BMW’s $124,700 i7 60 xDrive Rides Closer To A Rolls-Royce Than Any 7 Series Before It

My first hours with the 2027 BMW i7 60 xDrive were spent in California stop-and-go traffic, reclined in the back seat with a 31.3-inch screen in front of me and someone else driving. That’s still where this car makes the most sense. What surprised me is how far this LCI (Life Cycle Impulse, BMW’s term for a mid-cycle refresh) goes beyond the usual BMW facelift. A new face, a Neue Klasse dashboard, and a bigger battery with Gen6 cells make the G70 feel like a new generation from most angles.

It’s the best i7 yet, and I think it’s worth the money. It’s also a car with a foot in two eras. The cabin up front comes from BMW’s newest EVs, while the 400-volt architecture, the 250-kW charging ceiling, and the rear-seat software carry over, and having just driven the iX3 and iX5, I noticed the gap.

The Back Seat Is Still The Reason This Car Exists

The whole 31.3-inch Theater Screen is now fully touchscreen, and a new Zoom app uses a built-in camera and cabin microphones to turn the back seat into a meeting room. YouTube and other streaming apps keep kids busy on long drives. But the best fix is the simplest one: the old HDMI port left cables dangling, which looked out of place in a six-figure limousine, and the new one sits neatly at the bottom edge of the screen for a laptop, an iPad, or a PlayStation (with an inverter for power).

With the Executive Lounge seat, the front passenger seat slides forward and the rear seat reclines into something close to a bed, which I tested with a nap. BMW plans to add a fridge built into the rear seat and a work table next year. What hasn’t changed is the software. The door-mounted touch tablets and the Theatre Screen interface are the same as before, which feels odd next to the new dashboard.

Gen6 Cells Arrive, But The 400-Volt Architecture Stays

Underneath, the i7 still rides on CLAR, the platform it shares with the combustion 7 Series. BMW worked with Rimac to fit Gen6 cylindrical cells, the same type used in the iX3, into the existing floor space in place of the old prismatic cells. Usable capacity grows from 101.7 kWh to 112.5 kWh with no cargo penalty, and energy density is up 20 percent.

BMW estimates more than 350 miles of EPA range, up from 311 miles, and up to 728 km (452 miles) on the WLTP cycle. Peak DC charging rises from 195 kW to 250 kW, and a 10-80 percent charge takes 28 minutes. That’s a big step for a 400-volt car, but the 800-volt iX3 charges at up to 400 kW and the iX5 at 460 kW, so a $61,500 BMW crossover now charges faster than the flagship.

The motors carry over from the Gen5 eDrive and still make a combined 536 hp and 549 lb-ft. BMW quotes 0-60 mph in 4.6 seconds. My car matched that at 4.6 seconds, or 4.5 seconds with a one-foot rollout.

Comfort Mode Floats, But Sport Mode Tightens Everything

Mercedes-Benz built the S-Class around luxury and prestige, and the i7 now comes very close to it there. The 7 Series is still the one to buy if you also want to enjoy the drive, though nobody should expect it to move like a smaller BMW.

On flowing California mountain roads, Comfort lets the i7 float, with noticeable body roll. Turn-in is still easy, and the steering is light, which means less effort at the wheel but more input to place the car. That’s the right setting for daily driving.

Sport is where the 7 Series tightens up. The air suspension firms and drops the body 10 mm, the steering gets heavier, and a boost function sharpens the response when you floor it. BMW’s synthesized driving sound also changes tone. I leave it on, because in a car this quiet and quick it tells you how hard the car is working, and the i7 reaches illegal speeds in very little time.

Even in Sport, the ride stays supple, yet body control is excellent, and that’s when the i7 stops feeling its size and weight. The front end feels light and mechanical grip is strong. The new steering wheel’s rim isn’t oversized either, which makes the car feel more maneuverable than a limousine has any right to.

The spread between modes is still narrower than in the iX3 and iX5, where BMW pulled them further apart. BMW made small changes to soften Comfort a bit, but the i7 doesn’t change character between settings the way the Neue Klasse cars do. Flooring it from 70 mph brings the instant shove you’d expect from 536 hp and 549 lb-ft, and the car is as happy on a mountain road as in a straight line.

Regen settings carry over: Adaptive, Low, Medium, High, and B for one-pedal driving. In my car’s Sport setup, recuperation was set to Low, so the friction brakes did most of the stopping, and they’re easy to modulate. B mode is aggressive enough that you feel yourself pitch forward when you lift, which helps range but can make passengers car sick. I’d leave it in Adaptive, which can also slow the car for traffic ahead and coast on open roads. Regen blending still isn’t as smooth as in the Neue Klasse cars, which have newer motors and the Heart of Joy central computer.

Rear-Axle Steering And Air Suspension Do The Heavy Lifting

Every 7 Series rides on two-axle air suspension with individually controlled dampers, and the i7 also uses Integral Active Steering. At low speeds, the rear wheels turn opposite the fronts, which BMW says cuts the turning circle by about 0.8 meters. At higher speeds, they steer up to 3.5 degrees with the fronts for stability.

