2010 Lexus HS 250h Hybrid Review

2010 Lexus HS 250h Review You know there had to be some envy over at the Lexus division when Toyota has a breakout hit with the Prius. That just changed. Look at this car. This is the new HS 250h, a hybrid-only Lexus, only available for the hybrid power train. A first for them and they also say it's the first hybrid of its category that is a premium luxury vehicle. We'll take them at their word for that. Now the technology includes of course electric motor coupled to a 2.4-liter Atkinson Cycle gas engine. Atkinson Cycle Engines have a longer power stroke pushing down after combustion than they do a compression stroke. They are very efficient and ideal for coupling in a hybrid arrangement. Inside plenty of cabin tech, it's a Lexus after all. Check out the funky little shifter, very Prius I would say. Below that is the remote touch controller. We saw that debut in the new RX from Lexus, an interesting new haptic point and click interface. And a new casual speech voice recognition technology underlies all this. So you pretty much say what you want and the car should be able to figure it out. We'll see how well that works when we actually get one of these in the garage. Of course all the XM information services, a head up display is optional and available as well. Now aside from the power train, they've also got an exhaust heat recovery technology. Taking more of the heat generated by the engine when it's warming up and pumping it back around to the engine, so it warms up faster because engines are very wasteful when they are running cold. So get them hot faster and you spend less time putting out unburned fuel from the tail pipe. Another interesting technology here, bioplastics. Lexus says these are made and involved a lot less CO2 in their manufacturing and their life cycle. So this vehicle they say has 20 percent lower CO2 emissions life cycle than a similar vehicle with regular plastics.