BMW X6 ActiveHybrid Gets the Axe

For some reason the BMW X6 was a stroke of brilliance from the Bavarian brand. It’s a vehicle that makes aboslutely no sense and that’s probably why it’s so popular. In fact, it is indeed so popular that BMW actually was able to carve out another vehicle segment – one that BMW’s rivals desperately want a piece of with Acura trying its hand not-so-successfully, Audi lning up its Q6 for production soon, and Mercedes-Benz is planning on throwing its hat into the fray.

It isn’t all a complete success story with the X6, however. It seems BMW got a bit greedy by trying to up the X6′s insanity level by just a little too much as they added hybrid technology to make it… not that efficient. Seriously, the X6 ActiveHybrid isn’t significantly better in city driving efficiency than the regular X6, which makes it even more pointless. I actually had the chance to review the X6 ActiveHybrid and concluded that X6 ActiveHyrbid owners should just go buy a Mini Cooper S… which makes no sense either. Perhaps the X6′s crazyness is contageous.

Anyway, that crazyness has apparently met its limit because BMW has decided to pull the plug on production for the X6 ActiveHybrid. BMW just isn’t selling any at all. Considering the fact that the X6 ActiveHyrbid costs only a grand more than an X6 M, that isn’t entirely surprising. If the ActiveHybrid had a much lower MSRP, I could see some potential for sales growth. But it sounds like BMW just wants to forget that the X6 ActiveHybrid even existed in the first place.

This isn’t the first time an automaker tried to make a performance vehicle with efficiency in mind and failed. Honda knows about that all too well (CR-Z anyone?).

Will you miss the X6 ActiveHybrid? If you will, you are due back at Bellevue before 6.

[BimmerFile]

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?

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