The first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid car sold in the United States was the 2000 Honda Insightnext one year later Toyota Prius. Some manufacturers have developed (or licensed) hybrid technology faster than others, and BMW was the first to enter the field with the 7 Series hybrid: ActiveHybrid 7first appeared in 2011. This is an example of one of the extremely rare animals, found in a self-service scrap yard in Denver recently.
I’ve attempted to document the first decade or so of hybrid vehicles on the US market by searching for them in my junkyard tripand I tried to find discarded examples of rare evolutionary-dead-end hybrids like a 2008 Nissan Altima HybridOne 2007 Saturn Vue Green Line And a 2013 Volkswagen Jetta Hybrid. However, those rarely seen cars are nothing compared to the V8-powered BMW ActiveHybrid 7.
From the time Active7 was introduced in the US in late 2010 through the first nine months of 2012, total sales reached exactly 657 cars. Blue Water Metallic paint, used today Scrapyard GemsOnly available on ActiveHybrid 7.
For the 2013 model year, the ActiveHybrid 7 ditches the big 4.4-liter V8 and switches to the 4.0-liter inline-six from the 740i. Why?
BMW’s marketers pitched the 750i/750Li ActiveHybrid in a very different way than the competition, with the 2012 model’s brochure declaring, “Forget everything you ever thought about hybrids: that they’re slow, unexciting cars that sacrifice performance, space, and luxury for economy.” And they weren’t kidding; the car was a race-bred original that used an electric motor to boost its total output to 455 horsepower and 515 pound-feet of torque.
The problem is fuel economy. not much improved compared to the non-hybrid 750s. This car has been rated at 17 miles per gallon in the city and 24 on the highway, compared to 14 and 22 mpg for regular 750Li.
With that kind of fuel economy, the ActiveHybrid 750Li has a sticker price of $101,100 (about $139,994 in 2024 dollars). Meanwhile, the non-hybrid 750Li for 2012 had a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $88,200 ($122,252 after inflation). Perhaps the HYBRID badge on the badge gives owners a little green in their public image, but this is BMW 7 Series We are talking about.
So a very luxurious, very powerful, very thirsty, stinking luxury car greenwashing for those struggling to reduce their carbon footprint, but it costs tens of thousands more than its all-petrol-powered sibling. No wonder there are so few sellers!
The 2013 ActiveHybrid 7 six-cylinder engine gets much better mileage: 22 mpg city, 30 mpg highway. That doesn’t get it anywhere close to Prius Territorybut still respectable for a vehicle weighing nearly 5,000 pounds.
Why is it in such a place at 12 years old? With just 657 V8-powered ActiveHybrid 7s sold nationwide, replacement parts for anything related to the hybrid powertrain are prohibitively expensive, if they’re even available. Once one of those parts breaks, it’s a short trip to the nearest Pick Your Part.
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The way to the future? Probably not.
