BMW 7 Series 2006 News

...boasting fuel consumption more in line with small four-cylinder cars than its traditional luxo-rivals."This is a car that really redefines how efficient a large luxury car can be," BMW Australia's Toni Andreevski says.The new 730d has an official fuel consumption rating of 7.2L/100km, just 0.2 of a litre above the limit set by the government for cars to benefit from the green car exemption from luxury tax."It is just outside that level at the moment but with almost daily improvements in our efficient dynamics technology I am hopeful that it won't be too long before that level is reached," Andreevski says.In the interim BMW will just have to be satisfied that the 730d is the first car in the upper luxury sedan segment that emits less than 200 grams of CO2 per kilometre, putting out 192 g/km.That measure puts it ahead of the Lexus LS600hL hybrid and diesel competitors in the segment and on a par with a clutch of other four-cylinder cars on the Australian market, such as the manual 1.8-litre Holden Astra CD, the manual 1.6-litre Skoda Roomster and the automatic 1.8-litre Honda Civic VTi."It's not often a luxurious five-seater saloon is compared with smaller four-cylinder cars, but in terms of fuel consumption the 730d demonstrates the remarkable achievement of BMW’s EfficientDynamics programme," says BMW Australia's general manager of marketing, Tom Noble.The 730d's Euro 5 compliant turbocharged all-alloy straight six-cylinder engine produces 180kW and 540Nm, giving the car a 0-100km/h sprint of 7.2 seconds.The 3.0-litre diesel features a third generation common rail direct injection system with piezo injectors and a maximum injection pressure of 1800 bar, variable turbo geometry, diesel particle filter and oxidation catalyst.Standard equipment levels on the 730d are the same as the recently released 740i, including heads-up display, rear view camera, metallic paint, 18-inch light-alloy wheels, Dynamic Driving Control, Brake Energy Regeneration, adaptive headlights, heated and ventilated front seats, sunroof, soft close on all doors, television tuner and voice recognition.

Faced by even-tougher new anti-pollution rules towards the end of the decade, which put the focus on cutting the car's impact on global warming, motormakers are responding with a growing number of hydrogen- powered vehicles.In the past month there have been unveilings and real-world test drives for cars from BMW, General Motors and now Honda.BMW has demonstrated a 7-Series flagship which uses hydrogen in place of petrol in its internal-combustion engine, GM has revealed a near- production version of its Sequel fuel-cell car and now Honda has also weighed in with a hydrogen-powered fuel cell car called the FCX Concept.But this car is not a concept.It is a second-generation fuel cell car and a fleet of the vehicles will be on the roads of America and Japan in 2008, leased to customers to harvest real-world knowledge for the showroom-ready vehicles that will follow.Honda has already run an ugly-but-effective FCX fuel cell car in selected US cities but the FCX Concept is much more, combining a good looking body which was revealed at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2005 with a 2006-standard power pack.It is charged with hydrogen but then converts this to electricity through its on-board fuel cell 'stack' to power the front wheels through a relatively-conventional gearbox.Honda claims a range of 330 kilometres and performance close to a regular family sedan.It has allowed journalists from around the world to test drive two prototypes at the Laguna Seca racetrack in northern California and the FCX Concept feels surprisingly production-like.Driving it is a genuine peek into the future, as the powertrain is almost silent, it handles surprisingly well, the cabin is large and comfy, and the whole deal is wrapped in a body about the size of today's Honda Accord Euro with similar equipment including air-con and a sound system."Here is what we have achieved," the head of Honda America's fuel cell marketing team, Steve Ellis, says."It's definitely not a publicity stunt. We want to show what the production process will be like."Honda says it has firm production plans for the FCX Concept in 2008, with a car which will be almost identical to the vehicle it previewed at Laguna Seca.Even so, it will only have a relatively small fleet and they will be leased - not sold - to customers as Honda pushes towards its ultimate goal of a regular production car which would be priced about the same as today's Honda Legend in 2008.Paul Gover is motoring editor at Australia’s biggest selling daily newspaper, Herald Sun. A full version of this story and other news, reviews and analysis will appear in this Friday's Herald Sun CARSguide liftout.