You feel both ends of that. On a tight city street with a lane blocked, the i7 made a full-lock turn in one go. On the highway, rear steering settles abrupt lane changes by countering what the front wheels are doing, which the people in the back will appreciate. My car also had active roll stabilization, which BMW bundles in its optional Adaptive Chassis Control Professional with 48-volt active anti-roll bars.

The new battery didn’t add much weight (about 23 kg / 50 lbs), so BMW left the air suspension tuning largely alone, and the ride is the best thing about the car. I don’t usually compare a 7 Series to a Rolls-Royce Ghost, but no 7 Series before this one has come as close to how a Rolls-Royce feels on the road. The BMW is smaller and lighter, and it changes direction more willingly.

A Neue Klasse Dashboard With One Annoying Exception

Panoramic iDrive projects information across the base of the windshield, a 17.9-inch central touchscreen replaces the old curved display, and the iDrive controller is gone. After enough time in these cars, I now follow navigation on the Panoramic Vision strip rather than the head-up display. The new center screen sits closer to the driver, and everything on it responds to touch.

Making room for the projection meant lowering the windshield by about 40 mm and reworking the hood to keep noise down, BMW told me. On a phone app at 70 mph, I measured 60 to 61 decibels with a little wind noise. It’s not a lab test, but this is the quietest 7 Series I’ve been in.

The standard 14.6-inch passenger screen is for entertainment only. A driver-monitoring camera tracks the driver’s eyes and head, and if you look at it for more than a second, playback pauses with a warning. I tried different glasses and angles and couldn’t fool it, though BMW engineers told me some polarized lenses could be an edge case.

The annoying exception is the air vents, which you now aim through the touchscreen. There are shortcuts for direct and indirect airflow, but it’s slower and less safe on the move than a physical toggle, and I’ve had the same complaint in every one of these new BMWs.

Elsewhere, glass controls handle the start button and seats, the Alcantara-covered wireless pad is raised so phones should run cooler, and the dash is wrapped in leather, which suits a 7 Series better than the vegan or cashmere options. My car’s M Sport wheel has spokes at four and eight o’clock, with a 12-and-6 design available. BMW’s first digital rearview mirror is offered alone or bundled with the Theater Screen, which blocks the rear window when it’s down. The image is sharp with no visible lag, though I mostly used the regular mirror.

Hands-Free Highway Driving That Takes Orders From Your Eyes

On the freeway, BMW’s Highway Assistant drives hands-free, activated through haptic “shy tech” buttons on the wheel. When the car suggests a lane change, a glance at the side mirror confirms it, and the i7 signals and moves over by itself. It can also take an exit: it asks you to touch the wheel briefly, then steers you off the ramp. With no traditional instrument cluster, a driver-monitoring camera embedded in the rear-view mirror keeps watch and shuts the system off if it can’t see your eyes on the road. It behaved just as it does in the iX3 and iX5.

A New Face Fixes The 7 Series’ Biggest Design Problem

The G70’s face was its most controversial feature at launch, and BMW didn’t take a light touch. The new hood has creases that echo Neue Klasse and a raised center section with some Rolls-Royce Ghost presence. The kidney grille is slimmer and more upright, and the split headlights stay but look far more resolved, with optional crystal elements in the daytime running lights. It finally looks the way a 7 Series should: big, upright, and expensive.

The profile carries over aside from new door handles, which replace the old confusing round button with a simple push or pull. At the back, slimmer taillights sit in blacked-out housings on M Sport cars, and the trunk release moves into the lights. My car rode on 21-inch aero wheels, and 22s are available for the first time. BMW Individual’s new Dual-Finish paint can pair, for example, a Tanzanite Blue metallic on top with matte Frozen Tanzanite Blue below.

Is The 2027 BMW i7 60 xDrive Worth $124,700?

The i7 60 xDrive starts at $124,700 before a $1,550 destination charge, and I think it’s worth it. BMW usually limits an LCI to new bumpers, lights, colors, and trims. This one brings a new face, a new cabin, a bigger battery, faster charging, and slightly better efficiency. Over a mixed loop of mountain roads, highway, and city traffic, I averaged 2.9 mi/kWh, with the new energy widget showing the drivetrain using 77 percent of it. At 2.9 mi/kWh, the 112.5-kWh usable battery works out to about 326 miles, but that includes some spirited driving. A full range test will have to wait.

It isn’t the right i7 for everyone. Range-focused buyers will get more from the iX5, which BMW now estimates at 450 miles EPA. Anyone who wants an engine note should look at the 570-hp V8 M760 xDrive, and the 449-hp i7 50 xDrive at $106,200 is the cheaper way in. For everyone else, the i7 60 xDrive is the middle ground. BMW’s next 7 Series will likely go fully Neue Klasse, and until then, this is about as much of that future as BMW could fit on the old platform.