Hybrids world.

As the auto industry scrambles to produce vehicles with greater efficiency, each firm is developing its own strategy and its own way to market its tactics. BMW uses “Efficient Dynamics” to describe its approach, which has a nice ring but has lacked much substance.
But a sneak peek of BMW’s upcoming 2009 7-Series sedan in Mirimas, France, gave a small group of journalists a chance to learn what efficient dynamics really means.

The core concept is to combine world-class drivability—BMW’s trademark—with exemplary emissions management and fuel-saving technologies. There are seven primary areas tactics:

• Drivetrains optimized for clean combustion
• Lighter weight construction, such as aluminum doors and side panels
• Regenerative braking to supply and store energy
• Electric power steering for greater efficiency compared to hydraulic systems
• Air vent controls to enhance aerodynamics and reduces air resistance
• Gear shift indicators informing the driver when to upshift or downshift for maximum efficiency
• Low-resistance tires

One item not on the list is cutting back on power. The next generation BMW 7-Series will arrive in the United States next spring with a new, more powerful 4.4-liter V8 engine outputting 400 horsepower—40 more horses than the current model. Many would argue that increasing performance—especially to 400 horsepower—runs counter to efficiency goals. But BMW is trying to do at least two things at once: boost power efficiency and give drivers an exciting ride, hence the code name of “efficiency dynamics.”

In the case of the new BMW 7-Series, the resulting fuel economy is approximately 21 miles per gallon in the EU test cycle. Compare that to the current 7-Series’ combined 18 miles per gallon with a significantly less powerful engine. "The idea is that efficiency and dynamics are not mutually exclusive components. Advancing one should not adversely affect the other," said Dr. Klaus Draeger, BMW project leader and board member, in an interview with Hybridcars.com.

BMW is not claiming that the 7-Series is the poster child for green motoring, but, at the very least, it indicates BMW’s direction for future products. With its approach, smaller models like the 3-Series, which currently gets around 22 miles per gallon, the level of efficiency could jump to the subcompact neighborhood, somewhere above 30 miles to the gallon. BMW’s start-stop system has already been added to the 1-series and some 3-Series models overseas and could be available in the U.S. by next year. There has also been speculation about a 7-Series hybrid in the next two years—but BMW is staying quiet about a full hybrid gas-electric system.

hybridcars.com

A former Cobasys employee said problems at Cobasys are “the largest stumbling block" in getting hybrids to the market for the partnership between GM, Daimler, and BMW.

Daimler AG, maker of Mercedes-Benz luxury cars, is suing Cobasys for failing to provide hybrid battery packs as agreed for a planned Mercedes-Benz gasoline-electric SUV. The German automaker paid Cobasys $6 million in connection with development of the batteries. Cobasys is jointly owned by Energy Conversion Devices Inc. and a division of Chevron Corp.

News of the lawsuit, reported in the Detroit Free Press, follows revelations earlier this year that Cobasys, a supplier of nickel metal hydride batteries, provided faulty hybrid batteries to General Motors. In December 2007, General Motors voluntarily recalled 9,000 hybrid vehicles due to an internal leak in the battery pack that caused the hybrid system to fail. The vehicle could still be driven, although without the benefits of the hybrid system. GM’s hybrid sales have been negatively impacted by limited battery supply.

The availability of reliable hybrid battery systems is seen as the key to expanding global hybrid production. Nearly every major automaker is heavily investing in hybrid battery production, and in strategic partnerships with battery suppliers. The next generation of high-mpg hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles will also depend on automakers’ supply of batteries.

In an exclusive interview with HybridCars.com, a Cobasys executive—who asked not to be named—responded to GM statements and press reports, saying, “A lot of it is not correct," but declined to elaborate further.

Cobasys Blamed for Lack of American Hybrids

In turn, a former employee of Cobasys, who also chose to remain anonymous, wrote to HybridCars.com, placing the blame on the Cobasys management team. In an email, he wrote that the contract between Cobasys and the hybrid partnership between GM, Daimler, and BMW—which locks the partners into using Cobasys batteries for its current mild hybrids—is “the largest stumbling block in getting this product to market, and hopefully will not sour the North American market on American hybrids.” The inside source said that the automakers in the partnership have almost completely taken over responsibility to redesign the 880/800 battery. GM is serving as the lead in the effort. He added, “Now our American ingenuity and capabilities are being called into question by our foreign partners.”

The former employee wrote that the few engineers and scientists with the skills to resolve Cobasys’s problems had “been forced out or fired, primarily because they realized the difficulties ahead and had the misfortune to voice it to management who was blinded by a nice facility and pretty brochures.”

He pointed to these problems as the reason why Mercedes-Benz decided to use a lithium ion battery, from Johnson Controls-Saft and Continental AG, for the company’s planned Mercedes S400 luxury sedan hybrid in 2009 or 2010. “Had the Cobasys system worked, and had they had confidence in Cobasys, they would have used them.”

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