World debut: BMW's next 7 Series revealed

It has been camouflaged, it has been teased, it has been leaked and now the latest generation of BMW's 7 Series limousine is officially here. And its strongest versions will run the M5 close in straight-line fisticuffs.

And then it will park itself afterwards, in either direction, while the driver holds the key and tries not to look smug.

The flagship of the BMW range will arrive in Australia later this year as the internally acknowledged technology leader of the brand, stacked with every innovation it couldn’t afford to put in lesser cars.

That includes integrating carbon-fibre into the limousine’s passenger cell to add strength, lower weight and create space, slashing about 130kg from the total weight of the fifth-generation car.

Despite the weight reduction, the long-wheelbase version is, at 5238mm long, the biggest series production car BMW has ever built.

It will have a plug-in hybrid version from the start of production, pulling its best model’s CO2 emissions down to just 49g/km, while the traditional turbocharged inline sixes and V8s are from a new generation of modular architectures and have seen upgrades in power and efficiency.

The ride and handling package has had a major overhaul, with self-leveling air suspension at both ends of the car, along with standard dynamic damping control to adjust to both driving styles and road conditions along the way.

There will also be an optional set of electromechanical anti-roll bars as an option to reduce body roll in hard cornering while still ironing out bumps and road undulations.

The headlights will be fully LED, with Laser Light technology pumping the light range out to 600 metres for those willing to pay extra for it.

The car will start production in both long- and standard-wheelbase trim, while the weapons in its electronic armoury include remote-control parking via the display key, a head-up display that’s 75 per cent larger than before and gesture control for the infotainment system.

Its active safety package includes everything from active cruise control to steering and lane-keeping assistance, to side collision protection, to the traffic-jam assistant so you don’t have to brake and accelerate in thick traffic and a front and rear crossing traffic warning system. If that all sounds like it’s pre-rigged for autonomous driving, well… There is also active aerodynamics that open and close the grille louvers.

The line-up will be headlined by the 750i xDrive and its stretched sibling, the 750Li xDrive, both powered by the same biturbo V8. The pair of twin-scroll turbochargers help it to 330kW at 5500 to 6000rpm, while the 4395cc motor also crunches out 650Nm of torque from only 1800rpm and holds it to 4500rpm.

That’s good enough to shoot the all-wheel drive V8 to 100km/h in 4.4 seconds (or, put another way, perilously close to M5 territory), and it is limited to 250km/h. For all that pace, it clocks an NEDC figure of 8.1 litres/100km and its CO2 emissions hit 189 grams/km.

There are two other petrol powerplants for the new 7 Series, including the turbocharged inline six in the 740i and the 740Li and the 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo motor in the 740e, the 740Le and the 740Le xDrive plug-in hybrids.

They are both direct-injection motors, with variable valve timing and lift and they share the same modular architecture. And they all wear blankets to reduce noise and vibration as close to the source as possible, reducing the need for heavy sound deadening throughout the car.

The 740i motor sits at 2998cc and troubles its transmission with 240kW at 5500rpm and 450Nm of torque from 1380rpm through to 5000rpm, so you know what the priority is there. It’s 1.1 seconds slower to 100km/h than the V8 (5.5 seconds), but it’s more frugal as well, drinking down 6.6L/100km.

By itself, the 740e’s four-cylinder engine has 190kW of power (not at all paltry from two litres) and it hits up high, from 5000rpm to 6500rpm. More surprisingly, its 400Nm of torque is just 50Nm shy of the 3.0-litre six’s output figure, and it peaks at 2000rpm.

It backs that up with a synchronous electric motor, which adds 70kW and 250Nm of its own torque into the mix, delivering a total system output of 240kW.

It reaches 100km/h in 5.6 seconds (the xDrive version is a tenth quicker, the long-wheelbase version a tenth slower), but the key is the electric range it gets from its lithium-ion battery pack.

While Audi and Mercedes-Benz have been squabbling over the optimum pure-electric range for a plug-in hybrid, BMW has chosen a middle ground, giving the 740e 40km of emission-free running.

That’s helped it to deliver an NEDC cycle figure of just 2.1L/100km and CO2 emissions of 49g/km, while it can still hit 120km/h in its electric running mode.

There’s no sign yet of the tri-turbodiesel motor in the 7 Series, but it delivers its latest iteration of the single-turbo 3.0-litre in-line six in both rear and all-wheel drive form.

The 2993cc motor has 620Nm of torque from 2000rpm and 195kW of power, flitting through the 0-100km/h sprint in 6.1 seconds, or 5.8 seconds for the xDrive version.

The all-wheel drive pays a penalty in the NEDC numbers, though, climbing up from the 730d’s 4.5 litres/100km to 4.8.

All of the new 7 Series models run an updated version of the eight-speed automatic transmission, with the plug-in hybrid’s electric motor sitting between the rear of the engine and the transmission itself.

These new powerplants are fitted into a complex body structure that combines high-strength steels, aluminium and carbon-fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP).

There’s a lot of space to put all of these materials, too. The standard 7 Series body sits on a 3070mm wheelbase and is still just shy (by 2mm) of 5.1 metres long. The long-wheelbase cars are 5238mm and ride on a 3210mm wheelbase. Both body styles are 1902mm wide and 1478mm high, while it manages a 515-litre boot (though that shrinks to 420 litres on the hybrid).

It has worked on different materials to pull down the car’s weight, with aluminium doors and bootlids helping, while mixing ultra-high-tensile steel and CFRP in the B-pillars doesn’t hurt, either.

The lightest of the breed will be the standard 740i, which is 1725kg dry (or 1800kg in the DIN measurement). The long-wheelbase body is 45kg heavier in each model.

The 750i xDrive adds more beef, at 1870kg dry, while the 750Li xDrive is 1915kg, partly because of the heavier engine and beefed up brakes and partly because of its 19-inch standard wheel and tyre package.

The diesel weights fall between the two petrol-powered extremes, while BMW hasn’t quoted an official weight for its plug-in hybrid.

Despite the introduction of air suspension and a five-link rear suspension layout, its unsprung masses have been lowered by 15 per cent, with brakes and 18-inch wheels both lighter.

Inside, the instrument cluster is all digital, displayed on an 8.8-inch screen, though this can be bumped up to 12.3 inches at a price.

A two-zone air-conditioner is standard and there’s now a fragrance system, not unlike the one in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which is the key foe of the 7 Series.

Go crazy with the interior specifications and you could end up with the Executive Lounge package, which delivers four-zone climate control, active seat ventilation, a rear-seat massage function and a backrest that recline close to horizontal.

There’s also a fold-out table, a seven-inch touchscreen multimedia tablet that can be removed from the car and you can spend even more money (on the LWB models) and get the full panorama roof, or the Bowers & Wilkins sound system.