It’s obvious to most that small, light cars are the best ones to buy — they are better for the environment and generally more fun to drive. Clearly, the German car industry didn’t get that memo because its trio of luxury car giants - BMW, Audi and Mercedes have this week shown off new cars (one concept, two ready for sale) which are (a) massive and (b) unquestionably heavy.
The latest to join the fray is BMW, which has — following much teasing and hinting — fully revealed its new 7 Series luxury saloon, and this time it’s coming with a fully-electric version.
The i7, which will be priced from €132,210 for the i7 xDrive 60 version, will be packing a 101.7kWh (net) battery pack, giving it between 590km and 625km range on a full charge. That’s a little less than the 730km maximum range promised by Mercedes’ EQS, and also slightly less than the 650km promised by a Tesla Model S. The i7 will platform share with combustion-engined versions, so does that indicate that BMW’s plans to share components between electric and conventional cars is coming up short?
The i7 won’t be short of power — the xDrive60 version comes with four-wheel drive and 544hp (a 313hp motor at the rear, and a 258hp motor at the front) with a massive 745Nm of torque. That’s good enough to shove the i7 to 100km/h from standstill in just 4.7secs. Who needs an M-version, eh?
Charge
It will charge quickly too. As standard, the i7 will take and 11kW AC charge, while if you can find a sufficiently rapid public DC charger, it will accept a 195kW charge, enough to add 170km of extra range from just ten minutes of charging. The battery will also get a clever management system that will not only prolong its service life, but which will also allow it to charge more quickly than current designs as it approaches 100 per cent capacity.
The cloud-based navigation system will also automatically route you via charging points if your destination is too far away for the battery to handle in one go. The twin synchronous motors also don’t need any rare Earth metals in their construction, which further burnishes the i7’s environmental credentials.
It’s just as well that it’s caring and sharing under the skin, because from the outside it looks like a bit of a bruiser. Admittedly, the grilles at the front are not quite so OTT as those of the iX SUV, but they are still pretty big, and combine with the split-level headlamps (similar to those seen on the just-updated X7 SUV) they give the i7 quite the glowering look from the front. The grilles even light up at night, for the ultimate in motorised bling. Speaking of which, you can even have the headlights inset with Swarovski crystals — if you must…
Theatre
Inside, the i7 is appropriately luxurious. Up front, you get the same vast, curved digital dashboard as found in the iX, fitted with BMW’s latest eighth-generation infotainment software. There’s a new touch-sensitive ‘Interaction Bar’ which can be used to control the heating and air conditioning, and sits just below the 14-inch central touchscreen.
However, if you can wait until the spring of 2023, you can set your rear seat passengers up with something even better — a vast 35-inch touchscreen with 8K picture quality and a Bowers & Wilkins stereo.
This, the BMW Theatre Screen, takes up almost the full width of the rear cabin, and is mounted behind the front seats. It folds out of a hatch in the ceiling and — for the full effect — BMW has worked with Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer to create a little fanfare which plays as the screen opens up. As it does so, the sunblinds for the side windows, rear window and panoramic glass sunroof are closed and the ambient lighting in the rear compartment is dimmed.
You can also specify the rear with reclining ‘lounge’ style seats, order cashmere wool upholstery, and there’s a ‘Sky Lounge’ panoramic glass roof option, too. The doors will also (optionally) open and close automatically when you touch the handles, or when you command them to from the BMW smartphone app.
Audi people carrier
Over at Audi, the company doesn’t quote a kerb weight for the Urbansphere concept, but just look at it — something this big with a 120kWh battery is just not going to be light. It’s not a production car yet, but Audi is talking about specific performance figures — 750km range, 401hp, 270kW rapid charging — so clearly it’s more than just a dramatic show-pony.
Arguably, it’s the first genuine MPV to be designed and shown off by a major car maker for what must be close to a decade, and while this concept version has luxurious seating for four, it’s not difficult to imagine a production model with three rows of likely very comfortable seating for seven. The massive 3.4-metre wheelbase pretty much guarantees lots of cabin space.
The exterior is certainly striking, with a massive full-width illuminated grille that actually looks a little like the one Hyundai fits to the current Santa Fe. The tiny LED lights look almost like eyebrows compared to the huge grille. Not keen on the look? Don’t worry, it’s not designed for you. Audi says that it “created the Urbansphere for use in traffic-dense Chinese megacities” but does magnanimously admit that “the concept is also suitable for any other metropolitan centre in the world.” Phew.
Chinese tastes
The idea is to offer ‘the largest interior space of any Audi to date” to customers who live in crowded cities “where personal space is in particularly short supply.” Not quite sure how this 5.5-metre behemoth is going to fit into those crowded cities, but still…
“In order to meet the demands of our Chinese customers, Audi’s design studios in Beijing and Ingolstadt worked together closely to jointly develop the Audi urbansphere concept car,” says Markus Duesmann, Audi’s head of the Chinese market. “For the first time, potential customers in China could also take part in the development process, contributing their own desires and perspectives as part of a process known as 'co-creation'.”
Although the Urbansphere has a steering wheel, Audi says that it’s been designed with Level 4 autonomous driving in mind. As well as catering to luxury-hungry customers on the inside, the Urbansphere wants to contribute to the rest of your life, too — Audi says that the car will come with “exclusive perks, including access to concerts, cultural events, and sporting events based on individual customer preferences.”
Mind you, who needs to get out of this Audi to go to a concert? There’s a vast transparent ‘cinema screen’ that unfolds from the roof, and the rear seats can be reclined to an angle of 60-degrees, for advanced snoozing. In the front, the infotainment system is controlled through a combination of gestures and the use of VR glasses (which are tucked into the door pockets).
Mercedes heavyweight
Flight of fancy? Maybe, but across Germany Mercedes is being rather more down to Earth with its new electric heavyweight, the EQS SUV.
The EQS SUV is, with Ronseal-like obviousness, the SUV version of the EQS luxury electric saloon. It rides on the same EVA electric car platform, and boasts a 107.8kWh battery, giving it a one-charge range of 661km for the single-motor, rear-drive EQS 450+. There’s also a four-wheel drive EQS 450 4MATIC that has a shorter, 612km range. Both models have 355hp, but the four-wheel drive version gets extra torque. At the pinnacle of the range will be the 536hp EQS 580 4MATIC.
Overall, the EQS SUV is actually a little smaller than its petrol-powered contemporary, the Mercedes GLS, but it has a 75mm longer wheelbase, so there’s actually more room inside (and a flat floor, too).
Air suspension is standard, as is rear-wheel steering which should make it pretty agile for such a big thing. You can have the dramatic full-width ‘hyperscreen’ digital dashboard, and there’s seating for seven (although the third row seats look a bit cramped for anyone much beyond primary school age).
Ciaran Allen, sales manager for Mercedes-Benz passenger cars in Ireland said: “The EQS SUV will be a welcome addition to our model line-up, ideal for that high-end clientele whose requirements are for a vehicle that combines deluxe driving and surprising agility with deep-down power and off-road performance. Prices will be available closer to its arrival here, nonetheless, it is likely they will fall near to or north of EQS and S-Class models.”
