If recent spy shots are any indication, BMW is giving the 7 Series a little tweak for the 2027 model year, and it's evidently turning to Rimac for some of the revisions. The Bavarian company announced today that the all-electric i7 luxury sedan would be its first vehicle to benefit from the partnership with Rimac that began in 2023. The technology cooperation resulted in a new battery design that promises improved range, more power, and faster charging than before, and it will be assembled at Rimac's massive new manufacturing campus near Zagreb, Croatia. A Cross-Continental Partnership The new design blends BMW's home-grown Gen6 battery cells, whose cylindrical design and scalable height enable better energy density, with Rimac's own Gen5 module-based construction, giving the batteries a scalable design. That makes us suspect that the Rimac-built batteries will likely spread to smaller BMWs in due time – at least those that aren't built on the Neue Klasse pack-to-open-body platform.Together, we developed a high-voltage battery system that unlocks the full potential of the new cylindrical cells in record time, delivering significant improvements in energy, range, and charging performance. We are proud to now see this system being produced at scale at our new Rimac Campus.–Mate Rimac, Founder and President of Rimac GroupThe new battery design comes just three years after BMW and Rimac entered into a technological partnership, and in that time, the Croatian automaker was able to build a totally new manufacturing facility from scratch. The nearly 969,000-square-foot factory will devote about 18 percent of its space to a production line that will build batteries for BMW, with another half of it dedicated to building batteries and components for other large-scale OEMs. The factory will cement Rimac's status as not only a boutique supercar manufacturer, but also a Tier 1 supplier to many of the world's most important automakers. In addition to the new i7, the Croatian company is developing electric motors and solid-state batteries that could show up in future products from Aston Martin, Porsche, and fledgling Ceer (a Saudi Arabian electric supercar brand).CarBuzz/Valnet The Updated 7 Series Is Almost Here BMW said that it would reveal the new i7 on April 22 in Beijing, meaning we're just over two weeks away from learning more specifics about the Rimac-supplied battery. Given how close to production some of the company's dynamic prototypes look, we presume the internal-combustion 7er will show up around the same time. We're not entirely sure what to expect from BMW in terms of mid-cycle updates, although spy photos clearly show a new headlight configuration that ditches the current model's stacked, horizontal lamps in favor of dual-element LED eyebrows and a single projector mounted lower on the bumper.CarBuzz/ValnetAs for the current-generation BMW i7, it travels at least 260 miles per charge in its shortest-range configuration – top-spec, dual-motor M70 model with 20-inch wheels – while the single-motor eDrive50 model can muster up 314 miles of range thanks to its more parsimonious powertrain. Plan on Rimac's battery tech expanding both of those numbers by around 10 or 15 percent when the 2027 BMW i7 shows up later this month.Source: BMW, Rimac Technology