The unique fleet of 100 hydrogen-fuelled BMWs, produced near Munich and now hitting the roads around Berlin, will at first have a special breed of customers - celebrities, politicians, sports stars and industry leaders. Whether any Australians make the grade is yet to be answered.It is the German carmaker's plan to lease the vehicles to high-profile people around the world to act as "pioneers" in the clean energy journey.Celebrity names already suggested include Madonna, Al Gore, Dr David Suzuki and Arnold Schwarzenegger.BMW identified hydrogen - the most common element in the universe - as the fuel of the future because of ease of supply and its environmental benefits.Cars fuelled by hydrogen emit little more than water vapour, taking harmful carbon dioxide out of the emissions equation."We have now achieved an important milestone on our way to sustainable mobility," BMW's Traffic and Environment Board's Dr Klaus Schearer said at the Berlin launch of the Hydrogen 7 last week."It is no secret in saying that the world's fossil energy supply is coming to an end."The future of mobility concerns us all if we are to sustain our standard of living in the future."At the Hydrogen 7 launch, BMW heads would not put a price on the fleet of 100 cars, which have a material value of $500,000 but have a speculative worth of up to $2 million because of the research done.They did reveal, however, that under the lease arrangements of up to six months, the celebrity pioneers would be assigned a "personal assistant" for the car and, at times where hydrogen fuelling stations and appropriate technicians are not in the area of use, mobile fuelling stations and a team of technicians will be assigned to the car and its "customer"."We have no price on the car. We regard this as an offer to society to show society where we stand on clean energy," said Dr Frank Ochmann, one of the fathers of the BMW hydrogen program.The BMW Hydrogen 7 is powered by a monofuel combustion engine – it can run on both hydrogen and petrol. BMW has been developing hydrogen technology for the past 20 years, stepping up this latest project over the past 5 years.The six-litre V12 Hydrogen 7 can cover a range of about 200km on its 8kg tank of liquid hydrogen. Running the car on petrol gives the vehicle an additional 500km of driving.BMW HYDROGEN 7* The luxury saloon is kitted out with everything you would expect from a top of the range BMW vehicle and would be worth in excess of $400,000 without the hydrogen technology.* 6-litre V12 monofuel (hydrogen/petrol) combustion engine.* The 220kg double skinned hydrogen fuel tank stores 8kg of liquid hydrogen (10kg of H2 = 38l of petrol) which can carry the car about 200km under average driving conditions. For the next generation of hydrogen vehicle, BMW believes it will get the weight of the complex storage tank to as low as 80kg.* There is no fuel cell technology in the Hydrogen 7 - as has been the push of other carmakers. BMW suggests a small fuel cell could be incorporated into future generations of clean energy cars to power accessories such as air conditioning.* Switching the car from hydrogen to petrol (which gives 500km of extra range) is done with the push of a button without interrupting travel.* Refuelling the hydrogen car at specialised stations is not greatly different to topping up the petrol at your local servo, however, the hydrogen cars will initially only go to areas in and around Los Angeles, Washington, London, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Brussels, Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Milan because of a lack of hydrogen infrastructure.FAST FACTSPower: 191kW @ 5100rpmTorque: 390Nm@ 4300rpmTop speed: 230km/hAcceleration: 0-100km/h in 9.5 seconds.Fuel consumption: Hydrogen 13.3 litres per 100km. Petrol 13.9 litres per 100kmIs hydrogen safe?* The hydrogen in the BMW is stored in a double skinned steel tank as liquid at a temperature of -253C* Hydrogen will "boil off" after time, particularly when stored in lower volumes - meaning some fuel loss. BMW has established that boil off of H2 in its car is minimal and does not start until 17 hours after the tank has been filled. There are management systems in place for this process.* In testing, the hydrogen tank was put the the wringer to prove that hydrogen is a safe option for motorvehicle transportation. It was subjected to numerous crash tests, shot at, hit with iron bars and subjected to fire without incident.* The car has been road tested over more than 1 million km in Africa, throughout the Nordic countries and in heavy city traffic.

