New BMW X7 luxury SUV confirmed with an electric iX7 also on the cards

Large SUVs are big business and BMW has just confirmed its largest, the X7, will return for another generation.

The relatively low-key announcement was made during BMW’s Q1 financial results call, where the company revealed it had incurred the research and development costs for the upcoming Neue Klasse line-up (which will launch later this year with the new iX3) as well as “successor models to the BMW X5 and BMW X7”.

We have known the X5 will return with a fifth-generation model next year for quite some time now, and we’ve also spotted it testing with some clear design influences from BMW’s Neue Klasse concepts. But this is the first time we’ve had confirmation of a second-generation X7, and we’re yet to see the new car testing on the road. 

As with the new X5 that’s due to launch in 2026, the X7, which is likely to arrive in 2027, is expected to sit on a revised version of BMW’s existing Cluster Architecture (CLAR). This platform is able to cater to both internal-combustion and pure-electric powertrains. While BMW hasn’t suggested the new X7 will gain a pure-electric variant, the German firm has at least trademarked the ‘iX7’ nameplate. 

An all-electric iX7 wouldn’t be too surprising, however, given that BMW is in the process of creating EV variants of its core models. The Neue Klasse programme will see the introduction of the X3-sized iX3 first, followed by the all-electric ‘i3’ 3 Series and at a later stage an electric ‘i1’ 1 Series. 

It’s possible the electric components for the iX7 could be taken from the i7. Powering the CLAR-underpinned i7 is a 105.7kWh battery with three different power outputs – a single-motor rear-wheel-drive 449bhp unit, a dual-motor four-wheel-drive 537bhp version and a top-rung dual-motor with 650bhp. 

Given the X7 is an SUV, we’d expect only the dual-motor all-wheel-drive layouts to be offered.

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