Car review; BMW 740Le - Giant of engineering or dead-end dinosaur?

There are two ways of looking at the BMW 740Le. Three, in a way, if you count on having to be about twenty paces back to take it all in. On the one hand it is, to borrow a phrase, the ultimate driving machine. It is about as advanced as it can be in almost every area. It has been punted as “the driverless car”, and you’d be right to marvel at the minimal driving involvement, (ironically, perhaps for the “sporty” BMW) you can get away with.

Thus, as with many of its peers, it boasts adaptive radar-linked cruise control, so you hardly have to use the brake or accelerator. It has quite an impressive lane recognition system, so you can drive with minimal inputs to the steering wheel (though you do have to keep your hands on it). The key fob is about the size of a smartphone, and you can tell the car, in advance, to warm itself up for your next adventure (while of course it remains locked secure).

There are tellies and tablet computers everywhere. It is connected to everything, but it also plays CDs, a welcome feature for those of us with “legacy” technology.

Then there’s the craftsmanship. You can tell that BMW owns the Rolls-Royce car brand, because some of that attention to detail is reflected in the 7-series. The soft interior lights have an art deco style that looks like it could have come from a 1930s ocean liner. The seats are sumptuous, highly adjustable, will massage your back and are extremely comfortable. Everything is heated; everything s welcoming’ everything is well-execute

Then there’s the power train. This is a hybrid model; so batteries and an electric motor combine with an advanced petrol engine to deliver power and, to a degree, economy. The two-litre unit is a typically modern type; a small capacity but with the necessary power delivered by adding supercharging and turbo-charging. The drivetrain, suspension and steering can be set for economy or performance. The 740Le has a brain that, mostly, makes the most of these capacities and tried it’s very best to deliver what the driver expects. Only sometimes can it fall down a little, leaving this tester with a disquieting sponginess in the brake pedal, having to sometimes push it much harder than expected.

I suspect that was the brain just being a little also on the uptake about what the regenerative braking was doing (that being one way the car generate sits won electric power, thence stored in the battery pack). The only substantial practical issue is the boot size; still adequate for most purposes, it is compromised inevitably by having to accommodate a load of lithium-ion batteries. They also weigh a bit, but BMW have used their expertise in carbon fibre to reduce the weight, and add safety to the package.

So there you go. What’s; wrong with that?

Nothing at all, in many ways. But such is the progress being made in electric cars – batteries especially – that you wonder if this BMW will look like little more than an automotive curiosity in a few years’ time. A Tesla, for example, offers much the same levels of comfort and performance – an d probably superior refinement, being all-electric – but of course doesn’t yet enjoy the well-established internal combustion engine’s power supply infrastructure (by which I mean all those petrol stations). The hybrid, pioneered by Toyota, is more popular than ever, but it has the feel of a stop-gap, a design that is necessary until such time as the all-electric vehicles really gain public trust and see economies of scale reduce their purchase prices. Such is the pace of progress in battery technology that increased range can be achieved without the expense, both manufacturer and customer, of costly carbon fibre technology, as BMW favour in their admittedly impressive all-electric i3 and i8 models.

BMW, to do them credit, have probably carried over the perfectionist habits in traditional car manufacture into this revolutionary new world, but, with the deepest respect, they may have a little more to learn. For now, they and their consumers will have to make do with the 740Le. For the bosses, diplomats and chauffeurs who form the car’s core clientele, it’s not such a hardship, I should say.