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.....


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