They said it couldn’t be done. 60mpg in a Lexus IS 300h? Nah mate, you need a diesel for that. Official figures might say you can get 60-plus, but we all know hybrids can’t do that in reality, don’t we?
I proved them wrong. And it is not some kind of forceful economic crusade either. It was only on a Saturday with my family on board and, in time, I found out how the economy was going while navigating through the on-board computer.
One meek mooch through town later and I watched it appear before my eyes: 60mpg, clear as day. Proving my regular, easily achieved 55mpg during motorway commuting is far from a fluke.
So we’ve answered the big question once and for all. The Lexus IS 300h is green, is good on fuel, is improving with the summery weather. I was worried, before taking delivery, that I’d made an eco mistake and would, literally, pay for it. Not so – and the satisfaction of paying 5p a litre less for unleaded rather than diesel is, given such impressive economy, pleasing each and every time…
Another worry I had was practicality. I’d switched from a Skoda Octavia vRS estate, one of the biggest family-sized cars on the planet. You could pile virtually anything into it, and last year’s summer holiday was done with space to spare.
Hybrids are much smaller, right? Batteries take up space in the trunk and leave little slots for carrying bags, right?
Once again, this is not the case. The listed capacity is 450 liters and although some suitcases were lost in the rear cabin and on the front floor, we were still able to carry a week’s worth of luggage, a travel cot, a stroller, plenty of food and even extra bedding. It was fully loaded for the whales, but everything went in anyway.
This is thanks to Lexus’ experience with hybrid: it designs cars specifically around it now, and it’s managed to squeeze and shape the batteries down to a size that leaves a boot comparable to a BMW 3 Series. Quite a contrast to early GS, as you can see…
The weather’s warming up and the IS is coming into its own in two very welcome ways. One, the economy is getting even more impressive. And two, you can sit in traffic jams for a good 45mins with the air con chilling the cabin without needing to have the engine running.
These two things got me excited about the Lexus this month. This usually falls on deaf ears for those more interested in the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4, of course: they are waiting to see the new Jaguar XE, which I will drive next week; however, feedback from Lexus owners on the club forum recommends that there be a strong and committed Lexus core joining me in love for this possibly unknown gem.
This month, after all, I showed that it doesn’t need fuel economy excuses to be a gas-electric hybrid rather than a turbodiesel. Almost 6,000 miles of driving have shown it to be eerily similar to my old Skoda Octavia vRS in terms of mpg – ie 55mpg coming to work, around 50mpg on the normal highway and, even if I insist, that’s still a decent average of more than 40 miles per gallon. If you drive it sensibly, you deserve to see the upper 40s and low 50s too, without the need for special techniques.
Some might doubt that the hybrid economy is only smart in the city, but the IS 300h proves that it is capable of operating outside the city as well. This question mark has thus obtained a complete answer. Now I can’t wait to see how it improves with the warmer weather.
Thanks to the warm weather, I made my debut with Lexus at Silverstone at the 2015 WEC 6 Hours of Silverstone at the beginning of April. A fitting mode of transportation, given the top generation of race cars: the same hybrid brand that appears on the doorstep. The IS 300h thresholds are boldly displayed on the WEC-winning Toyota LMP1 WEC race cars.
I’m there with Nissan (rival logo alert, etc. ), anticipating their ambitious new assignment at Le Mans. Front-engined and front-wheel drive, it is unlike anything else and, if the team delivers on its promise on paper, it could revolutionize racing at Le Mans.
Lexus didn’t do this with the IS, but, sitting later in traffic with the air conditioning keeping me cool without the engine running (yet another example of what can be done with strong batteries on board), I wondered why. few see it as an option to the 3 Series. With the new Jaguar But surely, given that the IS has been on sale for a few years now, it is between 4 and five?
Perhaps the next tests of organization will give well-being ES the visibility it deserves. . .
Lexus IS 300h long-term review: month 3
Unlike Peter’s Audi A3 Sportback e-tron, nobody stops me in the street to ask how I’m getting on with my Lexus. That’s despite the petrol-electric setup being almost as clever (all it lacks is the extra plug-in capacity for the batteries). Just goes to show how far ahead of the rest Lexus was with its hybrid tech: today, it’s taken for granted.
In fact, it no longer cares at all about offering a turbodiesel option: an ambitious measure in a sector dominated by diesel, but one that will pay off in a sector also dominated by CO2 emissions. Choose a base IS 300h and get lower CO2 emissions. of 100g/km, and even BMW’s ‘black magic’ EfficientDynamics generation can’t beat that. In fact, it wasn’t until 2015 and the imminent new Jaguar XE that a rival might suit it.
The challenge is that the base car with 99 g/km CO2 is powered by small wheels, and this is a sector that does not like small wheels. So the business-oriented executive style I’ve long been getting gets much closer looking 17-inch alloys, and a corresponding CO2 figure of 103g/km combined. It’s still smart, but not as “emissions smart” as the flagship car.
Nobody really cares. There are no further fleet benefits from purchasing sub-100g/km cars (road fund licensing is so reasonable for low emission cars that the extra charge is minimal) and the parts included on the Executive outweigh the savings from BIK.
