BMW Concept 7 Series ActiveHybrid

It seems luxury automakers dig hybrids, but only for their flagships. Following Mercedes’ S400 hybrid, BMW has announced a new concept — to be displayed at the upcoming Paris Motor Show — that drops a hybrid powertrain jointly designed with Mercedes into its recently refreshed 7 Series sedan. 

While the Mercedes-Benz S400 has a smaller engine and gets nearly 30 mpg, the 7 Series ActiveHybrid has a V-8 under its hood that’s teamed with a mild hybrid system to return — get this — 15% better fuel economy. The current 750 gets a combined 18 mpg, so a 15% improvement would bring that up to 20.7 mpg. The price tag would be high for such a hybrid, so we assume fuel savings isn’t the primary goal of the 7 Series ActiveHybrid.

At the same time, though, we wonder why BMW isn’t trying to make a hybrid 1 or 3 Series.

Car buffs, however, might find this an intriguing option, as the V-8 also gets a twin turbocharger, and its total power when teamed to the electric motor is 427 hp and 597 pounds-feet of torque. The hybrid batteries are lithium ion.

We’d guess BMW will bring this to market at least in Europe. Mercedes has already said it will sell its S400 hybrid in both Europe and the U.S. in 2009.

Comments

[JM]

BMW may be a little slow to get the mild hybrid system into the 1 and 3 series because they are bringing the 4-cylinder variants over to the US (3-series confirmed, large chance that the 1 series will follow). still, the addition of the mild hybris sytem to the four cylinder models could really help fuel economy.

for example, according to Consumer Reports, the Chevy Malibu 4-cylinder with the 4-speed auto gets 22 mpg. the mild Hybrid raises that mpg to 27 mpg.

[Dave T.]

not sure where you saw the 3 series four cylinder for us was confirmed but not here and not by BMW themselves.

IT's only been said they're looking into that. I'd expect it in the 1 series before the 3 because of the slow sales.