There Are Five Ways To Open The BMW i7’s Doors

I’m a big believer in the freedom of choice and the pursuit of happiness — the ability to do what you want to do in an effort to make yourself happy. Well, as it turns out, BMW is also really into freedom of choice. Specifically, those wacky Germans are giving you the freedom of choice when it comes to opening the doors from the inside of your BMW i7 M70.

I’m sure that in your boring peasant car, there are maybe one or two ways to open the door from the inside. On the i7, however, there are now fewer than five. Hell, there could be even more that we just haven’t discovered yet. Why have four levels of redundancy? Because Germany, that’s why. And, while all of these systems may serve the same primary function, they all go about it in incredibly different ways. Keep in mind, we’re not even going to get into all of the i7 M70‘s door closing functions or all the ways to open it from the outside, because I think Jalopnik’s backend website would literally run out of space.

Still, with five different ways to open the doors, this i7 M70’s $192,075 asking price means you’re only paying about $38,415 per door operating procedure. That’s not too bad if you ask me.

Full Disclosure: BMW lent me a fully charged 2026 i7 M70 to do with as I pleased for a week, so I played around with its doors.

You’ll never really want to get out of your i7 M70, thanks to its wondrous massage seats and banging 1,965-watt, 39-speaker Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Surround Sound audio system, but when you do need to pick from one of the five ways to exit the sedan, two of them in particular will get the most use by a long ways: the door latch popper button on the door card’s arm rest, and the automatic electronic door opener located on the dashboard near the leftmost vent controls.

Andy Kalmowitz / Jalopnik

The electric popper works the same as any other door popper you’ve come across. Press the little trapezoidal button with the top-down illustration of a car with its door open, and the door unlatches. From there, push the rest of the way, and the big doors swing open. While you’re doing that, though, you may notice the feeling of a slight resistance from an electric motor.

Andy Kalmowitz / Jalopnik

That’s where the automatic electronic door opener comes in. While I don’t love the location or button action — it’s a tiny touch-sensitive panel right next to an air vent that is very easy to activate by accident — it’s very cool nonetheless. There just aren’t many cars out there that have fully electronic opening and closing conventional doors, especially for front row occupants. Pressing the “button” and having your door swing all the way open with zero effort really gives a sense of occasion whenever you get where you’re going, as silly as it might be. The front passenger has one of these buttons on their side of the dash, too, while rear-seat passengers have a physical button for the automatic operation on the door card, separate from the normal popper button.

Sure, it’s all well and good to press a button and have your door open, but even though it’s electronic, that sort of action is kind of 20th century, don’t you think? This is a BMW. We’ve got to look forward. We’ve got to include screens in this operation, somehow. Well, that’s exactly what engineers did.

Using the i7’s infotainment screen, you can open and close your door simply by pressing an arrow that appears next to a picture of the car. What’s even cooler is that this function lets you control all four doors, so if you’ve got someone entering in the rear, you can press the button for their door, and the door greets them by opening. It means they’re only a few short seconds away from 650 horsepower and 811 pound-feet of torque being unleashed on them. There’s also the option to open all four doors at once. Another neat party trick of this specific system is the fact that the i7 uses radar sensors to tell if opening the door all the way means it would hit something, and it will stop shy of any curb, pillar or other obstacle. I’m not sure if you can override this, and I was far too afraid of damaging this $192,075 luxury limo to find out.

There’s a similar system within the My BMW smartphone app, which represents the fourth way to open the i7’s doors from the inside. Sure, you’ll most likely use this app outside the car, but I’m going to count it anyway. Maybe you’re a weird little guy. I’m not here to put you in a box like that. All you’ve gotta do is click into the app, select the door you want to open, and presto — it opens. Folks, if that’s not magic, I’m not sure what is.

Obviously, this i7 M70 is brand new, so it probably hasn’t broken down yet. Maybe it’ll prove to be an incredibly reliable vehicle — only time will tell. In any case, BMW knows things can sometimes go wrong with electronics, and that’s why it fitted a fifth, hidden door opener to the i7. Located on the door card directly below the trapezoidal electric door popper is a small plastic latch. Pull it, and the door manually opens. It’s there so that if all else fails, occupants inside the car can still get out, which is always a good thing.

Andy Kalmowitz / Jalopnik

I’ll be honest, it’s not the most high-quality-feeling piece of plastic I’ve ever encountered, but for something that’s out of sight and out of mind 99.9% of the time, it gets the job done.

While picking a favorite door opener is a real “Sophie’s Choice” of a question, but I think I’ve gotta go with the automatic electric door opener on the dashboard. I know the button’s material and placement leave a little bit to be desired, but there’s nothing cooler than rolling up somewhere, pressing a button and having the door swing open for you. An all-black i7 M70 is meant to make you look cool, and it’s hard to argue that this operation isn’t the cherry on top.