BMW just revealed the all-new 7 Series, with the all-new i7 taking the center stage as the brand’s largest and most powerful EV to date. One of the craziest features is the new 31-inch theatre display in the rear seat, but a lot of people are having a hard time looking past the larger-than-life grille. Now that the new 7 Series and i7 have been detailed to the fullest, people are starting to wonder whether or not there will be an M7 or, perhaps, an i7 M.

The Future of the BMW 7 Series and the M Badge

BMW won’t build a full-on M7 with a traditional combustion engine or an all-electric powertrain because that’s not what the 7 Series is about. The 7 Series is designed at its core to be a luxurious cruiser. It’s not a slouch by any means. The 740i, for example, has a 3.0-liter inline-six with 380 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque while the 760i has a 4.4-liter V-8 with 544 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque.

The BMW i7 has a pair of electric motors and a 101.7-kWh battery pack that are able to send a total of 526 horsepower and 549 pound-feet of torque to the ground. An M model would see more horsepower, but with the 7 Series and the i7 meant to be a luxurious paradise on wheels and, quite honestly, something that you’re driven around in, a full-on M model just doesn’t make sense. There will however be something a little better.

BMW is planning an i7 M70 xDrive that should be revealed sometime in the near future. This M Sport model will be good for “well over 600 horsepower and maximum torque of over 737 pound-feet.” This will push the i7 to the top of the 7 Series lineup, and it should be good for a 0-62 mph sprint of “under 4.0 seconds.” The i7 M70 will be BMW’s most powerful road car ever, at least until the 740-horsepower BMW XM is officially launched.

Now, with the capability of the BMW i7 M70, we could say that it’s as good as having a full-on M7, though it won’t always be that capable. BMW reveals these figures with an asterisk and implies that those figures will be the result of temporary boosting – similar to what we’ve seen in other EVs lately. Either way, this doesn’t matter as the i7 M70 will fill the void left for the few that would actually want a super-extreme M7 while still keeping the M7 in the luxury territory it’s meant to thrive in.

Beyond the i7 M70

BMW won’t build a full-on M7, but even after the i70 M70 is launched, BMW won’t be done the with 7 Series lineup. At some point in the near future, the company will launch the 750e xDrive, a plug-in hybrid version of the 7 Series. U.S. specs for this model aren’t yet available, but it has already been revealed in Europe with a 3.0-liter inline-six that’s paired with a single electric motor. The total system output is 490 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque.

In Europe, the BMW 750e PHEV can sprint to 62 mph in 4.9 seconds, so it’s actually just a bit quicker than the mild-hybrid 740i, which makes the 60-mph sprint in five-seconds flat. Thanks to its European reveal, we know that it’ll be good for somewhere between 52 and 57 miles of all-electric range, though those ratings are based on the overly ambitious WLTP scale, which means that real-world usability will most certainly be a bit less. Like the mild-hybrid 740i and 760i, this PHEV features an 18.7-kWh battery pack, which means the charging time won’t take long.