There probably isn’t anyone at BMW that can name all available colors. The vast Individual Visualizer website lets you play with all the paint jobs you can think of, including matte ones. We spotted this i7 M70 at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este with a rare color: Frozen Purple Individual. It carries the “P9A” internal codename and we remember seeing it before on an M8 Convertible.
While the G70 is the only model you can buy with a two-tone paint, BMW opted to show off the electric M Performance sedan with a single-color finish. Those 21-inch wheels (Style 909 M) are one of several styles available in this size for the i7 M70. With glossy black accents and M badges all over the stately body, it’s certainly an eye-catching car.
However, this Frozen Purple 7er isn’t the star this weekend at the show in Italy where the Concept Skytop takes center stage. The discrepancy between the two designs is glaring as if the cars were designed by entirely different teams. That’s not to say the i7 M70 looks necessarily bad. In this spec, it has an interesting appearance. We’ve gotten used to the split headlights while the black kidney grille doesn’t stand out as much.
Say what you will about BMW’s design language, but the numbers don’t lie. In the first quarter of 2024, sales of the 7 Series/8 Series were up by 19.3%. The German luxury brand still doesn’t list sales separately for the two model lines, but we imagine it’s the 7 that did all the heavy lifting. For the full 2023, deliveries of the two families rose by a whopping 22.7%. Of course, a more conventional design might have lured in more buyers, but it’s impossible to know that for sure.
We’re expecting the 7 Series/i7 to receive a Life Cycle Impulse in a couple of years. The LCI models are reportedly set to enter production in mid-2026. The tenth-generation iDrive will likely be implemented, while the pure gasoline version will eschew the “i” in their names. We’re not expecting any major changes before the LCI arrives.