BMW’s new 7 Series images leaked before official launch

The new BMW 7 Series has popped up online three days ahead of when it was supposed to. An Austrian website has inadvertently enabled a configurator that shows the model's styling. To be fair, it's not very different from that of the outgoing model – the front end seems a little taller, with the headlights running into the chrome grille surrounds, as with the 3 Series and the chrome trim running along the side of the sills, but the rear looks all but identical.

The real newness to the 7 series lies under the skin, where much of the chassis has been made of the same carbon-fibre-reinforced-plastic CFRP which BMW originally developed to keep the weight of its electric i-range low.

Combine that with a great deal of aluminium and you get a 7 Series whites said to be about 130kg lower than before. There’s a new i-Drive infotainment setup which is said to include some level of gesture control (where you wave your hands around in front of the screen to adjust it), as well as some level of autonomous driving.

So far, three engines appear to be confirmed – a 740i with a 326hp straight-six turbo, a 750i xDrive with four-wheel drive and a 450ho twin-turbo V8 and a heavily updated 730d 3.0-litre diesel straight-six with 265hp.

Sales of the new 7 Series are due to start in September.