After rumours and renderings about BMW adopting a new split headlight design, the latest spy shots of a facelifted X7 prototype appear to confirm the bold design direction. The largest SUV from Bavaria (so far) has been spotted up close with slightly less mascara than before to partially reveal an LED light strip where the bonnet meets the bumper.
By the looks of it, those are the daytime running lights that double as turn signals as on most modern cars featuring light-emitting diodes. Located significantly lower on the bumper seems to be the main headlight assembly, which in this particular case, had the low beams on. Bear in mind this somewhat radical look – which sort of resembles a Skoda Kamiq – is coming not just to the X7, but also the next-generation 7 Series and the rumoured XM / X8 flagship SUV.
Gallery: 2023 BMW X7 facelift spied with split headlights
It's hard to make out the finer details due to the test vehicle's white paint, but our spies have told us the bonnet is also different. They also claim the already large kidney grille will be a tad wider on the facelifted model, which will bring some changes at the back as well. While the LED taillights are unlikely to be drastically modified, the quad exhaust finishers are new. The current X7 M50i already has quad exhausts, but each pair is housed within a single finisher whereas this prototype has a vertical bar between the tips on both corners of the bumper.
Spy shots of the interior are not available for now, so it's unclear at this point whether BMW will give the X7 the new side-by-side screen setup of the electric iX SUV and i4. Perhaps that’s too big of a change for only a mid-cycle facelift, although it’s been done recently by Audi with the revised Q7 losing the tablet-like screen and physical climate control buttons for two stacked touchscreens.
The big X:
As to when that annoying camouflage is going to come off, our money is on a late 2021 / early 2022 official release. The high-performance diesel version, X7 M50d, is not coming back as BMW is retiring the quad-turbodiesel engine since the 3.0-litre, straight-six unit codenamed B57S is too expensive to update to meet increasingly stringent emissions regulations.
Source: CarPix