The BMW X7 is coming next year with a grille you could park a 2 Series on
Twenty years ago, the public and the press opined that the idea of a BMW SUV was interesting, but wrong. Today, it’s par for the course; some of the brand’s best-selling models are SUVs. That lineup will grow again next year with the addition of a range-topping model named the X7 that will take BMW into a segment it has never played in before. Images of preproduction prototypes going down the assembly line give us an idea of what to expect.
As its name implies, the BMW X7 is the 7 Series of the SUV world. And, as we expected, the Concept X7 unveiled earlier this year was in fact the production model with a handful of futuristic design tweaks. Its front end is dominated by the largest rendition of BMW’s historic kidney grille we’ve seen to date — the unit is the size of an assembly line worker’s torso. It’s flanked by swept-back headlights inspired by the ones seen on the latest 7 and 5 Series models.
Air breathers chiseled into the fenders right behind the front wheels and a D-pillar with a Hofmeister kink create a visual link between the X7 and the company’s other models. Out back, the thin horizontal tail lamps add another reference to the 7 Series, helping cement the X7’s status as the X line’s flagship.
One of the prototypes uses a version of BMW’s twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 engine. There might also be an entry-level model with a turbocharged straight-six, and the Munich-based company has already announced that a gasoline-electric plug-in hybrid version will join the lineup a little later in the production run. An automatic transmission and BMW’s xDrive all-wheel drive system will come standard regardless of what’s under the hood.
The Spartanburg, South Carolina, factory that produces the X5 and X6, among other models, is currently building preproduction X7 prototypes. They’ll soon be dispatched to all four corners of the globe where engineers will put them through their paces. These prototypes will log thousands of torturous miles in the frigid temperatures well above the Arctic circle, through the Sahara’s blinding sand storms, and in China’s most crowded urban centers.
BMW promises it will introduce the first-ever X7 in exactly a year. While a more specific date hasn’t been revealed yet, the timing suggests we’ll see the SUV in the metal for the first time at the 2019 edition of the Detroit Auto Show. It likely won’t arrive in showrooms until the start of the 2020 model year. When it lands, it will compete in the same segment as the Audi Q7 and the Mercedes-Benz GLS.
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