FIRST Drive: BMW's 7-Series Active Hybrid, More Muscular Than The 750i?

Conventional logic suggests hybrid systems are best used for their added fuel saving effect. The problem is that they only begin to make financial sense if they are applied to exclusive upper-end luxury models – the likes of which attract well-to-do customers for whom fuel efficiency is typically not an overriding priority.

Why not alter the primary focus to out-and-out performance enhancement, then? That, in essence, is the thinking behind the new BMW Active Hybrid 7.

BMW has developed two different hybrid systems. The first, used by the Active Hybrid 7, is a mild hybrid system that provides assistance to the petrol engine via an electric motor but, due to the small capacity of the battery, does not support electric-only propulsion.....


2009 SEMA Auto Show Photo Gallery

2010 Porsche 911 Turbo Photo Gallery

AutoSpies.com Photo Galleries

If you want to see your photos running on our homepage photo ticker, be sure to upload your photos on the go by sending them to Mobile@AutoSpies.com

Share on Facebook

There are photos and then there are AutoSpies.com photos!

AutoSpies.com is ranked number one on Google search for auto shows



Read Article

agent507 - 10/30/2009 9:38:29 AM

+4 Boost

And here goes the "must have" hybrid from BMW.

I still remember the story from Top Gear, where they "tested" the Prius against an M3 (the M3 followed the Prius around a test track), and the Prius came out with 17mpg and the M3 with 19 mpg.

So here for all the "BMW needs a hybrid to save the fu**ing planet, and Toyota has one, and Lexus has one, and bla bla bla" sayers: Ther it is.

I personally didn´t ask for it, but it sure is an engineering marvel and will make its buyers more than happy.

chewy - 10/30/2009 4:10:36 PM

-2 Boost

To be fair the BMW would also be lucky to get 19 mpg in regular city driving while the Prius will give you 40+ in such conditions.

2ndbimmer - 10/30/2009 10:39:52 AM

+5 Boost

I remember that Top Gear as well! Kinda funny that the Prius seems to have the market cornered when in actuality, it is pretty much a marketing ploy. Toyota is the best marketing company in the world, they are not a car company. They have fooled people in to buying their vehicles and they are making tons of money because they know how to market to lemmings.
Top Gear also did an episode where they took a 5 series diesel and a prius and drove from LA to Vegas and the 5 series diesel got better fuel economy. Why would anyone buy a Prius?

veyron1001 - 10/30/2009 4:40:17 PM

0 Boost

The prius is about 3 times cheaper thats why. No other reason.

JRobUSC - 10/31/2009 9:23:29 AM

-1 Boost

except this vehicle does two things:
1) it gets the exact same mileage that uber-hybrid maker ToyoLexus says the redesigned LS600h gets, and
2) it actually performs like it has a V12 the way Lexus SAYS the LS600h does, but doesn't.

I would add
3) it's not absolutely hideous like the redesigned LS is.
But then that would just be mean. Even I'm not going to kick a car (company) when they're down.

Sorry Charlie, LS loses this one in every way. The 600h is nothing more than a $31k all-wheel drive system.

Anthony - 11/1/2009 6:02:03 AM

+2 Boost

The mileage of the LS600h is exactly the number one reason that everyone here said that the car was a failure, if I recall correctly (which I do). So, following logic, this BMW 7 hybrid is a failure. What went wrong at BMW for them to not be able to engineer more mpgs than a wide-known failure?