BMW unveils Concept 7 Protection

MANILA: BMW has unveiled the BMW Concept 7 Protection -a much lighter and more daily-driveable version of the BMW 7 Series Protection, whose latest iteration has been sold by the Bavarian brand since 2023. 

Notably, the BMW Concept 7 Protection features lower-rated armor plating designed to stop handgun ammunition ranging from 9 millimeter (mm) rounds up to .44 Magnum rounds. This contrasts with the production BMW 7 Series Protection’s VR9 (optional VPAM 10-level) rating, which is good against certain explosives and up to 7.62x54R (PKM, Dragunov SVD). 

Why the lower armor rating? Well, according to BWM, it wanted to address the needs of certain customer groups that require a lower level of protection, while highlighting that what they are using is a luxury sedan. 

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Specific protective bits added to the BMW Concept 7 Protection include transparent and opaque sections of the vehicle’s passenger compartment. This goes together with bulletproof glass, ballistic steel and fiber-reinforced composites inside the doors, and rear triangular windows that are touted to be discreet but protective. 

Additionally, the top section of the car, particularly its panoramic glass sunroof, was layered over steel and more fiber-reinforced composites. With this, the vehicle still looks like it has a sunroof, but is actually permanently covered by the sunblind. 

These ballistic protective components are backed by an intercom system with exterior and interior microphones and loudspeakers and an attack alert system with visual and audio cues. 

For its “mission directive,” as BMW describes it, the Concept 7 Protection was designed to handle threats coming from attacks during road travel, especially in regions with “uncertain security situations.” 

On the one hand, the BMW Concept 7 Protection retains the power and comfort provided by the regular unarmored BMW 7 Series. 

Under its hood is a 3.0-liter inline-six plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) powertrain that is able to produce up to 612 horsepower and 800 Newton-meters of torque. It also comes with the brand’s xDrive all-wheel-drive system and an eight-speed Steptronic transmission. 

Handling components for the car, however, were calibrated to handle the additional weight of its protective armor. Nevertheless, the German company assures that it retains the same driving feel and dynamics as the bog-standard 7 Series. 

Its interior, on the other hand, was dressed up in Smoke White BMW Individual Merino Leather, Alcantara trims, and the BMW M Anthracite Alcantara headliner. 

Likewise carried over to the concept is the BMW Individual rear console with foldable tables and a cool box. Notably, the said folding table comes with a wireless smartphone charging tray. 

BMW Protection lineup

For the unaware, BMW has sold its Protection series lineup since 1978. Back then, it started with the E23 7 Series sedan. Currently, the aforementioned special variants of Bimmers include the X5 Protection VR6 and the 7 Series Protection. 

At the moment, however, BMW has yet to disclose when it will begin to move the Concept 7 Protection into full production. If this comes to pass, however, it is highly likely that European markets will get first dibs. 

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