News: BMW reveals plans for Mercedes GL-rivalling X7

The new X7 will be BMW’s answer to the Range Rover and Mercedes GL.


NEWS THAT a car maker has increased the capacity of an existing plant wouldn’t usually get a look-in around these parts but when BMW supplemented just such an announcement with an update on a new, large SUV, we had to take notice.

The factory in question is BMW’s Spartanburg plant in the US,  where BMW builds its existing X-model SUV range. The car maker has announced it will be ploughing $1bn into the factory by 2016 to increase annual production by 50% to 450,000  X models.

More interestingly, the money will also help pave the way for the production of a new, large, seven-seat SUV to be called the X7, due for launch in 2016.

The new model will be BMW’s answer to the Range Rover and Mercedes GL. It can’t have been easy for the car maker to watch these luxury SUVs take chunks out of the sales of its existing large cars, so the X7 will be an important model in its line-up.

The original Yank tank, perhaps?