Verdict

The BMW i7 M70 is much like lesser i7 models bar for the ridiculous straight-line performance, but it costs more than £160,000, so it’s a pricey car that only few will value. However, for those that do, it’ll hit the spot, even if it feels more like a tweaked standard car than even a true M Performance model.

This new i7 M70 xDrive is the most powerful electric BMW yet, a flagship for the firm’s already top of the range model, the all-electric i7 luxury saloon.

The M70 is defined by its pair of electric motors – one on the front axle and one at the rear – which deliver a total of 650bhp and an astonishing 1,100Nm of torque, so despite the i7’s significant size and weight, the M70 will accelerate from 0-62mph in just 3.7 seconds. That makes this luxury limo as fast as the hardcore M4 CSL.

Top speed stands at an electronically limited 155mph, but it’s more about how the i7 gets there, with launch control and an M Sport Boost function. EVs don’t deliver their performance like a luxury, V12-engined model in this class might once have, but there’s no denying the M70 lives up to the numbers. It’s shockingly rapid, thumping forward with a level of ferocity that doesn’t seem to correlate initially with such a big, heavy car.