[VIDEO] BMW i7 Impresses with 631 km Range

Electric automobiles were still a novelty in the past years. Hatchbacks like the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Bolt made up the majority of lame EVs. Then, when Tesla released the Model S, it completely changed the EV market. At the time, 200 miles of range was the ideal. And Tesla was the only company that could actually make it happen. Currently, that distance is 400 miles, and as usual, Tesla was the first to overcome that obstacle. Now, though, other automakers have followed up, and it appears that BMW is one of them. In this new video from Bjørn Nyland, the BMW i7 just demonstrated its ability to travel 631 kilometers (392 miles) on a single charge.

Nyland drove the BMW i7 for a couple hundred miles on the highway while in Thailand. He didn’t exhaust the battery’s capacity. Thus, he didn’t actually travel 631 kilometers, but he did average 160 watt-hours per kilometer. As Nyland correctly points out, the BMW i7’s entire battery capacity is 101 useable kWh. It gives you 631 km when you split it by the 160 wh/km. Does that imply that the BMW i7 can consistently reach that level of range? No, but it does imply that under the correct conditions, the i7 is capable of hitting that range.

While Nyland’s test drive of the BMW i7 may have been impacted by the hot weather, he took steps to ensure a comfortable driving experience by using the air conditioning and pre-cooling the car’s interior. However, this did result in a decrease in the car’s overall efficiency.

Given everything said above, it will be fascinating to see how far the BMW i7 can go on a single battery charge in actual driving situations. It’s already been shown that the BMW iX is remarkably efficient, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the i7 is as efficient. Therefore, BMW is breaking into the 400-mile-range, which is a significant step in the right direction for the Bavarians while Tesla and Lucid may have longer ranges at their high ends.