REVIEW: Is The BMW X6 A Properly Good Hybrid?

BMW doesn't do things by halves. This is their first full hybrid model, the ActiveHybrid X6, and it's the most powerful hybrid in the world. It combines a 407bhp 4.4-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine with a fiendishly complicated gearbox that contains two electric motors, one optimised for low-speed running, one to boost power at higher speeds. 

The X6 ActiveHybrid's electric motors can produce 91bhp and 86bhp, respectively, but the total combined output is pegged at 485bhp and 575lb ft – lessening the load on the V8 petrol engine and further reducing emissions.

So the BMW X6 ActiveHybrid is a Prius in big, bad SUV wolf disguise?

Hardly, but the X6 plays all the usual hybrid tricks. The motors act as generators under braking (electricity is stored in a nickel metal hydride battery with a capacity of 2.4kWh located underneath the boot floor).....


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dumpsty - 11/9/2009 2:21:05 PM

-1 Boost

I think 28.5mpg is an excellent fuel consumption figure for a vehicle possessing 485hp & 575 lb-ft of torque. What are the fuel ratings for AMG, -F, M, etc performance models? Look at the Corvette...an amazingly powerful car with mid to upper 20's fuel consumption ratings.

The X6 ActiveHybrid is doing what it was intended to do just like what the Honda V6 Hybrid was designed to do a few years ago. Increase power for the respective vehicle category and return fuel ratings like it had a much smaller engine.

_43LE - 11/9/2009 2:30:22 PM

+2 Boost

But the real world city mileage achieved was only 16.9 MPG by the author. Also, no one at the launch achieve above 20MPG.

I think we should keep in mind that Hybrids AND Diesels are really only a short to medium term solution. Eventually there will have to be another fuel source. All the car companies know that. Some reasons that hybrids were introduced were because:

1) It was a newly refined technology
2) Americans' irrational distaste for diesel
3) It was a new direction and a good learning opportunity for a long term solution to switch to electric.
4) The Japanese did not excel at diesel technology.

So, calling it "bogus hybrid stuff" is really just bogus itself.

dumpsty - 11/9/2009 3:10:36 PM

+2 Boost

Much of the fuel savings for the two-mode hybrid transmission systems come from the highway component of the combined fuel consumption ratings. If the city ratings are 16.9 mpg, the the highway ratings is somewhere near 40-41mpg (probably with judiciously moderate driving speeds), then a COMBINED rating of 28.5mpg is achievable. If the driver has a daily commute that's mostly highway, they'd get much more than 28.5mpg than would be advertised.

I call "BS" on the "...no one at the launch achieve above 20MPG.." statement. If they were running 0-60mph (0-100kph) tests, they'd never get near 28mpgs that same month. And I'm sure, every journalist that sat in the X6 ActHy stomped the accelerator a few times to feel (read: test/measure) the "thrill" of all that power.