What’s BMW Doing With This Partially Camouflaged 7-Series?

BMW officially unveiled the updated 2020 7-Series back in January this year, which makes us wonder why this particular car is still wearing camouflage tape on both front and rear fascias.

The luxury saloon was photographed by Carscoops reader Dennis in Germany this very day, and since we got hold of the pics, we’ve been scratching our heads trying to figure out what its deal is. It doesn’t appear to be an electrified variant, nor does it look like anything M-related.

Let’s “CSI” this thing

Right off the bat, we can tell that this is a regular wheelbase model in Luxury trim, wearing the automaker’s 19-inch V-spoke Style 620 wheels, which in the U.S. are a $1,300 optional extra. The color of the exterior is either Black Sapphire Metallic or Jet Black, although we’re starting to lean towards the latter.

Meanwhile, the interior features Cognac Nappa Leather with Extended Quilting ($2,000 option), which you can only get if you also opt for the Luxury Rear Seating Package ($3,900) – doing this means you pay less for the upholstery.

Also read: BMW 7-Series Facelift vs. Audi A8 vs Mercedes S-Class Poll: What Would You Get?

As for engine configuration, your guess is as good as ours. Since the images were taken in Germany, we can assume that the car could be powered by either gasoline (750i xDrive) or diesel (730d xDrive, 740d xDrive, 750d xDrive).

The shot of the interior also shows a small shopping bag in front of the passenger seat, as well as some other goods in the door bin – yes, we know, that might sound like a redundant piece of information, but it could also mean that a BMW employee is simply using this engineering prototype to get around.

If you twisted our hand to make a second guess, we’d say that maybe BMW is testing a new or improved electronic or mechanical feature that may or may not be related to the current 7-Series.

Thanks to Dennis for the scoop!