BMW’s now long in the tooth 7 Series has been losing the sales game to more able competitors like the Mercedes S Class and the Audi A8. BMW is looking at hitting back with the latest generation 7 Series which it has revealed now. The old 7 Series had the typical Bangle design effect, people either loved it or hated it but the new 7 Series has a new design lineage which BMW hopes would please majority of it’s intended customers. The fifth generation 7 Series comes with a host of technology innovations including a revised range of gasoline and diesel engines, chassis and suspension modification and a new-age in-car entertainment system, basically a lot of ammo with which it can fight off the S Class and the A8.

American customers will be offered just one engine to begin with, the 400 bhp twin-turbo V8 with 442 pound/feet of torque capable of propellng the 750i from 0 to 60 mph in less than 5.2 seconds and up to a top whack of 155 mph. Ultimately, buyers would be able to choose from options of a 326 bhp twin-turbo 3 liter gasoline and a 245 bhp 3 liter diesel.

The new 7 Series is longer and lower than its predecessor and also rides on a wheelbase that has been increased by a considerable 3.3 inches. The body is fashioned primarily from aluminum, which is used for the hood, roof, doors and fenders to reduce the car’s weight thereby improving performance and fuel economy which is estimated to be in the range of 20 mpg in normal urban driving conditions.

A new 2nd generation iDrive system finds its place in the new 7 Series which can be used to gain access to the car’s Internet function as well. Driver assist systems on the new 7 include active cruise control with a new stop-and-go capability, lane departure warning, blind spot detection, heads-up display, night vision with pedestrian detection and sideview and reversing cameras. That’s bleeding edge tech to make sure BMW’s tech savvy customers keep themselves busy behind the wheel or in the back seat.

Though BMW has not officially announced a launch date for the U.S, we estimate March 2009 is when we would see this new work of tech-art roll into showrooms here. BMW would be banking on this one.