The idea here is that those not yet ready to go full EV should still have the chance to buy a flagship BMW that will waft around on electrons most of the time and cost very little to tax. I thought its all-electric brother the i7 was the best large EV I’ve driven, better by a distance than its Mercedes EQS rival, but, as a plug in, I think Benz’s rival S 580 e poses a far tougher challenge.
For a start the Merc really will do almost 70 miles before the petrol motor fires up – in the BMW that figure is nearer 45 miles; also BMW seems to have firmed up the M760e, perhaps to justify that M badge, degrading the i7’s superlative ride just a touch. If it’s any better to handle in the corners I neither noticed nor particularly cared: whatever the badge says, it’s just not that kind of car.
None of which is to dismiss it. Behind those dreadful looks still lies far and away the most convincing generation of 7 Series BMW since the very first, which was still around when I got into this game in the late 1980s. You can spend hours – literally – configuring the interior to your smallest requirements, but when stripped back to what actually matters, it reveals itself to be an eerily quiet, spacious, well-appointed and still fabulously comfortable car. The interaction between its electric and petrol motors is superb too. But if forced to make a decision, I’d still have an i7. AF
I don’t think there could be a greater expression of confidence in the brand than this. A very broad rule of thumb is that in most premium car ranges the…
I have for some time been pondering the timing of what might loosely be described as ‘peak car’. There is no question at all, at least in my mind, that…
You know that phrase ‘if it looks right, it is right’? Were that always the case the Ferrari Dino 206 S would have won every race it entered, probably lapping…
It was one of those moments when you just knew, and it took less than a mile. That was all the time I needed to know for certain that the…
First job of the new year? Drive a Dacia Duster from Wales to Belgium and back to attend the AGM of the Car of the Year jury on which I…
Recently, and in anticipation of the arrival of this very car, I found myself on a hillside with six generations that had gone before: the E28 original, the E34 that…
You’ll have been deluged with the images, goggled at the inexplicable video and been bombarded with all shades of opinion, but I just can’t not mention the Jaguar concept car.…
Car of the month – TWR Supercat It says TWR, but that’s no Group C car? Correct! This TWR isn’t quite like the old TWR that created fire-breathing touring and…
It would be understandable, perhaps even expected, for the usually unflappably confident Porsche to be just a little nervous about the reception its new Macan is likely to receive. Simply…
By the time you read this the fact that Donald Trump has become the first person since Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century to win non-consecutive US elections will…
Fifty years ago McLaren and Ferrari were battling it out on the track as Emerson Fittipaldi and his rival Clay Regazzoni chased the 1974 Formula 1 World Championship. Fast forward…
Here’s a fact for you – the MG Cyberster is the world’s first production two-seat EV to go on sale. It’s brave, to put it mildly. The car looks great…