MELBOURNE: Well, the cat’s out of the bag now. Thanks to Belgian website Autobuzz we now know exactly what the new BMW 7 Series looks like without its camouflage – almost a full year ahead of its expected on-sale date.
The design is an evolutionary one. The 7 Series’ familiar chrome bootlid strip is still there, but is now wider and extends into the tail lamp clusters.
The rear fenders are more pronounced too, and exhaust outlets are integrated with the bumper.
Around the front, the chrome front quarter embellishment has migrated to the bottom of the quarter panel, and blends into a chrome strip that runs along the bottom of both doors and continues across the rear bumper.
Similar chrome highlights exist on the front bumper, and this particular test vehicle was also equipped with BMW’s new laser-based headlamps.
Inside it’s broadly similar to the current model albeit with the infotainment screen now sitting proud of the dash, rather than being sunken into it.
The steering wheel carries plenty of silver highlights on and around its switches, and the instrument panel appears to be an LCD display.
Underneath, the new 7 Series is expected to be built atop a new scalable architecture that will help it shed up to 200kg from its kerb weight. Aluminium will be more widely used, and the new 7 Series may even borrow some carbon-fibre tech from the i8 and i3 to help it drop some pounds.
Engine-wise, the new 7er range is expected to feature a similar six, eight and 12-cylinder powerplant lineup as the current car, along with new turbo four-cylinders and a plug-in hybrid model.
Expect a motorshow debut in the first half of this year, followed by customer delivies for most markets in late 2015.
