Report: BMW's Luxo-barge Sedan to Gain Some Big Batteries

With Europe quickly going the Greta route, stately sedans with eight- and 12-cylinder engines are an endangered species. Actually, sedans as a whole fit that bill, and increasingly stringent emissions regulations aren’t making the task of developing and selling these vehicles any easier.

With this in mind, BMW seems to have a solution for the 7 Series’ continued viability: offer it in a fully electric variant, with range to match its status.

According to sources who spoke to BMW Blog, the next-generation 7 Series will give buyers the option of dispensing with gasoline altogether. Dubbed the i7, a moniker BMW trademarked years ago, the electrified 7 Series will reportedly boast two battery sizes ⁠— each one of them generous.

Expected to arrive alongside the next-gen 7 Series in 2022, the i7 will apparently offer 100 kWh and 120 kWh battery packs, each good for a driving range of roughly 360 miles on the WLTP cycle. The basic unit powering the i7 is said to be good for 550 horsepower; the larger unit, found in the i7S, will feed current to electric motors totalling about 670 hp.

Riding atop a newer version of the existing modular CLAR platform, the i7 could boast a number of electric motors, though two would seem the bare minimum for all-wheel drive versions. The compact drive units expected to appear in this sedan will first show up in products like the i4 and iX3.

As rumors mount about Bimmer’s big-car EV gambit, the conditions propelling the switch away from gas aren’t going away. By the time such a vehicle appears on the scene, Jaguar will already have an all-electric XJ sedan on the market, with Mercedes-Benz following suit with an EV S-Class called the EQS. Unlike the Jag, however, Bimmer and Benz have no intention of not offering up conventional gas-powered versions of its range-toppers, especially for those living in North America.

[Image: BMW]