Lexus in Lincoln

At Friday’s BNI meeting fellow BNI member James Boughton-Thomas, Centre Principal of Lexus in Lincoln stepped in to do the 10 Minute Presentation.

Now as many of you may know, I’m not a four-wheel fan. Give me a motorcycle anyday!

But I was intrigued by the talk James gave - it was all about the Lexus and Toyota hybrid cars. For those that don’t know, a hybrid is a petrol/electric powered vehicle. Yes, I thought of milk floats, too. Mind you, James dispelled a few pre-conceptions.

Toyota/Lexus have been developing the hybrid concept for 10 years now, and are way ahead of the competition. Incidently, the rivals (BMW and Audi to name but two) had been poo-pooing hybrid for quite a while, then four years ago they sat up and took more notice. Unfortunately, for them, Toyota/Lexus had such a headstart that the other manufacturers are now finding the patent office are turning down their applications, telling them to go speak to Toyota.

But cutting to the quick, it seems the big problem for the competition is the battery performance - they can’t get anywhere near the pioneers of the technology. To quote an example, if you regenerated power from a Toyota/Lexus battery you’d have enough power to run an average home for a month. One of their rivals batteries would run a fridge for two hours. Kind of says it all, doesn’t it.

Having had my pre-conceptions stirred I suggested a test drive to James - Lexus of Lincoln were having a couple of hybrid open days this weekend. I even said I might blog about it. I had to offer some kind of incentive as these cars are way out of my league. But James was all for it. As he said, “You may not buy one, but if you’re impressed enough you might talk about it.” Sounded like a deal to me.

So this morning I took myself off to the Lexus dealership and met up with James. I’d brought the camera and suggested a drive over to Washingborough Hall where, with Richard Warren’s permission we’d take some photos (now up on Flickr).

The idea was to get a feel for how the car performed in traffic, as the 10 minute presentation had made the point that the battery would cut in and power the vehicle at lower speeds - in actual fact it’s a bit more sophisticated than that. But more of that later.

James said he would drive first, so he could explain more about the car and technology as we went. First off, he connected his mobile via bluetooth. Normally, this would be all set up for an owner, but being the demonstrator… it took seconds.

Starting the car is a new experience in itself. The only way you can tell it has started is by a “Ready” LED lighting up in the instrument panel, the petrol engine doesn’t fire up unless required. It’s an automatic. Slip it from “Park” to drive and the car moves slowly forward waiting for the accelerator to be depressed.

You know I mentioned the battery is used at slow speed. Not quite true. The car senses if more power is required so, for example, if you’re doing a hill start the petrol engine will engage to assist, then cut out when not required. It’s almost totally seemless and you really have to concentrate to notice when the engine cuts in and out.

We were doing 35 mph along South Park and it was still running on the two batteries that come with the RX400h. Of course, all this means zero emissions and zero fuel consumption. For a 3.3 litre engine the average consumption round town is 35mpg. Although it’s an SUV, this is no Chelsea Tractor. It has to be one of the most environmentally friendly big cars on the planet.

Travelling towards Washingborough and when we were still quite some distance from the traffic lights at the railway bridge James eased off and the batteries took over immediately - all this can be seen on an onboard screen, if so desired. A multimedia screen shows the flow of battery and engine power in real-time, indicating when each is in use. You can even see when surplus power from the engine is being converted to electricity and stored in the batteries.

BMW, by comparison, boast of their hybrid cars switching to battery power to save energy, but don’t switch to battery until the car is nearly at a standstill. Interesting.

After the photosession, we sat in the lounge at Washingborough Hall and James explained a few marketing differences between Lexus and its rivals. For instance, Lexus believe customers are intelligent enough to see the value of the Lexus marque. And therefore don’t need to be targeted with a brash advertising campaign - unlike some of their competitors approaches. This has been seen by some as an arrogant attitude, but as far as I’m concerned I much prefer the Lexus approach - who likes being patronised anyway?

OK, so what was it like to drive? Weird at first, no engine noise on startup, no engine noise when pulling away, it was more like a sensation of gliding. But when a response was called for the car was quite capable of forcing you back into the seat. I had a BMW a little too close for comfort behind me, so as we left Wahingborough village I put my foot down firmly; enough to see the BMW disappear quite quickly.

James pointed out the reason for the model being called the RX400h even though it sported a 3.3 litre engine was because the performance was more akin to standard 4 litre petrol driven car.

I think I have to say it was the smoothest car I’ve ever driven but, as I explained to James, I’d need to take it down to Cornwall to check that it’s as fatigue-free as this morning’s demonstration indicated. I just have this feeling I’d want to turn round and come straight back - and you’d normally only get that sort of reaction from me if it was a motorcycle I was talking about.

Back at the dealership meant my next lesson… in parking. The multimedia screen can throw up a diagram to show you how to park, in any given scenario. Now this is something my wife would find indispensable - particularly the parallel parking! Having said that, I was in a hurry to take my daughter horse-riding and probably didn’t give it my full attention. So when I attempted to reverse park it and came way too close to the vehicle alongside I think James was going through a stressful moment. That would take some practice, I think. But James uses it all the time.

Would I buy one? Honest answer, no. But only because I forgot to buy a euro-millions lottery ticket last night.

Having said that, the price doesn’t seem outrageous when you compare it like for like - only problem with that is… finding a comparable hybrid from another marque. Best of luck.