BMW has just released details on the engines available in the 2011 7-Series sedan. While it’s had a V8 for many years, a 6-cylinder engine has been unavailable for some time. With recent engine designs giving far more power and power adders like the turbochargers BMW employs on its 335 and 535, an 8-cylinder engine is no longer needed to move the big 7-Series with gusto. A side benefit, of which every car manufacturer is worried about these days, is efficiency. Gas mileage is a bigger and bigger deciding factor when buyers narrow down their car-shopping lists, but the people shopping in the rarified air that the 7-Series occupies are less likely to care than the average commuter. The gas mileage matters more to the manufacturer, with Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements slated to rise in the coming years. The CAFE standard, put simply, is the average fuel economy of all passenger cars a manufacturer sells, so by offering a smaller engine on its 7-Series, BMW is hoping to raise their CAFE number ever so slightly. Look for a 1-2 MPG difference between the available 6 and 8-cylinder engines on the 2011 7-Series cars, which will be labeled the 740 and 750, respectively.
by John Suit
Source: BMW
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