http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/ Autoblog Comments for Geneva '08 Preview: BMW twin-turbo diesel hybrid X5 http://www.autoblog.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.autoblog.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/Feb 21st 2008 4:39PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/Feb 21st 2008 4:42PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/Feb 21st 2008 4:44PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/Feb 21st 2008 4:47PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/Feb 21st 2008 4:52PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/Feb 21st 2008 5:01PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/Feb 21st 2008 5:10PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/Feb 22nd 2008 12:49AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/
Remove the heavy xdrive system and drive the front wheels with the electric motors.

What about giving it the hydrogen drive train from the 7 Series?]]>Feb 21st 2008 5:07PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/
This can shows people what they may be able to buy in maybe a year or so.

Top job to BMW though, this thing has great credentials, probably will be the first true green 4x4 on the market if it ever gets onto it.]]>Feb 21st 2008 5:18PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/
By the way, can you imagine this in a 5-series sedan? Especially if you could lighten it up with aluminum body panels in strategic areas. Then you're probably boosting MPG by 5 or 6 and still have a 0-60MPH time in the 6's.

Also, we in the US need to embrace the diesel hybrid concept if we are serious about meeting CAFE requirements. Think about it, if this technology were applied to a Chevy Suburban, you'd probably still get 33 MPG or so. That's nearly a 100% increase! ]]>Feb 21st 2008 5:11PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/Feb 21st 2008 5:22PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/
Soon we'll get scam emails for V8 instead of viagra...]]>Feb 21st 2008 5:58PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/
An X5 with diesel+hybrid gets you 43.5... which you could probably get in a 3-series diesel wagon without the hybrid baggage and cost. There's definitely some cool factor to it, and the idea of driving the front wheels with the electric boost and the rear with the combustion engine sounds interesting, but there's probably a reason it hasn't been done. You'd still need some sort of power transfer to the front wheels, if you just mount big electric motors on them you bump the unsprung weight WAY up and the ride and handling go to hell. You'd also have to have a very efficient freewheeling of the rear wheels to let the front wheels do all the regen braking.]]>Feb 21st 2008 6:02PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/comments/10595781/
]]>Feb 21st 2008 6:04PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/
Lets just scrap dumb SUV...

People are willing to pay for this, capitalism is a great system to take money away from dumb people...]]>Feb 22nd 2008 11:23AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/
This is effectively AWD without the hardware, but as you'll see in the disclaimers on their pages, neither of these vehicles is rated for offroad use because the electric motors may overheat in that configuration at slow speeds. This makes them even less capable than even their FWD based AWD non-hybrid RX and Highlander counterparts.

http://www.lexus.com/models/RXh/detailed_specifications.html
http://www.toyota.com/highlander/specs.html]]>Feb 21st 2008 11:03PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/Feb 21st 2008 6:34PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/
What people fail to realize is that diesels and electric motors have the same strengths and weaknesses. They both make big torque compared to horsepower output, and they both do so at very low RPMs. They also both run out of steam or are less effective at higher RPMs. That and both are more expensive alternatives to gasoline engines which both are heavier. Combine those and you get a car with lots of low end torque that takes plenty of time to rev up, is heavy, and expensive.

Kudos to BMW for getting this thing to 60mph in 8.9 sec, that can't have been easy, but I would guess a similar production setup would probably take more than 10 sec to reach that speed, especially without li-ion batteries or an 8 speed transmission.

If, however, this were done in series, a diesel would be very efficient to charge up a battery pack providing juice for an all electric powertrain. If BMW can prove me wrong with a production model though, more power to 'em.]]>Feb 21st 2008 11:24PMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/http://www.autoblog.com/2008/02/21/geneva-08-preview-bmw-twin-turbo-diesel-hybrid-x5/
Still - it just goes to show that if you're prepared to use your brain then you can meet the new CAFE standards and still sell SUVs.]]>Feb 21st 2008 6:42PM