2010 Lexus GS Hybrid 450h Review

Lexus calls the GS Hybrid a new genre. At least it appears to be the only vehicle in the “performance luxury hybrid" genre that they have coined. A few sources say that Mercedes and Inifinity are making vehicles that fit this same mold as well, but none are available yet. So only Lexus can swing around on chandeliers
and make the claim so far this year.

What’s the purpose of hybridizing a performance luxury car? A good question that tries to be answered in the review here:

What you get, essentially, is the performance of a V8 and the fuel economy of a V6. In order to do that a high-output, permanent-magnet electric drive motor along with all the electronic controls and some extra content is added to the V6 GS. All that stuff adds a little more than $11,000 to the sticker price of the standard V6 and it costs about $2,500 more than the V8 version of the same car. If we calculate fuel savings based on EPA numbers and divide that into cost differential we show a payback period of about 11 years when compared to the V8 and 132 years compared to the V6.