The future of cars is all-electric—but accelerating the transition away from combustion engines means re-imagining and re-engineering legacies, not pretending they don’t exist. Consumers understand what certain brands and models stand for—they are a hard-wired language and hierarchy of trust and aspiration. And the shift to electric should become part of that history, not deny it. This isn’t about complacent nostalgia or trading on the past, but the quickest and most effective way of upending expectations and changing minds. 

To achieve that, all-electric updates of iconic models must offer something compellingly, thrillingly different. Even when they share the same design language, the electric experience should feel radical and revelatory. BMW calls this idea “Forwardism” and it achieves its fullest expression in the new BMW i7, the first all-electric version of 7 Series, its flagship luxury saloon. “Digitize it, electrify it, make it a bit bigger. That’s the answer” BMW CEO Oliver Zipse has said. BMW has achieved much more with the i7, the most technologically advanced and flat-out luxurious car it has ever produced. Zipse calls it “an icon of a new movement”. 

BMW says the i7 was designed from the inside out, which makes sense. The vehicle is a 5.1m long, smooth-cruising cocoon, so the cabin experience is at least as important as the driving experience. But even though the interior deploys an impressive array of luxury materials, sensual touch points and home comforts, it pushes well beyond the buttery leather and polished mahogany luxury tropes. BMW has used elaborately quilted cashmere and leather, or the vegan leather alternative Veganza, in the i7 cabin, and the effect is warming, immersive and domestic. Off-setting that, however, is the cabin’s digital landscape, offering all sorts of information, driver and passenger options, and entertainment. 

Up front, the sleek Curved Display—combining a 12.3in instrument display with a 14.9in infotainment touch screen, and running BMW’s remarkable iDrive and 5th-generation operating
system—is more seamless panorama than instrument panel. BMW calls this “shy tech”—obtrusive physical knobs and dials have been digitized—and iDrive’s crisp, calming design makes for discreet service, not needless distraction. And, of course, voice-activation software means you can keep touchscreen menu-drilling to a minimum. 

Below the Curved Display, the crystalline, backlit Interaction Bar works in sync with iDrive’s My Modes options, allowing for micro-management of cabin mood and ambiance. It also houses touch-sensitive control panels for adjusting the ventilation and climate control, activating the hazard warning lights, and opening the glove compartment, as well as saying hello and goodbye with specific light sequences. The i7 delivers more in the way of mood and multi-sensory pleasures, but it also employs advanced technology to make driving easier and safer. The i7’s new Augmented View function adds useful information to a live video stream of the driver’s forward perspective, shown on the information display behind the steering wheel. Approach a particularly confounding intersection, and an animated directional arrow will appear, integrated into the live feed. No more trying to match sat nav abstractions with gnarlier real-life situations.

Manoeuvre Assistant meanwhile can store and automatically repeat up to ten particularly tricky parking or exiting moves you make regularly. You can even get out of the car and take remote control using the BMW smartphones app. First launched in 1977, and now in its seventh iteration, BMW’s 7 Series has always been designed to provide equal, if different, rewards whether you are driving or being driven. And the rewards in the back seats of the new i7 are rich. 

For better or worse, modern life is increasingly focused on screen time. And in the i7, that means big screen time. Should the passing landscape or the limited options of “I spy” get a little dull, passengers, in what Zipse calls the “private lounge”, can take in a movie, streamed or downloaded, on a fold-down 31.8in 8K “Theatre Screen’’. They can also use it for game-playing and the most “Succession-y” Zoom calls imaginable. The screen has Amazon FireTV built in, while enveloping sound is (optioning dependent) delivered by the 36 precision placed speakers of Bower & Wilkins “4D Diamond Surround Sound” system. 

Speakers integrated into doors get their own elegantly perforated metal covers, while speakers in the outer head restraint and bass shakers in the backrests help deliver a truly immersive, bone-deep audio experience. All of this unfolding drama—including lowering blinds for proper cinema conditions—can be managed from a 5.5in touchscreen control panel built into the door. And if you’re sitting behind an unoccupied front passenger seat, you can recline your seat to a best-in-class 42.5-degree angle, and properly put your feet up. The seat also offers nine different massage functions, just to ensure you are properly relaxed as you watch. 

To burnish the car’s cinematic credentials, BMW drafted in legendary soundtrack composer Hans Zimmer to create 7 Series-specific soundscapes. (The upfront Curved Display can also play video on demand when parked.) And should you need a break from on-screen entertainment, the light threads woven into the i7’s new Panoramic Sky Lounge LED roof offer light shows, from the explosive to meditative. Even if you’re not driving, you want to feel the car move, and the i7 customer is after a particular kind of refined surge. The car’s 544-horsepower electric powertrain, now up to generation five, delivers new levels of near-silent power and torque, a precisely engineered, hushed rush of energy. The i7 will quietly thunder from 0-62 mph in 4.7 seconds, smoothly canter to 150 mph, and has an impressive range of up to 387 miles.

The BMW Maps navigation system automatically calculates a charging optimized route if your final destination is out of range, with dynamic route calculation factoring in precise real-time traffic data. The system also estimates charge level at recommended charging stops, and the charging time required to reach your target charge level.

Exterior-wise, the i7 talks the BMW design language, but with all kinds of new accents and flourishes. The body is muscular and monolithic, and the iconic kidney grill is enlarged and features illuminated contours at night. The upper section of the split-level lights is (in some models) cut from Swarovski crystal glass. And crystal is a recurring material and design motif of the i7, inside and out. Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design, calls the i7 “a perfect expression of modern luxury, human-centric, electric and tech magic”. And much of that tech magic will eventually be sprinkled on cars lower down the price and prestige ladder. Of course, the i7 is also the most glamorous of ambassadors for BMW’s more responsible approach to mobility. The obvious thrust of the i7 is that there is no sacrifice involved in going all-out electric—not in range, and certainly not in regards to speed or comfort.

Behind the scenes, BMW is re-engineering its supply chain, manufacturing and energy use around circularity principles. Upfront, it is proving that all-electric models can deliver everything a combustion engine alternative can, and in many areas more and better. More than that, cars such as the i7 answer to a new, more progressive kind of aspiration that cares about impact in every way. This is an aspiration that values advanced technology, the highest quality materials, and the most sophisticated (and, yes, sometimes the simplest) of comforts. But it is also an aspiration to be part of a broader movement—one that is advancing towards a better future, for everyone.

Discover more about the BMW i7 by visiting BMW.co.uk 

This article was originally published by WIRED UK