0-100kph in 5.3 seconds at 2.5L/100km, AND 41km of emission free driving? Yes, please. Just pony up RM598,800
If you’ve been following our Shanghai Motor Show updates currently going on in… well, Shanghai, there’s a continued focus on electrified propulsion and electric vehicles (EVs). Not to be outdone, BMW Malaysia just moments ago has officially launched the latest member into the 7 Series family in Malaysia – the 740Le xDrive.
As you can guess from its name, the ‘e’ stands for electric, combining the mighty impressive performance from its 2.0-litre TwinPower Turbo petrol engine together with an electric motor that itself produces 113hp and 250Nm of torque. With the TwinPower unit’s 258hp and 400Nm, total ammo for the driver to play with is 326hp and 500Nm.
Drive is transferred to (all) the wheels via an 8-speed automatic transmission.
The century sprint is dusted off in 5.3 seconds (perfect when you have to attend multiple boardroom meetings at different places in a day).
{gallery}BMW-740Le-XDrive-Launch-1{/gallery}
The powertrain
BMW’s plug-in hybrid tech is not new to us all (they’ve already given us the X5 xDrive40e and 330e Sport. Of course, don’t forget the i8). The idea is the same, you get to enjoy true emission-free driving using just the electrical motor for a certain distance – BMW claims up to 41km based on the NEDC cycle – before the combustion engine needs to kick in and re-charge the batteries as you continue.
There are three driver-set modes:
AUTO eDrive – The combustion engine and electric motor synchronises intelligently to maximise the use of locally emission-free mobility – only activating the combustion engine at the speed of around 80 km/h or under heavy throttle conditions.
MAX eDrive – Powered exclusively by the electric, although the combustion engine can be employed by pushing the accelerator into kickdown.
Battery Control – Allows the driver to manually engage the use of the high-voltage battery by setting the charge value to be availed for pure-electric driving later in the journey.
Charging it
The high-voltage lithium-ion battery can be recharged using any domestic power socket. Ideally, you may want to install the BMW i Wallbox Connect which can allow for a full charge in under five hours.
And as part of the BMW 3600 Electric program, a BMW 740Le xDrive owner gets access to GreenTech Malaysia’s network of 181 ChargEV stations nationwide.
Other details
It’s a 7 Series, so this can take forever what with all that this car has to feature; but let’s just tell you the more important ones.
- This is the first BMW sedan in Malaysia that features xDrive. It operates proactively and enables fully variable drive power to be distributed when needed between the front and rear axles when needed, even delivering up to almost 100 percent of power to every wheel.
- Like the combustion-engine only 7 Series, the 740Le xDrive comes with panoramic Sky Lounge glass roof. This is an impressive LED-based lighting installation of over 15,000 lighting elements.
- You can use the BMW Connected app to, for instance, control the air-cond function from a smartphone. Of course, you can monitor charge levels of the high-voltage battery, the locations of charging stations, and the distance covered on electric power alone and the consequent amount of petrol saved.
Efficiency
One may argue that the rich may not care about how thirsty a premium barge like this can be. Which is not true, because the 740Le xDrive is very efficient. BMW claims a fuel consumption of just 2.5L/100km and a CO2 emission of 56 g/km.
Price
RM598,800 (OTR without insurance+5 years unlimited mileage warranty, free scheduled service program and BMW tyre warranty program)
This price is after the government approved hybrid incentive of RM255,000, without which the 740Le xDrive would cost you RM853,800.
{gallery}BMW-740Le-XDrive-Launch-2{/gallery}