A camouflaged BMW X7 prototype just surfaced on video, running hard with quad exhaust tips and an engine note that all but confirms a V8 under the hood. The G67, as BMW internally designates the second-generation X7, is clearly further along in development than most expected. It appears to be wearing its full production body beneath heavy wrap.
The quad exhaust setup is the giveaway. BMW has publicly committed to reserving visible exhaust tips exclusively for M-badged vehicles, with both M Lite and full M cars getting four. That makes this prototype almost certainly the X7 M60, the M Performance flagship of the range.
The logic follows a clear corporate thread. The smaller X5 M60 is already confirmed to receive BMW’s largest engine, so denying the bigger, heavier, more expensive X7 the same V8 would make no sense. Unlike the X5, which offers an M Performance plug-in hybrid with an inline-six, the X7 prototype shows no charging port on its front fender. No PHEV for the range-topper, at least not in combustion form.
BMW will instead channel its electrification ambitions for this segment into a fully electric iX7, which may also spawn an M Lite derivative to mirror the iX5. The gas-burning X7, it seems, stays pure combustion. A V8 halo sitting atop a lineup that still believes big engines move big metal.
Despite the camouflage, the massive kidney grille flanked by split headlights is unmistakable. It reads as a direct evolution of the current G07’s face, updated with Neue Klasse design cues lifted from the recently facelifted 7 Series. The winglet-style door handles, borrowed from the new X5 G65 and first seen on the ultra-rare Speedtop and Skytop, are fully visible.
At the rear, provisional taillights stand in for what will be much wider production units stretching across the tailgate, split around BMW’s updated roundel. Whether the X7 retains its signature split tailgate remains unclear. BMW killed the two-piece design on the new X5 for packaging and engineering reasons, and those same arguments could apply here.
The next X7 is expected to push deeper into luxury territory. Automatic doors, the 31.3-inch Theatre Screen currently exclusive to the 7 Series and i7, heated and ventilated rear seats, and two-tone paint options are all on the table. BMW dealers have reportedly described the new X7’s proportions as more wagon-like, a claim worth watching as more prototypes shed their camouflage.
Then there’s the ALPINA variant. The G69, as it’s reportedly coded, may drop the third row entirely, trading seven-seat practicality for the kind of rear-seat luxury that justifies a six-figure price tag. That model likely won’t arrive until 2028, a full year after the standard X7 debuts.
BMW confirmed the G67 will break cover in 2027. But the level of development visible in this prototype, from production panels to production door handles to near-final proportions, suggests the car is closer to sign-off than the timeline implies. Engineers may still be calibrating, but the big decisions are made.
The V8 stays. The grille stays enormous. And the X7 remains BMW’s answer to a question only a certain type of buyer asks: how much SUV can one badge carry? The answer, apparently, is still quite a lot.
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