Hybrid to be Launched in Japan by BMW
BMW, one of the world’s most popular and successful luxury vehicle manufacturers, has announced that it plans to launch a hybrid vehicle in their Japan market by the year 2010. The announcement was made by BMW Japan Corporation in late February and said that their parent company in Germany will launch a gasoline-electric hybrid car in Japan in the middle of the year 2010.
The hybrid is modeled after the 750i luxury sedan that is on the market from BMW and is going to compete with the Lexus hybrids manufactured by the Toyota Motor Corporation and a luxury hybrid that Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz will sell in the Japan market later in the year 2009.
The hybrid that BMW is manufacturing will feature a 4.4 liter engine with an electric motor and a lithium-ion battery. BMW hopes that this engine will greatly improve fuel economy, hopefully by 15 percent, which would be an improvement upon the 750i that was launced in Japan on March 24.
A hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that runs on anything other than natural gas. Hybrid cars can run on solar power, electric power, and lithium-ion power.
This would not be the first hybrid car manufactured and sold by the BMW Company. One of their most popular hybrid cars was released in 2004 and it was the X5 Sport Activity Vehicle (SAV). This too was a gasoline-electric vehicle with a combustion engine that is power assisted with an electric motor. This vehicle received improve gas mileage by 15-20 percent.
BMW is also working on releasing a hyrbid 7 Series by the year 2010.
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