BMW Active Hybrid 7 2011

The future looks good for luxury car owners and manufacturers and Hybrid technology is now making the grade on price usability and reliability.

The BMW 7  Hybrid is luxury plus, available in standard and long wheel base.

Performance hasn't suffered with figures  quoted  4.8 secs do 0-60 mph. This active hybrid in fact is quicker than the non hybrid version.

The BMW active hybrid for 2011 is a step ahead of many other makes and models

"The direct-injected, twin-turbo, 4.4-liter V-8 gained 40 horsepower partially due to drops in parasitic losses. There is no alternator or air-conditioning compressor for the engine to spin, helping the hybrid put out 440 horsepower.

An additional 20 horse power comes from the active Hybrid

An additional twenty horsepower comes from the ActiveHybrid 7's compact electric motor. The motor is sandwiched between the 4.4-liter's flywheels and the ZF eight-speed automatic transmission's torque converter. This new rear-mounted gearbox is sourced from the 760Li, and provides an additional two gears over the 750i's six-cog gearbox. Additionally, the gearbox accepts being back-driven (absorbing power from the drive wheels) so that the electric motor can also function as a generator to facilitate regenerative braking duties.

Helping offset the additional weight that comes with this mild-hybrid system, the motor ahead of the transmission also acts as a traditional starter and alternator.

Total horsepower for the mild-hybrid package is 455, not the 460 your non-engineer author expected. BMW's Dave Buchko explained that because the peak horsepower for the engine and motor occur at different rpm,

 the two peak horsepower figures cannot be added together to arrive at the final sum."