Chris Bangle had just demonstrated how to make a perfectly symmetrical origami-style dinghy out of a sheet of paper when he glanced over his shoulder to gaze at one of Australia's most recognisable structures."That building, design, shape and form is an icon," Bangle says of the Opera House from his vantage point on the far side of the Quay. "Look at some of the other buildings on the Sydney skyline: they haven't the same effect or lasting design."The Opera House was a huge departure from conventional design, the striking spherical shells making it one of the most prominent designs of the 20th century. When it opened in 1973 it was widely accepted as an iconic structure; quite the opposite to the impact Bangle had on the car world with his radical design direction at the once ultra-conservative BMW at the start of the 21st century.Bangle, the world's pre-eminent car designer, was in Sydney last week for the motor show. And there was intense interest in him for causing the greatest stir in recent automotive history. Bangle rose to fame or infamy — depending on which side of the fence you sit — with his self-proclaimed "flame design", first shown to the world with the arrival of the E65 7-series in 2001.It was revised last year with the E66 sporting a smoother rump, the infamous "Bangle Butt" having some cosmetic surgery.Bangle-hate websites have sprung up since he headed off in his radical mish-mash of concave and convex lines that filtered through to the 5-series and Z4 roadster and coupe. They're full of nasty stuff, some personally attacking American-born Bangle, others calling for his axing from the Munich maker.Bangle acknowledges the wave of protest, admitting he looks into the often murky world of the worldwide web."I look at them. I don't bathe myself in them but I certainly look," Bangle says."You know Andy Warhol said everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame in the future and it's just that I got in before a lot of people," he chuckles."But seriously (websites) are like the faceless media, its a one-way discussion and it's like a wall coming at you."I think in the future everyone is going to have their own hate website and we're just seeing the beginning of it."Bangle qualifies his response by saying he is not immune to criticism."I think criticism is OK, it's healthy as long as there is open dialogue," he says.The car world has to some degree lessened its dislike of the so-called Bangle angles.And Bangle, 50, is very much in-demand on the speaking circuit. In Melbourne recently, Bangle addressed a gathering at the national design centre at Federation Square.He says Australia has a lot to offer the world from a design point of view."You know a lot of the magazines I pick up in Europe say that Australia is the most influential place for residential architecture."I hope to pick up some ideas from my first visit here and take them back and maybe put them to use in the car world," Bangle says.As with most designers in the game, Bangle is totally absorbed by cars. But he is more than simply a one-dimensional character.He used his 50th birthday on October 14 as a premise to throw a party around his personal art exhibition in Munich."I showed 130 pieces of my art collection from portraits and sculptures and had 270 people show up," Bangle says.Among three pieces auctioned on the night with money going to Medicins Sans Frontieres was a steel sculpture reflecting Bangle's trademark flame design.Age has given him a new urgency as one of the most powerful figures in car design: "I guess my sense of impatience has increased in terms of where the industry's going."Bangle's unconventional designs have polarised opinion on the BMW family's looks.He does not see the revision to the 7-series last year as an indication that his styling went too far. "It was half-time in the model cycle and a time for second helpings," Bangle says. "You use those moments to harmonise the whole family and the 7-series is now that much more elegant."

More than 25,000 admirers, tyre kickers and buyers packed the Convention Centre at South Bank on the second day of the show last Saturday, smashing all previous records.The 8000 increase on the previous single-day best crowd was helped by the official season launch of the V8 Supercar championship which featured all the stars and cars of the Holden versus Ford series in nearby Little Stanley St.While most come to dream there are those who use the opportunity to compare notes between rival brands at close range and under the one roof.With fuel prices remaining high, the cost of running a vehicle remains a key buying consideration among many buyers.For those wanting to stretch their dollar further at the pump there are fresh injections of turbo diesel variants in the passenger car line-up including Volkswagen's Polo oil burner for $22,990.Lexus provided the Queensland public with its first look at the GS450H saloon, a luxury petrol/electric hybrid which is scheduled to do business in local showrooms from May.BMW, which is showing off a new range of V8 engines in the 5, 6 and 7-series at the show, says it will have a hydrogen-powered 7-series on Australian roads in two years but there is a need for government intervention to possibly sort through filling station infrastructure.While the future is firmly set on alternative power sources, there remains an unwavering passion for hot blooded exotic sports machines.In performance alley at the show there is the stunning Pagani Zonda Roadster, priced at $1.3 million or the equivalent of four median-priced Brisbane homes.While Holden is flooring the fans with the hot rod Efigy, it also previewed its next four-wheel-drive wagon, the Capitva.VW took the covers off the new Passat sedan and wagon while Fiat had a range of Puntos which will signal the Italian maker's return to the passenger car ranks in Australia this year. The show continues until Sunday.