Back in April 2017, BMW Malaysia brought in the locally-assembled 740Le xDrive for under RM600,000. Well, the facelifted 7-Series was recently announced and with it, a direct replacement to that model. It’s called the 745Le, and it too comes with an xDrive option.
But what’s more important is that this version of the plug-in hybrid G12 comes with an in-line 6 petrol engine instead of the 2-litre inline 4 we have in the current 740Le.
That engine has been tuned to produce a peak output of 286 hp (258hp in the 740Le). It’s paired to an electric motor with a rated output of 113 hp (same in 740Le) and a rated torque of 265 Nm, along with a new lithium-ion battery featuring the very latest battery cell technology and expanded storage capacity.
When the driving experience switch is set to SPORT mode, an overall system output of 394 hp is available. For a particularly powerful set-off manoeuvre, it is even possible to draw on a maximum system torque of 600 Nm.
The new BMW 745Le xDrive reaches the 100 km/h mark from standing in 5.1 seconds (0.2 seconds faster than the 740Le) with an electronically-limited max speed of 250km/h.
The new high-voltage battery for the plug-in hybrid models of the BMW 7-Series now has a gross energy content that has been increased to 12.0 kWh. The increased storage capacity of the lithium-ion battery creates the basis for expanding the share of purely electrically powered, locally emissions-free and virtually noiseless driving in the luxury sedans well beyond the sphere of urban mobility.
In HYBRID mode, the new BMW 745e, the new BMW 745Le and the new BMW 745Le xDrive can travel at a speed of up to 110 km/h – 20 km/h faster than the predecessor models – in purely electric mode. The combustion engine is not added until a higher speed is reached requiring a particularly high load. In ELECTRIC mode, the power of the electric motor alone is even sufficient to reach a speed of 140 km/h. The electrically powered range of the new BMW 745e is between 54 and 58 kilometres, while the new BMW 745Le reaches 52 to 55 kilometres. The new BMW 745Le xDrive achieves an electrically powered range of 50 to 54 kilometres.
