Photo: Kolesa
Speaking as an admirer of the 7 Series in general, I must admit that I’m a little worried about this design direction that BMW appears to be dead set on taking. It feels as though sleek, dynamic and luxurious designs are being abandoned in favor of overly bold and quirky aesthetics, and for no good reason too.
While this problem is plaguing German carmakers in general, it is especially noticeable with BMW and Mercedes. The latter has almost reinvented itself visually through its EQS-branded models, and I’ve yet to find a single individual whose jaw hit the floor the second they saw the likes of the EQC, EQS or the EQE.
The same can be said about BMW. The iX isn’t turning any heads, although most people do appreciate it from a technological standpoint – myself included. Audi is handling their transition towards a fully electric brand a lot better though, with most e-tron models looking just as good, if not better than their internal combustion engine-powered siblings.
Alas, we’re not here to discuss either Audi, or Mercedes, but rather BMW, because it was the latter who announced it would be revealing the all-new 7 Series and i7 next month, while also publishing a teaser image showing a pair of squinty, ultra slim headlights and a massive kidney grille.
If we could jump into a time-traveling DeLorean and go back to the moment BMW decided on this new design language, we would probably witness the following conversation:
“Ok lads, VW just crapped the bed with the Dieselgate scandal and they’re going full-electric. To make matters worse, Tesla is already years ahead. We need to get started planning for a fully electric future and in terms of design, we’re taking things back to the drawing board. First things first, who’s got lunch? I’m dying for a Weisswurst!”
To be fair, we have no way of knowing how the actual conversation went down, but the “back to the drawing board” part must have manifested itself somehow, because the iX is unrecognizable as a BMW, and this upcoming all-new 7 Series will probably follow suit.
What that recent teaser tells us is that these big kidney grille designs are here to stay, and this is somewhat troubling for a carmaker who has always built these types of elegant, sporty, yet unassuming cars. Until not too long ago, you couldn’t have accused a BMW model of “trying too hard” to stand out.
Over these past few months, we’ve shown you several renderings depicting the 2023 BMW 7 Series and they’ve all followed the same pattern, more or less, with the overall shape and various details inspired by camouflaged prototypes.
This latest rendering, courtesy of Kolesa, is easily the most precise yet, simply because it adheres to the front fascia proportions as shown by BMW in that official teaser image. The teaser also gave us a solid idea about the shape and size of the headlights (plus how they’re positioned), as well as the shape of the hood and front fenders, to some extent.
The good news, as far as I’m concerned, is that this new 7 Series probably won’t be the iX equivalent of a luxury sedan. Sure, the grille is probably still too big and the entire front end too quirky, but calling it ugly would be a stretch.
The bad news? Luxury car buyers aren’t all that thrilled with weird designs. They prefer cars that look stoic and elegant. So then, wouldn’t they rather have something like a Mercedes S-Class or even an Audi A8? It’s actually funny to think that this all-new 7 Series might end up being even more controversial looking than the E65, and that’s saying a lot.
The same can be said about BMW. The iX isn’t turning any heads, although most people do appreciate it from a technological standpoint – myself included. Audi is handling their transition towards a fully electric brand a lot better though, with most e-tron models looking just as good, if not better than their internal combustion engine-powered siblings.
Alas, we’re not here to discuss either Audi, or Mercedes, but rather BMW, because it was the latter who announced it would be revealing the all-new 7 Series and i7 next month, while also publishing a teaser image showing a pair of squinty, ultra slim headlights and a massive kidney grille.
If we could jump into a time-traveling DeLorean and go back to the moment BMW decided on this new design language, we would probably witness the following conversation:
“Ok lads, VW just crapped the bed with the Dieselgate scandal and they’re going full-electric. To make matters worse, Tesla is already years ahead. We need to get started planning for a fully electric future and in terms of design, we’re taking things back to the drawing board. First things first, who’s got lunch? I’m dying for a Weisswurst!”
To be fair, we have no way of knowing how the actual conversation went down, but the “back to the drawing board” part must have manifested itself somehow, because the iX is unrecognizable as a BMW, and this upcoming all-new 7 Series will probably follow suit.
What that recent teaser tells us is that these big kidney grille designs are here to stay, and this is somewhat troubling for a carmaker who has always built these types of elegant, sporty, yet unassuming cars. Until not too long ago, you couldn’t have accused a BMW model of “trying too hard” to stand out.
Over these past few months, we’ve shown you several renderings depicting the 2023 BMW 7 Series and they’ve all followed the same pattern, more or less, with the overall shape and various details inspired by camouflaged prototypes.
This latest rendering, courtesy of Kolesa, is easily the most precise yet, simply because it adheres to the front fascia proportions as shown by BMW in that official teaser image. The teaser also gave us a solid idea about the shape and size of the headlights (plus how they’re positioned), as well as the shape of the hood and front fenders, to some extent.
The good news, as far as I’m concerned, is that this new 7 Series probably won’t be the iX equivalent of a luxury sedan. Sure, the grille is probably still too big and the entire front end too quirky, but calling it ugly would be a stretch.
The bad news? Luxury car buyers aren’t all that thrilled with weird designs. They prefer cars that look stoic and elegant. So then, wouldn’t they rather have something like a Mercedes S-Class or even an Audi A8? It’s actually funny to think that this all-new 7 Series might end up being even more controversial looking than the E65, and that’s saying a lot.
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