Recently, on the National Geographic channel (I think…might have been on Discovery), there was a program about hybrid and electric vehicles. One of the vehicles featured was the Lexus LS 600h L. It’s a hybrid, which has a V8 engine along with batteries and an electric motor.

The Lexus rep was talking about it’s Super Ultra-Low Emissions, in large part thanks to it’s special catalytic converter.

I drive a BMW 750iL, which is in direct competition with a Lexus LS, so I was intrigued. Today I was finally able to look up the specs of the LS and compare it to my 750. The first thing I noticed was the price. Base price is $104,000. But you’ll probably want the Premium package for $7500, bringing the total to $111,500.  That’s a hefty price tag by any standard.

In comparison a non-hybrid Lexus LS starts at $71,000, and a BMW 750iL starts at $78,900, and optioned out, my 750 cost me ~$85K.  Ok, so it costs more…a lot more.  But surely the Lexus will offer superior gas mileage.

The 600h has EPA numbers of 20 city and 22 highway.  My 750 has 17 city and 25 highway.  Normal around town driving for me is 18.5 mpg.  And long highway cruises (Phoenix to LA, for example) are 23-24 mpg.  So the best I could hope for is around 1.5 mpg better than what I get now.  Ugh.

Doing the math, the Lexus would be $30K more expensive and on average save me maybe 1 mpg, if the EPA numbers hold up.  On paper, the math doesn’t make sense.

I applaud Lexus for the effort, but I don’t know who would actually buy this vehicle on it’s merits.  If gas mileage can be brought up to something like 25 or 30 mpg, then I’d seriously consider being a buyer.  But at these levels, it’s not for me.

Oh, and one final benefit of the BMW, which is very difficult to place any value on.  European Delivery.  Above is my 750 in front of the famous Raffles hotel in Hamburg Germany.  It’s going to take a heck of a lot for me to give up my free European vacations with each BMW purchase.

If you enjoyed this post, consider subscribing to the blog