BMW X7 – The Large SUV Concept Back on the Drawing Board?

This Thursday, the world’s largest economic summit in Seoul will be held. The focus of the summit will be global rebalancing — changing the world economy by depending more on China, Germany, India, and other countries and reducing dependence on American consumers alone. In one article by Wall Street Journal regarding the summit, something interesting was mentioned about BMW:

“So, BMW is downshifting. While it makes one big sedan especially for the Chinese market, it isn’t ramping up production enough to fill all its Chinese orders. It wants to make sure it has sufficient supply for the U.S. and Germany.

The company is also counting on the U.S. to rebound more quickly than doom-and-gloomers think, making rebalancing less necessary than the leaders gathered in Seoul believe. It is even reconsidering its decision to cancel a new large SUV, which was meant mainly for U.S. buyers.”

The new large SUV that is mentioned here can lead us back to the rumored BMW X7. This concept was made in 2008, but it did not push through due to the economic difficulties that began to occur that year. A difficult economy called for a change of automobile engineering. People wanted smaller are more fuel efficient cars. But because of BMW’s strong sales in China, it seems that the BMW X7 concept can now be revived.

In an estimate, Bernstein Research says that almost 50% of BMW’s operating profits originate from China. The launch of the 5 Series with a longer wheelbase that caters to the interests of most wealthy Chinese is a proof that BMW is indeed considering their third largest market in its design decisions.

BMW has not yet confirmed if the BMW X7 is indeed back on the drawing board.

Source: Wall Street Journal