BRUTALISM AS CAR

The BMW i7 XDRIVE60 is the halo model of the new seventhgeneration 7 Series - and, like the monolithic design aesthetic it embodies, this BMW transforms unadorned functionalism into an ART FORM.

- STEVE SMITH

EXTERIOR This new interpretation of the BMW face with the split headlamp and grille has a unique light signature that will only be seen in BMW's halo models, like this i7, the X7 and the upcoming BMW XM.

THE CREW AT BMW LOVE A BIT OF BRUTALISM. As curvy and svelte as many of their models usually are, every now and again up pops a BMW that owes more to that architectural school's monolithic, unadorned functionalism than it does to easy-on-the-eye lines sculpted in a wind tunnel. In fact, Brutalism is coded into BMW's DNA - see the brand's Karl Schwanzer-designed museum in Munich - and it has manifested in models like the 7 Series of 2001-2008, the current BMW IX, and now the new 7 Series launched in South Africa earlier this year.

It's also an aesthetic that, by its very nature, is eternally polarising. Brutalism leaves no-one indifferent - you either love it or you hate it. And the new 7 Series has not escaped that adjudication. As I was for its 2000s-era Chris Bangledesigned predecessor, I am in the "love it" camp when it comes to this new Beemer. As too, obviously, is its creator Adrian van Hooydonk, the BMW Group's design director.