In public perception the words “hybrid” and “sports sedan” go together about as naturally as “lentils” and “biltong”.
The general attitude among the lentil-eating greenies who buy such petrol-electric cars is that, as long as they’re being nice to the planet and saving money on fuel, they can live with pedestrian pace.
But I’ve now driven a car that lets you have your lentils and your biltong too.
The Lexus GS450h marries a 218kW/368Nm 3.5-litre V6 petrol engine with a 147kW/275Nm electric motor and you don’t need to be a mathematician to work out that this adds up to some serious horsepower – which makes it hands-down our favourite hybrid so far.
A disadvantage of small-engined hybrids like the Toyota Prius is that they feel tame and underpowered during the times when the battery powering the electric motor goes flat and leaves the petrol motor to do the work all by itself.
In the Lexus GS450h, there’s no such problem as the 3.5-litre V6 feels more than gutsy enough to tide you over whenever the battery’s out of juice. But it’s with both the V6 and the electric motor singing from the same hymn sheet that it really turns into a lusty sports sedan, with notably immediate throttle response and no lag whatsoever.
The continuously-variable transmission plays a big role in creating this responsive immediacy, ensuring there’s no pre-kickdown pause as with regular auto gearboxes. The power’s always instantly on tap as soon as you touch the throttle; there’s no hesitation.
The hybrid system requires the battery to be charged by the petrol engine and it takes quite a lot of open-road cruising to get the battery fully juiced up, and consequently little to get it de-juiced again when you’re driving pedal to the metal. When we took the car to Gerotek for performance testing, after just three to four hard acceleration runs the battery was flat and the 0-100km/h times dropped by a second. But the best we managed was 7.3 secs, which is very decent, while the top speed’s rated at 250km/h.
In typical Lexus style it’s all super refined and hushed, eerily so when the car’s running only on electric power (which is usually in slow-paced urban driving).
The GS is a heavy car at 1.9 tons, making it primarily a luxury cruiser, but it has handy corner-carving abilities too when the need arises. The suspension can be stiffened at the press of a button when handling sharpness takes precedence over ride comfort.
The Lexus GS has been around for a few years and the dashboard design is starting to look a little dated, although for the most part the user interface is user friendly. There’s a simple-to-use touchscreen for functions like the climate control, audio system, onboard computer and navigation (although the satnav itself is inexplicably complicated).
To keep things neat and tidy, buttons for ancillary functions like adjusting the rear-view mirrors are located in a hinged console that tucks out of view into the fascia.
An interesting feature is that instead of a rev counter, there’s a gauge which shows the car’s real-time power output in kiloWatts.
It’s all very clean and uncluttered, though there are a couple of bugbears.
One is that the rear-view mirrors automatically move down to show the kerb view whenever you select reverse gear, which is handy if you’re parking next to a kerb but annoying when you’re reversing out of a driveway and have to adjust both mirrors up every time so you can see the gate posts.
Techno geeks will love the digital graphs that keep track of your fuel consumption and show which power unit – the combustion engine or electric motor – is supplying the drive. Very bling, but very clear and legible too.
So, how does this hybrid perform in the all-important fuel consumption stakes? The car averaged around 10 litres per 100km according to the computer, while claimed C02 output is 180g/km. These are good figures compared to petrol cars, but no better than similarly-powered turbodiesel rivals.
Selling for R754 400, the GS450h is a highly specced model with a 14-speaker Mark Levinson premium sound system, warmers and coolers for the electrically-powered front seats, keyless operation, and satellite navigation with voice command among its many toys.
Cabin room is spacious – similar to the BMW 5-series it’s pitched against – but the boot is disappointingly small and can’t be expanded as the rear seats don’t fold down.
VERDICT:
The superior “greenness” of hybrids is questionable because so far we haven’t tested one that can beat the fuel economy of a similarly-powered (and cheaper) turbodiesel car. The same applies here, with the GS450h outgunned by rivals like the BMW 535d and Mercedes E350 CDI in both consumption and price.
But, if you happen to dislike turbodiesels, as some people do, this petrol-electric Lexus is a very compelling alternative.
No matter what flavour you prefer your powertrain, it’s a performance car with lively pace that will appeal to any red-blooded biltong muncher, which just happens to have good fuel consumption too.
As I said, it’s hands-down the best hybrid we’ve tested so far.