Zoomi Life

Toyota’s Lexus brand showcased their new hybrid-only model, the HS 250h, which is slated to hit showrooms as a 2010 sales model, at the Detroit Auto Show this year. It’s Toyota’s second hybrid-only model (after the Prius) and is the second luxury hybrid model to hit the streets in production, the Fisker Karma being first.

The car is pretty nice, but not spectacularly stylish. It looks like a prettier Corolla, really.  “A Corolla with a spoiler and a hybrid drive train” is how I’d describe it.

All that aside, Lexus is boasting better than 30% higher fuel efficiency in this car versus it’s like-sized counterparts in the luxury market. No hard EPA numbers are offered, but it will be somewhere in the 35-40mpg range, I suspect.  It’s drag coefficient is 2 marks higher than the 2010 Prius, surprisingly (0.27 vs. 0.25).

Another feature of this Lexus is the use of bio-plastics (aka “Ecological Plastics”) in the interior trim, which are generally carbon-neutral. It’s always nice to see manufacturers starting in on this trend.  Plastics, as most of you probably know, use more oil (by barrel percentage) than gasoline does.

The car is powered by a hybrid-electric engine similar in concept to the Prius and is the first Lexus with a 4-cylinder engine. The not-so-little 2.4-liter Atkinson-cycle engine, coupled with the electric motor, produces 187 horsepower.  Toyota doesn’t mention whether this is a plug-in hybrid like the Prius or how much battery storage it has, but at least the luxury maker is on the right track.

Source: TreeHugger