Tested This Week: BMW ActiveHybrid 3
BMW 3 Series' petrol-electric motor hybrid car makes environmentally friendly driving exciting again
Price: RM398,800
Tech highlights: 6cyl, 2979cc, twin power turbopetrol-electric motor, 302bhp at 5800-6000rpm,450Nm at 1250-5000rpm, 0-100kn/h 5.3 seconds, top speed 250km/h
What is it?
BMW's 3 Series autobahn stormer for the eco-friendly.
What's it like?
Superlative. Combines an already powerful petrol combustion engine with the boost from an electric motor to provide incredible acceleration yet still give fuel efficiency and low CO2 emissions. It's so smooth and so stable, it's very easy to go over 160km/h and not notice despite the car's speed projected, literally under your nose, on to the windscreen.
Any changes between electric to petrol and electric-petrol combined are imperceptible. Small, visual factors like the ECO PRO button by the gearbox, the CHARGE/eDrive indicator on the dial and the ActiveHybrid3 on the C pillar of the car are the only signs that it's a hybrid. There's nothing in the drive experience to indicate that this is not your regular petrol-driven 3 Series.
If you want to find out what your fuel consumption is, how much of your driving is in electric mode or anything else about the car's functions, it's all in the available on the iDrive system.
There's a choice between ECO-PRO, COMFORT and SPORT modes which determine how much of the journey is petrol, petrol-electric or even all electric driven which in turn affects fuel consumption. I picked one, stuck with it and went hell for leather. This baby is faster on the sprint to 100km/h than its petrol-driven brother, the 335i. Handling was superb too with excellent grip while manoeuvring despite the stock Eco tyres. Rapid changes in gear to the eight speed gearbox were easily executed with the paddle shifts on the steering wheel. The adrenaline rush... I haven't enjoyed a car this much in a long time.
Should I get one?
Hell, yeah! You can be all virtuous about the environment at the traffic lights and in traffic jams when the AH3's Hybrid Start/Stop function kicks in and switches off the engine to avoid needless fuel consumption and CO2 expenditure...
The price of the AH3 was reduced by RM140,000 to its current RM398,000 after it was granted Energy Efficient Vehicle status by the Malaysian government in January. That makes the AH3 RM90,000 cheaper than the 335i while still giving the same level of driving enjoyment. Proof that environmental consciousness doesn't mean having to sit in the slow lane.
