What If The New BMW 7-Series Was A Rebadged Rolls-Royce Ghost?

This article includes fictional renderings created by Thanos Pappas for CarScoops that are neither related to nor endorsed by Rolls-Royce of BMW.

The 7-Series just got its all-new seventh-generation which naturally comes fitted with every piece of technology that was available in BMW’s parts bin. In a “what if” scenario, we wondered what would be the case if BMW had chosen to take the badge-engineering road with its flagship using the Rolls-Royce Ghost as a base. Thus, inspired by Sugar Chow’s recent render we created our own set of illustrations depicting this clearly fictional Bimmer.

Let’s start by saying that BMW Group made a serious effort to further differentiate Rolls-Royce from BMW by giving its models a dedicated all-aluminum platform. First introduced in the Phantom, the “Architecture Of Luxury” was used in the Cullinan and the Ghost, while it will also underpin Rolls-Royce’s EV range starting with the Spectre.

This means that unlike its predecessor which was heavily based on the long-wheelbase BMW 7-Series, the current Rolls-Royce Ghost has nothing in common with the Bavarian flagship in terms of chassis setup, limiting the common features in minor systems like the infotainment. Despite all this, we stubbornly envisioned a scenario where BMW mocks the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class by doing things the other way round, which means using Rolls-Royce parts and engineering to elevate the 7-Series further into luxury and opulence.

The first step in our transformation was to add the notorious BMW grille to the face of the Ghost. This was easier than expected since Rolls-Royce’s own grille has always been quite large. As a result, BMW’s nostrils don’t look that bad when surrounded by the Ghosts’ minimalist headlights and bumper intakes. In reality, this would make it the only BMW not designed to shock you with its design which is not exactly compatible with the rest of the range.

Rebadging is all about saving money and resources so, with the exception of the grille, our fictional BMW 7-Series shares all body panels with the Ghost. On the other hand, badges are easy to make so we deleted all of the Rolls-Royce emblems – including the Spirit of Ecstasy – replacing them with the BMW logo. We should probably add a new set of BMW wheels into the mix since this is an off-shelf product that wouldn’t add up in the R&D costs.

We all know that V12 engines are a dying breed, so a nice point of differentiation could be the addition of a mild-hybrid twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8. This engine produces 536 hp (399 kW / 543 PS) in the 760i xDrive, which is ironically identical to the twin-turbo 6.75 V12 of the standard Rolls-Royce Ghost (thankfully the Black Badge is more powerful), despite having ~~two~~ four fewer cylinders and a slightly lower torque figure.

A BMW 7-Series is always meant to cost less than a Rolls-Royce so besides saving a few hundred grand from the lack of the Spirit Of Ecstasy and its mechanism, we would also eliminate the fancy “Magic Carpet Ride” air suspension, the ultra-high quality leather and possibly add some panel gaps here and there in order to make the body panels cheaper to produce.

Adding a bit of sense to this crazy scenario, a Rolls-Royce with BMW badges would never get the green light from management not only because of the higher production costs but most importantly to preserve the brand identity and integrity of Rolls-Royce. This is a very important issue for the British automaker’s target group and any deviation would cause irreparable harm to the status quo. Rolls-Royce has been engaging in badge engineering with Bentley until the late ’90s, but at least it was a fellow British luxury manufacturer coming from a similar background and not a mass-market brand.

Our fictional render of a BMW 7 Series rebadge of the Rolls-Royce Ghost above vs the real thing below