BMW i7 M70 limo revealed with 1100Nm

The most powerful electric motor ever built by BMW will make the 2023 BMW i7 M70 limousine both the mainstream BMW flagship and the fastest non-M model when it arrives in European showrooms in mid-2023.

BMW has supplanted the flagship status of its i7 M60 EV with the new i7 M70, complete with 485kW of power and a peak of 1100Nm of torque.

Eclipsing both the 2023 BMW i7 M60 and the i7 xDrive60 already on sale in Australia as the flagship of the new BMW 7 Series range, the twin-motor M70 limousine will surge to 100km/h in a claimed 3.7 seconds on its way to a limited top speed of 250km/h, but it comes at the cost of some range.

Sharing the same 101.7kWh lithium-ion battery as the i7 M60, the i7 M70 sees its maximum WLTP range shrink from the M60’s 625km to 560km.

The extra 85kW of total system power lowers the EV’s overall efficiency from the 18.4-19.6kW/100km range down to 20.8-23.8kWh on the WLTP cycle.

But it’s got gristle. There’s (probably) no coincidence that the peak combined system power of 485kW is 1kW more than Mercedes-AMG offers in the EQS 53 limousine.

But the BMW has the Stuttgart stormer covered for torque, with a ‘normal’ delivery of 1015Nm that can be boosted to 1100Nm for launch-control starts. Which is what 2.7-tonne limousines are so very often bought for.

By contrast, the Mercedes-AMG has 950Nm, and the BMW also trumps it to 100km/h – by just a tenth of a second.

So, the traditional battle has been renewed, just with electric motors instead of big holes in lumps of metal, and it’s a matter of time before Audi joins in as well.

While the Porsche Taycan is rapid, it doesn’t even pretend to be in the same luxury class as these two, and neither does anything from Tesla.

For another genuine head-to-head rival, they will have to wait for Bentley’s all-new EV, due next year.

Where the Mercedes-AMG EQS 53 runs to two permanently excited synchronous motors, the BMW i7 M70 uses a pair of electrically excited motors, with one at each end, and no rare-earth metals.

The heavy hitting rear motor has gone up in grunt from the i7 M60’s 230kW motor to 360kW, which will doubtless end up in other BMW performance EVs in the near future (hint: something starting with ‘M’).

It’s not just the power, but the power density of the motor that have boomed, with the M70’s 2.41kW/kg up 25.5 per cent on its ‘little’ brother.

The six-phase motor runs a dual inverter, too, and the peak output remains available at high speeds, without any significant tail-off.

The new rear motor uses six excitation windings in the stator, instead of the M60’s three, giving it a double excitation that helps keep punching at higher speeds. Each motor will have its own single-speed gear.

The range might have dropped  by at least 60km, but the i7 M70 can still recharge at 22kW on an AC charger or 195kW on a DC fast-charger, delivering 170km of range in just 10 minutes.

To be built in the same Dingolfing plant in Bavaria as the iX, the BMW i7 M70 will retain its little brother’s enormous footprint at 5391mm long, 1950mm wide and riding on a 3215mm wheelbase.

The i7 M70 runs on an M-specific adaptive air suspension system, with electronically controlled dampers and self-levelling.

It has active steering, rear-wheel steering, active anti-roll bars and it rides on 21-inch alloy wheels and sports tyres.

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