BMW came back from the great success of the i4, a situation that forced it to schedule additional shifts to increase production and satisfy more customers. In the meantime, however, the development of the brand’s next electric cars continues, and one of them is the i7 luxury sedan.
Already seen in the past with a camouflaged livery, the car is still shown on the occasion of the start of the stress tests in extreme heat conditions. Engineers took several specimens to some of the hottest places in the world to put the system to the test eDrives. The focus is of course on electric motors, battery management and other details such as regenerative braking.
The tests begin with long journeys in particularly hot climates, to monitor the temperature management system, and later also to recharge after a long journey. Always with the scorching heat as the protagonist, we then move on to the conditions of stop-and-go traffic.
Then the paths are tested with large altitude differences, in order to put the powertrain to the test in the situation where it must express the best performance. In this context, the traction control during dynamic mountain driving.
To make the test even more extreme, still in a mountainous area, we also carry out a test with trailer, to evaluate the endurance of the traction battery when it has to provide maximum power for a long period. The high atmospheric temperature also allows control of the air conditioning systems. Finally, once the desired altitude has been reached, the vehicle is also fully recharged, in order to test the downhill braking capacity. With fully charged battery regenerative braking not workingfor which the systems that exclude it are put to the test, as well as obviously the braking system, which must work to its maximum and with a very heavy vehicle.
The components used already benefit from the tests carried out on the i4 and iX, and will allow the launch of the i7 in 2022.