Street Life Auto Club

2010 BMW ActiveHybrid 7 / 7-series Hybrid – First Drive Review

By On October 30th, 2009

BMW dances a merry jig on Lexus’s toes.

BMW seems to be on a mission lately to offer something for everyone, no matter how nonsensical a certain consumer’s particular set of needs and wants may be. Case in point: the brilliant X6 and its mutant half-sister, the 5-series Gran Turismo. The latest in Bavaria’s barrage of the bizarre, the ActiveHybrid 7—a full-size “luxury performance” hybrid—seems to actually make sense relative to those two. It doesn’t hurt the argument for its existence that a competitor from Lexus—the LS600hL—has been on the road for two years now.

What makes the ActiveHybrid 7 strange is BMW’s boast that it is the quickest hybrid sedan on the market. If speed is the objective, we’re not sure why a hybrid is the answer. Likewise, if fuel economy is the end goal, tuning the twin-turbo V-8 gas engine for an additional 40 hp and 30 lb-ft of torque seems silly. However, if a 7-series customer believes he needs a car more powerful than the 750i but doesn’t want to step up to the 12-cylinder 760Li—which we think he should—and also wants 15 percent or so better fuel economy, BMW has just the model.