A German running Lexus and calling for hybrids. Kinda ironic.

Is it necessary?

as long as the hybrids are secondary versions and not the only ones, I’m happy

Phil: Why is that ironic? There’s a European running Chrysler. Oh, is it because it’s a Japanese company…?

Anyway, I think it’s a good idea. It could force other companies to follow suit and this could lead to more advancements in alternative fuel and gas saving tech.

A4, let’s not be idiotic. Hybrids emit lower emissions than diesel counterparts, they’re not even comparable really, yes they are both alternatives to standard petroleum, and yes, both get better mileage, but the main point of developing hybrids in the first place was to decrease the noxious chemicals being released into the atmosphere, and up until the new 2007 regulations, diesels actually produced MORE noxious chemicals than conventional gasoline engines, and even after the 2007 regulations are in place, they wont be making any difference for the better.

This is a good idea by Lexus/Toyota.

All you clowns that posted so far, Mercedes and BMW are producing a hybrid TOGETHER with GM which is way better then Toyota.

Now if you fit it to any car made by Mercedes or BMW and with a diesel couterpart which the lexus doesn’t have in europe or worldwide who will suceed??? Ain’t gonna be toyota (sorry lexus) for sure.

PS. on LamborghiniZ to A4
Its also why VW stopped selling TDI’s in the US. They dont meet emissions standards. MB had issues with there CDI but im not sure if they are going to sell them here or not.
Its a step in the right direction. And the hybrids are faster than their normal gas counterparts.
GS450H was clocked to 60 at 4.9 by road and track.

Hybrids are heavy.

Hybrids are complicated.

Both dealbreakers for me.

Well the reason why diesels arent clean enough in the usa is becasue of your diesel fuel. Diesel is not refined to the same standard as in europe, making it much more dificult to meet emisions regulations. Also american emisions regulations are stricter than euro 5 norms. Basicly in order to make diesels clean enough in the usa with the curent fuel you would need too much complex technology. Now hybrids arent as great as they sound they do improve milage but not in such a drastic way that it really maters. In europe we have several diesel cars that do much better milage than any hybrid and they dont use any special technology. In the end with a hybrid you are just luging around an extra 200-300kg in order to save some energy each time you break.

There is just so much more to a story like this than can be spelled out in a paragraph or two.
I think it might be just talk. What exactly are they refering to when they say ‘hybrid’? There are more than just one type. I think current hybrid technology is going to be somewhat obsolete in a fairly short time. Technical advancements will come quickly and then Lexus would be left holding the gas/electric hybrid bag so to speak.
The current issue of Road&Track has an excellent article on the various types of fuel alternatives, where they come from and how realistic they are for our transprotation needs. I highly suggest you pick it up and read it. Well worth the cost of the mag.

Megator, I never knew Europe refined diesel to higher standards. Regardless if that is true or not, London and Rome are both in decay. NY, Chicago, and LA don’t want the same. It costs millions to scrub those buildings. A diesel would be awesome in areas where the density could allow it.

Making a supercar with “hybrid” technology??? What is this world coming to? It’s like teaming John Carr up with John Walsh. I for one am a bit tired of being pandered to by holier than thou marketing departments. If Toyota is that concerned about emissions and gas milage, THEN DONT MAKE A DAMN SUPERCAR IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Diesels FTW. Hybrids are unproven, and God knows how long before we’ll see a battery-exploding mess. No thanks.

biodiesel — the world loves the hybrid fad until they have to pay for their first replacement battery

Diesels rule.

Hybrids are currently lame.

GAAAAAAAAY!!!!

You all will change your tune in 2008 with the new Prius. That is all.

I’m surprised they can’t (or WON’T) produce a 5.0 V-8 that makes 435 horsepower on it’s own.

My meaning is this: this hybrid option for every Lexus is a good idea, however, I am unconvinced the company has any interest in selling powertrains that are competition-worthy.

