I remember seeing the price of the hybrid option was quite high

Interesting article confirming my suspicion that hybrids usually are not nearly cost effective:

http://www.motortrend.com/news/hybri...et-money-back/

Even worse, the acceleration of the LS w/ hybrid was considerably less than the std engine.

And then there is the issue of potential repair cost.

Appears to me they could have advanced the car w/ more useful tech than this.

If anyone can explain what I'm missing, please comment

 

 

This type of hybrid is just interim fill gap measure in transition to electric vehicles. From my almost 3 years ownership of RX-450h, in cold weather battery capacity shrinks resulting in minimal fuel savings.
When temp. really dips(like -30C) I had to worry about the status of 12V battery. In snow, it does not do well as regular RX. Tho I never had any issues other than regular scheduled maintenance. Simply it
was not my type of vehicle. Gone back to Audi SQ5. Other vehicles in the family is MB and Bimmers.