. Now,
with me in the car, it's not particularly useful because I could just park the car myself. However,
if you connect a smartphone, which I can't do, because I don't own the car, you need both keys,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But if you connect a smartphone, you can actually do this remotely. So,
say your office car park is really tight, and you can't actually get outta the car, or someone's
parked in here, or something like that. You can hop outta the car, access your smartphone,
and then remotely get the car to do that maneuver, and it will park itself. This is just,
Obviously, the i7 also has every bit of safety tech, but thankfully,
it also has pressure sensors in the wheel, so you don't have to continually wiggle the steering
to get active cruise control operating. It knows you're still holding the wheel.
Now, we get to the really cool part of the i7, the back seat. If you're ordering one of these,
whatever you do, stump up the extra nine grand for the executive seating.
This transforms the passenger side into a business class style recliner, accessed via
this touchscreen in the armrest. And as you can see, it's not the quickest process in the world,
but it does make for a seriously comfortable way to travel, as these seats, the heated,
ventilated, they've got massage function just like the fronts. I've got wireless charging pad,
quad zone climate control, electric blinds. You can even pair a phone to
play just through the rear for a bit of added privacy for your phone calls. Now,
this is all controlled by this touchscreen in the armrest, including piece de resistance.
I still can't believe this is in a car. A 31.3 inch theater screen that folds out of the roof.
Now, you can plug in via HDMI, but thanks to that eSIM, you can also stream from YouTube or Netflix,
or Amazon Prime, Disney Plus. There are games, and there's even an inbuilt camera, so you can conduct
Zoom calls on the move. Now sadly, the screen has limited touch functionality, so it can be
a bit clunky to navigate, but once you've chosen your show or movie, this is just an absolutely
awesome place to be. Primarily thanks to what I think is the best feature of the i7. This car has
a 35 speaker stereo. Yes, 35, including speakers in the backrests, so you can feel the sound. It's
like the automatic cinematic experience that just happens to be able to do 250 kilometers an hour.
Even using Spotify, the music is so crisp. To be honest, I never ever want to get outta here. It's
so comfortable. But I suppose if you wanna know what the i7 is like to drive, I'm gonna have to.
It's always confused me that limousines weren't the first cars to go electric.
Think about it. The drawbacks of batteries are that they're very heavy and very expensive,
whereas the advantages are that they operate silently, and offer huge,
effortless torque. Perfect then for a very large, very expensive car that needs to be
as refined as possible. Anyway, I said at the start of the review, that the i7 is more than
just a bunch of gadgets. Don't think of this car purely as just a mobile JB high fire.
What makes this a great luxury car is that it's extremely relaxing to drive. Traditionally,
the 7-Series has been the driver's limousine, which is a bit of a strange concept, but they
have been quite entertaining to drive. The i7 is a bit different. Yes, it has a sports mode,
which gives you a soundtrack by film composer Hans Zimmer. It's got 400 kilowatts in drive, so
it can be driven quite quickly. But to be honest, is this no point? Not only is the i7 enormous,
it weighs more than 2.6 tons. So, there's no use attacking corners in it. Just relax instead.
The ride is wonderful. So pillowy and absorbent.
It's beautifully quiet. The power is delivered very smoothly, and the brakes even feel pretty
natural too, which is often a weak point of electric cars, and their regenerative braking.
Given everything about the i7 encourages you to drive in a smooth, calm manner, the clay
maximum range of 625 kilometers is actually probably pretty achievable. Means this isn't
a car you're gonna have to plug in very often. There is a Petrol-powered 7-Series available,
but it's very difficult to make a case for it when electric propulsion so clearly suits this car.
For decades, the BMW 7-Series has usually sat in the shadow of the Mercedes S-class,
but with this latest generation, that's no longer the case. This is a wonderful car. Yes, it has all
this technology and gadgetry. For me, the most important thing is that when you're inside it,
the outside world just feels further away, and that is the ultimate expression of luxury.
When you experience the i7, it's obvious that BMW had a very clear idea of what it
wanted to achieve, and it's executed that vision brilliantly. Thanks for watching.
If you've enjoyed this video, please give it a like, subscribe to the carsales
channel, and let us know which cars you'd like to see us review in the comments below.