The next-generation BMW 7 Series is currently in development and BMW has revealed that its most powerful model will be electric. The top dog 7 Series will no longer be powered by a V12 engine and will instead call upon batteries and electric motors for propulsion. This new 7 Series will likely go by the 'i7' moniker when it arrives on the market but it's still too early to know for sure.

It will be a while before we see the i7 in production form but our spy photographers have just captured the car in prototype guise for the first time ever. The prototype is still too heavily camouflaged to get a great idea of the styling but there are some interesting details to make note of.

Electric cars don't require a conventional grille for cooling purposes so it looks like the i7's kidney grille won't be as large as that on the i4 Concept, though that could be part of the camouflage to fool us. There is also a dotted hole pattern beneath the main grille, which looks pretty cool. The headlights sit lower than they do in other BMW models and clearly look like prototype units, so we expect the production ones to look much different.

This car will doubtless have some advanced self-driving features, as evidenced by all of the cameras and sensors around it. The prototype wears a large camera on top of the kidney grille, cameras on each side fender, and a camera within the shark fin antenna on the roof. It also has a new type of door handle that looks integrated into the body.

We don't know much about the i7's specs but it should be pretty heavy. That's why this prototype was spotted wearing Michelin Pilot Sport SUV tires in 245/50 R 19 size. The i7 will go toe-to-toe with the upcoming Mercedes EQS, which will also be all-electric. There will be gasoline versions of the 7 Series as well but this electric model will be the new flagship of the range.