Test Drive: 2010 BMW X6 ActiveHybrid

By Kevin Harrison

There’s a problem with society. Well, there’s many problems actually. But most notably, we seem to always want and demand impossible combinations of stuff.

For instance, we all wish to eat healthy but as soon as companies cut fat or sodium from our foods, we all turn into pouty six year olds. With our arms crossed and our faces full of irritation we declare “I’m never buying this again” because the cheese with 25% less fat tastes like a rubber boot.

No matter where you are in Canada, people will insist that their roads are the worst in the country, as if it were some sort of accolade. But then when taxes get raised or money gets diverted to fix the roads, we all turn into selfish children yet again.

“Fix the roads with someone else’s money, not mine” we all say.

The same can be said for fuel efficiency and the environment. Sure, we’re all concerned about these issues (most of us are anyway), but are we willing to do anything about it? Nope. Because the energy efficient bulb takes a bit longer to reach its peak brightness it’s not worth buying apparently. And if you tell someone they’re going to have to downsize if they’d like to save on gas, they’ll look at you as if you hunt rats in the middle of the night for fun.

So due to these kinds of attitudes, we’re left with things like the X6 ActiveHybrid – a stab in the dark to try to bring us a solution to our uncompromisable problem – power yet efficiency. Has it worked?

The X6 ActiveHybrid exists for these kind of people – the ones who demand the impossible. BMW set off to turn its standard X6 into a powerful yet efficient off roading, cargo swallowing, coupe-like luxury CUV. Something for everyone, right? Well straight off the bat, I’m going to tell you, it hasn’t worked.

Starting with the engine, it uses the same 4.4 litre V8 found in the X6’s gasoline powered brother the X6 50i. Not quite what you’d expect in a hybrid. Its two electric motors is also unique from a typical hybrid, as most hybrids tend to use just one electric motor. One electric motor is designed to kick in a lower speeds & ‘offline mode’, and the other is designed for high speed driving. The gasoline engine uses a continuously variable transmission (CVT), but again, it isn’t a conventional CVT. It actually has seven set transmission ratios thanks to multiplate cluthes. Got all that? All this helps the X6 hybrid produce 407 horsepower, making it the most powerful hybrid ever made.

But the most powerful hybrid ever made is only useful if it returns good fuel efficiency. The X6 ActiveHybrid will return 12.6 L/100 kms in the city and 10.3 highway. This is out of the ordinary yet again as hybrids tend to deliver better mileage in the city than on the highway. But at the end of the day, the end result for fuel efficiency is pretty underwhelming. When compared to the regular X6 V8, which gets 17.1 city and 11 highway, it’s not too bad. But considering the unusualy and complciated set up, it could definitely be better. And afterall, most cars don’t come even close to their rated efficiency so you will likely be returning worse fuel economy than 12.6 L city.

That brings me to my next point. Having a hybrid with huge amounts of power just means you are going to take advantage of it by driving fast all the time. The X6 ActiveHybrid really is hard to drive slowly, like most BMW’s. The V8 is so smooth and responsive. But of course, when you put your foot to the floor, fuel economy takes a big hit, despite all those electric motors and the CVT transmission. Performance is fantastic if you ignore how poorly it does for fuel efficiency when pushed. 0-100 takes only 5.6 seconds which is identical to the X6 V8. And thanks to those massive 19 inch wheels and typical BMW suspension, the X6 feels quite stable in corners as well.

The X6 ActiveHybrid can technically drive on the electric motor alone up to 60 kph, but this will never happen because the conditions need to be absolutely perfect. As in, everything from the smoothness of the road surface to the outside temperature plays a role. I experienced the electric motor only propulsion once and it was when I was backing out of a parking space. Hoping to keep moving with just the electric motor, I was very easy on the throttle when I put it in drive, but because there was a bit of an incline on my way out of the parking lot, the gas engine kicked in.

There is a huge bulge in the bonnet which makes the X6 ActiveHybrid appear to be all performance, but really it’s there to help conceal all the hybrid technology. Overall, the exterior styling is either love it or hate it. If you think it’s ugly all I have to say is that when I was driving it down busy Spring Garden Road in Halifax, three attractive girls sitting on a bench enjoying ice cream all stared intensely with one of them yelling out “nice car!” with a smile as I drove by. Enough said.

The interior is very much typical BMW with all the goodies you would expect. The seats are immensely comfortable. Stealing a Jeremy Clarkson line is the only way to describe them: “it’s like sitting on a fat dog”. The headup display is quite neat and the display screen which tells you what all the supposed fuel efficient technology is doing at any given moment is also cool, but very distracting. The X6 only has seating for four, but those two lucky passengers seated in the back get just as many controls as those in the front as they can control the climate, they can reline their seats, and they have a decent sized screen for watching their favourite DVD.

But then, my original point comes into play again. The X6 ActiveHybrid is kind of pointless. A CUV that only seats four? The whole purpose of a CUV is for added utility and space. The X6 will also do miserably in most off-roading conditions thanks to those fat high performance low profile tires.

But probably the biggest problem is so-called efficiency set up. A hybrid that returns 12.3 L /100 kms at best is almost as useful as a supercar that does 0-100 in 10 seconds. It just isn’t logical. A hybrid is meant for fuel and emissions savings and a performance car is meant for thrills on and off the track. BMW tried to put both together into a car that isn’t logical to begin with and came up something that makes even less sense, especially considering the price tag. The X6 ActiveHybrid will set you back $99,900. That’s $20,000 more than a regular X6 V8 and makes me wonder who in their right mind would spend $20,000 more to save a bit more gas.

To be fair, X6 ActiveHybrid’s existence isn’t really BMW’s fault. It’s the fault of those who want their cake and eat it too – those who want to be skinny yet won’t excercise or those who critisize polititians, yet don’t vote. These fools are the reason BMW has made one of the most illogical vehicles in recent memory.

Performance and efficiency is truely a hard thing to acheive and if we made a few compromises such as not insisting on driving big SUV’s every day of our lives, we’d likely be able to have both. Because the thing is, BMW has been making a vehicle that has both performance, efficiency, style and versitility for some time.

It’s called the Mini Cooper S.

Price: $99,900

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