1Violinist

Amen! Today regular gas is $2.65 a gallon here in California!
It'd be nice to have 50/60 MPG!

jrock65

One problem with basing a GT high performance line off a hybrid may be weight. The RX400h weighs 520 pounds more than the RX330 AWD.

Maybe they'll find a way to reduce the weight gain.

robloc93

What part of Cali are you in??Because I just paid $2.87 for premium unleaded and that pisses me off!!!

TheRupp

Really? I always remembered California as being at least $1 more expensive than here (Chicago). I just paid $2.31 for regular in the CHEAP area

GS3-03

not a question of maybe they'll find a way to reduce the weight gain, its a questions of cost of investment vs. return on the investment.
next generation of lithium ion battery is very light and have very high capacity. instead of nickle metal or nicat battery technology, they will need to research and develope on 2nd generation lithium ion batteries for their vehicles. just my two cents.

XeroK00L

It's already doable today, as seen on some high-end electirc cars. The problem is the prohititive cost of lithium ion batteries. Most people aren't exactly ready to pay at least $20k more for Li-Ion batteries that are enough to power a performance vehicle.

STIG

i dont think it will get 50/60 MPG with over 300hps, but i am sure it will be around 20 to 30 range with planty of power. possibly under 5 sec to 60.

1Violinist

We were talking about the Hybrid version.

robloc93: I'm in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

LexFather

1. Lexus car hybrids will be RWD not AWD, the AWD hurts the RX with the weight as well as the dual battery packs to power front and rear wheels.
2. As technology improves, batteries will get lighter.

The GT line, if it comes, will have even higher voltage batteries for more power.

STIG

i was aware of that hybrid version but still, GS hybrid doenst get 50/60MPG. i think it gets like 30MPG but still very impressive.

TED_FR

According to Autocar, there won't be any hybrid version for the IS. Maybe because of the coming IS500?

http://www.autocar.co.uk/news_article.asp?na_id=214571

Gojirra99

They claim new IS as rival to the 1 series ?

The new IS looks more refined even than the new 3 for sure.

TED_FR

No... what they stated was that Lexus are considering introducing a 'baby' Lexus within 5 years.

Then are described more short term plans:
IS Estate (I thought they won't be any more sportcross)
Diesel engines for GS, LS and RX.
And hybrid versions for all Lexus but the IS.

Gojirra99

My bad, I somehow skipped to the second paragraph after reading the bold text at the beginning . . .

I'm not sure Lexus should go further down market than the IS. They should make the 1 series competitor a Toyota instead of a Lexus IMHO.

Gojirra99

Diesel options for RX, GS & LS is a good idea for Europe, & they should consider diesel-hybrids, that's even better . . .