I’m with A4, Renton and 1c3d0g. Modern diesels are better than currently available hybrids.

Diesel in europe has less sulfer than in the usa thats the main diference. I’ve been to rome london and la. I think the reason why buildings in europe need to be scrubed compared to thoose in america is not because of diesels only. in europe the density of cars is much greater than in la for example. if you concentrate the same amount of cars in a smaller space the effects of polution are more noticable. Ayways hybrids are just a pr stunt, they will get you some more milage but milage is actually a stupid way of lookig at how enviromentaly friendly a car is. You see what we need to do is look at our total energy consumption. A hybrid takes much more energy to produce and run than its gas counerpart. so in the long run gas cars are better for the enviroment. Also hybrids like the prius get fuel savings from 3 places, shuting off the engine at the lights, running the engine at its most efficient, and regenartive breaking. the first of these two can be aplied to any gas or diesel car (the second option would need the car to be equiped with a ctv transmision). The regenarative breaking could as well but it wouldnt power your car forward it, would power the electricals of your car. I just want to end by saying look at the greater picture always. while im not a conspiracy nut job you have to realise that people try to mold your opinions into their own. Toyotas prius is such an example. In europe we had the lupo 3L for a while, this was a car that could seat 4 and had boot big enough for shoping. yet it would get 100km out of 3 liters of diesel, some people even used less. this was achieved with superb aerodynamics, low weight, and an efficient engine. if we look at the total energy consumed in this cars life it would kick a prius ass. but its smaller so if you only have one car you couldnt compare. But imagine if this was just yourdaily comuter how much could you be doing for the enviroment? In the end the prius and other hybrids are a way of seeming green. Everyone thinks that if your milage is low that you are not poluting as much, to some extent this is true but u always have to look at the co2 and nox production to know if they really are. You also need to look at how much was poluted in the production of your car.

^^…like 1000lbs of batteries. A battery powered car addresses one problem, but creates others. I think we are all aware that there needs to be other research into more effective means of power generation. So the combustion engine as it stands today, is ineffecient. Agreed. Does that mean we scrap the thing and move to something completely different? No. There are technologies that are currently being developed that I believe will will be the begining of the combustion engine v.2.0. Technologies that will gain more efficiency by better consumption, less waste, and adding less weight. A Prius yes will be efficient in terms of miles per gallon, but as many people have already stated, it’s still very ineffiecient in terms of total power consumption. Not to mention it’s a rolling contradiction in terms of environmental friendliness. Where do those batteries go when they are used up? What’s the environmental collateral damage of manufacturing those 1000 lbs of batteries? I think greenie weenies believe anyone who protests battery powered cars are against fuel efficency which couldn’t be farther from the truth. We simply acknowledge certain facts and realities and actually demand more in terms of real technology that doesn’t spite itself in terms of the real end goal.

I read that Road&Track article. It is very informative. I think everyone here who wants to debate alternative fuel/hybrid etc… should read it. Current issue.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=7&article_id=4060

Good work Piablo.
What did you think of the article?

It’s a great article. It’s completely unibiased and it addresses just about every possible form of energy. One of the many interesting tid-bits, it puts to rest the idea that we will be out of oil in the near future. If anyone would like to know, where our oil comes from, different types of refinement methods, how efficient those batteries really are, how feasible ethanol is, what is a “bio”-diesel, and much much more, check it out.

By the way, R&T has a couple of the best writers to ever put pen to paper in the car business. Dennis Simanitis (who I think wrote this fuel article we are referencing) and Peter Egan who I put on par with David E. Davis Jr.
The absolute best ever. Incidentally, Egan also pen’s for Cycle World.

