First drive review: BMW ActiveHybrid 7 L SE

 

What‘s it? This can be a petrol-electric First drive review: BMW ActiveHybrid 7 L SE. BMW shifted 1400 7-series models inside the UK last year. Tellingly, 91 per cent of these were diesels. Seemingly even those with pockets deep enough to become purchasing a luxury saloon having a starting price of slightly below £60, 000 are feeling the pinch sufficient to head to the black pump. The ActiveHybrid 7 fills an uncomfortable niche, then. Its combined 3. 0-litre in-line six-cylinder petrol engine and 40kW electric motor offer a similar 5. 7sec 0-62mph some serious amounts of electronically limited 155mph top speed from the TwinPower 3. 0-litre straight six 740i, yet it costs greater than its conventionally powered relation. It’ll take many lots and lots of miles to recoup the £5000 difference too, having a 41. 5mpg combined fuel consumption figure only 5. 7mpg better than that from the 740i.

Add the diesels straight into the equation and also the ActiveHybrid 7’s case gets much more shaky, using the 730d and 740d in a position to offer 50mpg consumption and sub-150g / km CO2 emissions. They cannot cruise around town for around two to three miles on pure electric power, though, which is a thing BMW claims the ActiveHybrid 7 can perform. You’ll should be an absolute puritan using the accelerator if you’re to obtain that, however, like the 3. 0-litre six is all too quick to hitch in to assist shift the near-two-tonne Bavarian barge in case you greater than brush the ideal pedal. There’s no push-button EV mode to assist, either, meaning the ActiveHybrid 7’s silent party trick is both hard-won and infrequent. What‘s it like? A lot of the time the petrol engine’s arrival is smooth, though occasionally the drivetrain feels slightly muddled, which with eight gears and two power sources isn’t perhaps surprising. However, other elements from the 7’s make-up are. The steering in particular, where BMW’s engineers appear to relate heft to feel, is inconsistent in its weighting and feeling particularly dead and lifeless.

Fiddle using the myriad of options and presets of ECO PRO, Comfort+, Comfort, Sport and Sport+ and also the steering only adds more effort, with no corresponding increase in feel or accuracy. Forget economy for a while and pushing the accelerator will certainly allow you to that business meeting in time, however the reality could be that the 7-series is better experienced inside the rear than coming from the driver’s seat. The ActiveHybrid 7 has got the comfort-enhancing suspension alterations that feature across the complete 7-series line-up, and though it makes a decent stab with a supple ride it’s unable to match the impervious isolation you’ll fall into an S-class. Should I buy one? BMW has been realistic, with anticipated sales inside the UK being inside the tens, instead of the hundreds. If you’re a wealthy technology fan who doesn’t mind losing some boot space to batteries then it’s got some appeal, but for everybody else the 730d is really a better alternative, and also the Mercedes S350 CDI BlueTec is better still. BMW ActiveHybrid 7 L SEPrice : £69, 140 ; 0-62mph : 5. 7sec ; Top speed : 155mph ; Economy : 41. 5mpg ; Co2 : 158g / km ; Kerbweight : 1995kg ; Engine : 6 cyls in-line, 2979cc, plus 40kW electric motor ; Power : 349bhp ; Torque : 500Nm ; Gearbox : 8-spd automatic Paul Bailey.