With gas approaching $5 a gallon, a barrel of oil at $140, and OPEC seeing it rise to $170 by summer's end, can there be any surprise that hybrid vehicles are becoming all the rage, especially from our most caring and completely green Hollywood heroes and heroines.
Yet, as I look deeper, I'm finding that hybrid cars come now in all sizes, shapes and horsepower production:
I've been test-driving cars for about 10 years now, including my share of hybrids: the infamous Toyota Prius; some of the first Ford Escapes; Honda Civics, Accords, and Fits. With hybrids, there have always been excuses to make and myths to bust in response to queries from curious drivers of traditional gas-guzzlers. And so I've compiled what I call the Hybrid Handbook to counter people who think that a) hybrids get 135 miles per gallon (they don't); b) hybrids need to be plugged in at night (they don't); or c) hybrids go only 35 miles per hour (they don't). Still, I confess, I've always believed that d) hybrids come only in small, boring, not-designed-for-hair-raising packages.
As did I frankly but lo and behold, the article goes on to describe a hybrid car that seems to defy the stereotype:
In a world where gas is being treated like dry land in Waterworld, the Lexus 450h is an island of its own. For $55,800—$2,780 more than the GS460—you will get a car that's just as quick as the 460, with more equipment, greater fuel savings, and, seriously, more fun than the regular Lexus.* And it does get 20 percent better fuel economy than the GS460 (22 mpg city/25 mpg highway in the hybrid versus 17 mpg city/24 mpg highway in the nonhybrid).
Savings aside, the fun quotient was the biggest X factor for me. My previous experience with gas pedals and hybrids was a lesson in disconnection. Step on the gas, and they don't go. They hesitate, whirl up like a hand-held electric mixer, then sort of go. This was the superfast, deluxe KitchenAid mixer of cars. Step hard with your right foot, and the kilowatt needle (a cool white display that shows the maximum output of electric power) jumps to life, the rear wheels spin, and you are up to speed faster than you can say, "Thank God for Thomas Edison's parents getting together."(Or about 5.55 seconds to 60 mph.)
Stop at a light, and the whole system does its hybrid trick and shuts down. Restart, and you awaken a re-engineered version of Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive—the system that made the Prius into the poster child for the green movement and turned every Hollywood actor into an expert on cars. How does it work? The system teams up with three main parts: one electric motor/generator that powers the rear wheels, a second electric motor/generator that acts as a primary generator and starter and controls engine speed, and a direct-injection, 292-horsepower, 3.5-liter V6. At low speeds, the first electric motor moves the car. A battery pack recharges itself with energy recovered from braking. When all systems move as one, it is the equivalent of 340 horsepower. It is all mated to a gearless, continuously variable transmission. Get stuck in four-lane bumper-to-bumper traffic and you are suddenly driving, in terms of your carbon footprint, an ultraluxurious golf cart.
I've gagged quite frankly at those Toyota Priuses I drive by on the highway, usually driven by either balding but pony-tailed pale looking guys or older overweight women with lipstick on their teeth, either one looking down their noses at me as I rumble by them on the road on my carbon spewing Harley.
Though there's no way I'd trade my Harley for one, I think it'd be pretty neat to slip behind the wheel of a hybrid Lexus 450h if only to leave a haughty Prius owner high and dry at a red light while matching his or her carbon footprint.
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