Whether its diesel or electric, one thing we can all agree on is that automobiles create a significant amount of pollution that poses a threat to our environment. I love cars, don’t get me wrong, I just like the idea that people are working on less harmful alternatives. Rather than arguing which one is better, can’t we just agree that BOTH are better? The original ICE is terribly ineffienct.
With all the alternative energy talk on this page, I think its appropriate to mention a recent Discover article on the advancements of batteries. Nanotechnology has allowed researchers to develop carbon nanotube capacitors that dramatically increase surface area of capacitor plates, allowing large amounts of charge to stored. Where as a battery uses chemicals to store electrical charge, capacitors will just store them on nanocoated plates that can be recharged infinitely. Although this technology is still being researched, it could very well replace the battery and be used in some sort of electric-car technology. But for now, at least we are going somewhere.
Just my thoughts.

hybrids will have absolutely no value in 5 years. when the battery finally guits recharging it’s about 6 grand too replace it. I guess lexus only cares about getting cars out the door not what happens to them afterwards.

Who cares whether that Lexus “supercar” is hybrid, diesel or neither.. nobody is gonna buy it if it looks like the LF-A! Yuck!

GOOD:)

Ten years from now you will see on TV about 80,000 kids in Bangladesh who are all born deformed. The cause will be a ****load of toxins in their drinking water, traced upriver to thousands and thousands of hybrid batteries that were dumped in the river because the evil Americans sent their batteries abroad to be “recycled” and this is what was really done with them. The greenies who by then will have moved on to the next big save-the-world gimmick will look back at the hybrid craze and blame capitalism, Bush, the USA, and everyone but themselves, and demand reparations be paid to the deformed Bangladeshies and all that. It will be an international issue.
.
Everyone here knows it’s true. And when you point the finger at the greenies, you will be called an insensitive asshole and everything else under the sun who doesn’t care about anything.

Hybrid batteries will last longer than ten years. And even so, that would leave a serious ultimatum: slight chance of harmful battery disposal effects, or the continuation of the destruction of the ozone layer, etc.

???

Besides, all this talk about hybrid batteries, do people honestly think that a hybrid car’s battery will be any more or less of a hassle to dispose of than a car’s normal battery?

Here’s a crazy thought: How about a hybrid diesel???

Ricardo Head don’t comment on something you have no clue about, the Hybird Batteries will be recycled in the same way as recharable batteries…The recycling process starts by removing the combustible material. Gases from the thermal oxidizer are sent to the plant’s scrubber where they are neutralized to remove pollutants. The process leaves the clean, cells, which contain valuable metal content. The cells are then chopped into small pieces, which are heated until the metal liquefies. Non-metallic substances are burned off leaving a black slag on top that is removed with a slag arm. The different alloys settle according to their weights and are skimmed off like cream from raw milk. Cadmium is relatively light and vaporizes at high temperatures. In a process that appears like a pan boiling over, a fan blows the cadmium vapor into a large tube, which is cooled with water mist. This causes the vapors to condense and produces cadmium that is 99.95 percent pure. So yeh hybirds are completly safe for the atmosphere and stop making up your own scenarios which are un true.

Webran61 and Aussie#1 – There is a difference between a single battery in a typical car, 20lbs maybe? 30 at most? And a hybrid which has 1000lbs. 30lbs vs. 1000lbs. And in order for the batteries to be recycled, they have to make it to a recycling plant in the first place. How many batteries do you suspect are sitting out in the junk yard?

The main point in all of this is the hypocrisy of the greenie weenies. There is no argument that cars pollute. The greenies have taken to arms and called out their battle cry on the issue. Now, to be so emotional and tied to such a movement, why is it so acceptable to have 1000lbs of batteries in a car? And it’s not just where they go once they are used up, it’s also in the manufacturing of the batteries. BTW, Nickel-Metal-hydride batteries are the same type that were used in cell phones a few years ago. The same type of battery that noticeably stopped performing after a year or so of being charged and discharged. Sure the battery will still work in 5 years, but it will by far not be performing at the top of its game. So your milage in a hybrid will never be better than the first day you bought and will continually drop as the performance of the battery wears down.