New photos showing the 2009 BMW 7-series have come up on the internet. We've already seen the next generation 7-series here, and here but this time, the 7 was spotted in South Africa.

The all-new 7 Series will be unveiled towards the end of 2008 with sales starting in 2009. It will have pretty much the same size as the current models but the 2009 7-series gets a new platform, codenamed F01. But the body will look sleeker and it will stand out as being more elegant.

At the front one can expect a more prominent kidney grille, while the position of the headlights and turn signals show that the next 7 series will have low mounted wrap-around headlights.

The engines will probably be the usual V8, V12 but my hope is that BMW will give us a hybrid engine as well.