Road Test
The Mauna Lani Resort on the Kona Coast of Hawaii's Big Island has five large solar power systems to augment its supply of electricity from the island's mostly diesel-generated current. To further minimize its dependence on the grid, the hotel runs 122 solar-charged golf carts on its courses. There is a green-turtle breeding area in the lobby, and small sharks circulate in a shallow pond near the beach. Somebody here clearly believes in conservation, even if the hotel did allow Kevin Costner to stay in one of its most expensive suites for six months while making the box-office bomb Waterworld. Now, there's a waste of resources.
But what better place could there be for introducing the Lexus RX400h to the press? Here's a vehicle that exploits Toyota's ingenious Hybrid Synergy Drive technology to provide high performance and good fuel economy. The RX's estimated EPA city consumption is 30 mpg. That's about double the mileage of comparable rivals. (For one, Jeep's Grand Cherokee 4.7 two-wheel-drive model gets 15 mpg.) Like all of Toyota's hybrids, the RX400h's highway fuel economy isn't quite as good, at 26 mpg, but its combined rate of 28 mpg beats the average for many sedans, including the V-6 Camry.
For a 4580-pound SUV, that's quite an achievement, particularly when you compare that figure with that of the RX330 sport-ute on which this vehicle is based. Lexus says the RX400h boasts 33-percent-better fuel-consumption performance, yet it outruns the RX330 to 60 mph by 0.9 second and whups it in the quarter-mile by 1.0 second. More thrust on less gas? Now we're talking. Unfortunately, Lexus trucked the RX400h to our test site and then hauled it away when we were done, so we were not able to obtain our own fuel-economy figures. With the Prius, we averaged 42 mpg, well below the EPA ratings of 59 and 51. Lexus says real-world fuel economy for the RX400h will be much closer to the EPA estimates.
Naturally, this comes at a price-which works out to about four or five grand more than what an RX330 will run you. That's a lot of gas, even at today's prices, but when you factor in the extra performance, the environmental awareness you'll be credited with from the Sierra Club, and the ultra-coolness of powering past onlookers on just the whispering electric propulsion, we think the car will find owners like cops find doughnuts.
There's another category of owner that will be naturally attracted to the Lexus, and that's anyone with an appreciation for fine engineering. While sitting and listening to Lexus engineer Dave Hermance describe the RX400h hybrid installation, we couldn't help thinking that if we had not already become somewhat accustomed to hybrid technology, the amazing level of integration and synergy applied to this vehicle would make rocket science seem simple.
Starting up front, we find a 3MZ-FE 3.3-liter V-6 gasoline engine similar to the one in the RX330, only retuned for this application to an output of 208 horsepower-about 10 percent down on its gasoline-only sibling. Don't worry about that-there are three electric motor/generators (MGs) lending a hand that supply a peak total of 268 horsepower. A part of the front-drive system, the first device-called MG1 by the Lexus engineers-fires the gas engine when required, acts as a generator when called on to do so, and controls one of two planetary gearsets to vary the relationship between the gas engine and itself.