Well, here we have the popular satellite navigation formula. Leather seats are so popular and nothing short of heated. Front and rear parking sensors are equally popular (they take a little slow to respond, be careful, if you park ‘fast’. . . ). Xenon & LED Headlight Accessories Lexus ‘L’ Sunlight Hours work with such popular lighting fixtures. DAB radio is so popular. I can’t think of anything else that I want to be popular. Can?
For £30k, it’s remarkably good value, something that was brought starkly to home recently when we have a Mercedes-Benz C 300 Bluetec Hybrid: list price, £38k. Price with options brining it largely into like with the Lexus, nearly £42k. Crumbs.
And, as our next dual will demonstrate, I know which one I’d rather have.
The Lexus and I get along well. I was worried about what I sowed when I chose it over the de rigueur turbodiesel, but the truth is exactly the same economy as the Octavia vRS that came before it: no TDI rattle, external noise, and the need to wear gloves when refueling. it’s over. Somehow it seems. . . cleaner.
This is partly influenced by existing anti-diesel rhetoric, which is largely absurd when applied to new cars. A few weeks ago I wrote about all the new diesel engines that are cleaner than a petrol Fiesta Ecoboost; in September they will be mandatory and you can bet other brands are looking to achieve parity with gasoline cars.
The problem is the old diesel engines, and that’s what the legislators are focusing on. The ones that Euro 6 (or, if necessary, Euro 5) are the ones that smoke the most, the ones that emit a lot of destructive NOx: driving a Lexus petrol-electric hybrid means that I stay away from those cars, and for the moment I feel a little tighter at the pump. Until next year, of course.
My experience, I admit, was partly influenced by the fatal demonization of diesel. But it was also out of curiosity: we had tried hybrids in the short term and were a little disappointed. Of course, this was because we were looking to complete a full life cycle in a few weeks, so a genuine equalization with the economy may never come into effect. Driving it day after day for six months allows things to work themselves out.
That’s why I get 55 mpg single commute and forty-five mpg when I’m in a hurry to get to Goodwood, and it’s also why Mrs A also gets 55 mpg when driving the kids with her (I restart the y Don’t tell him; I’m impressed. )
The real advantage with a hybrid is the chance to really notch things up in situations where you may not be able to with a diesel – namely, in town. The punch of the electric motor (and reserve of the batteries) means that a half-gentle right foot is enough to set you away on electric-only power and cruise you to 30mph if there are no hills or obstacles in the way.
If I were Lexus, I’d set a timer that resets every trip, just to show other people how the engine is off: I’m sure that would surprise them, since the likely constant glow of the green “EV” light at the left of the toolkit is something I find constantly reassuring.
Now that the weather is getting warmer, I can even die on electric power alone. Since I get up at 3 a. m. and I leave the space at 4:30 a. m. , this is appreciated by me but deeply praised by my neighbors, especially soft sleepers who like to leave the windows open at night (TDIs are rough when it’s cold). , I have been told…).
Not that it’s problem-free. Nothing of the sort. Just like the parking sensors are a little slow, so is the infotainment system. It’s like trading with molasses. The rotary controller is somewhat intuitive like a BMW’s, but not quite, and you’re aware of the grace that a Series 3 controller presents alongside the clunky IS. Mrs. A finds it indecipherable and I rarely agree with her.
Other little things: Self-centering signals are great, but if you point the same direction in a BMW, they override the others. This is not the case on a Lexus. Small complaint but frustrating halfway through a roundabout. The radiator temperature sliders are a little fiddly, but so cool I’ll forgive them. The foot-operated handbrake looks very much from the 80s, when so much competition still had electric buttons. And couldn’t the noise from the tires be a little less than it is now?It spoils the glorious refinement of the high-speed hybrid transmission.
What, you think: is that it? No mention of CVT gearbox? Well no. This is because, in everyday use, it makes a lot of sense. I like its linearity, I like the gear with its transparent elasticity, I even like the fact that it maintains maximum revs when I need power at maximum revs, rather than playing with gear settings that tempt me to look for an ideal peak power.
You may think I’ve lost my mind, but it’s the best example of why in a few days a car wheel doesn’t offer a complete representation of what it really is. As I mentioned before, highway cruises can register as low as 1,500rpm, which is eco-friendly and remarkable considering it’s a very strong petrol engine. Still, when more oomph is needed, the rpm increases and there it is, lag-free and subsidized through an electric torque-down. This makes a lot of sense, especially if you get into the habit of pre-empting the fun driving and switching to Enhanced Gaming mode – the excitement this adds to the stream is unusually satisfying.
On the other hand, this Merc had a seven-speed automatic gearbox and I found it “weird” from the start. It couldn’t seem to find the right gear, spiraling around and getting stuck, which seemed to me particularly less much better and ideal than the Lexus’ ever-changing, one-speed transmission. Perhaps it’s a sign of the best improvements to the old Merc 7G-TRIONIC; Maybe it’s just me who “gets” the CVT after a decade.
Or it’s Lexus engineering that’s helping me, like everything I’ve hated in the past in automotive nations. Either way, it all comes together pretty well and, even if the IS isn’t yet the driver’s car like a BMW 3 Series is (nor, by the way, does it matter, the new Jag XE. . . ), it still has enough distinctive qualities and intensity of capabilities to make it worth spending time with.
• What an elegant climate control system the Lexus has; it makes other cars seem a bit more route one. I sometimes don’t even realise I need a subtle refresh of cold air until it delivers it, and it’s the most set and forget system I’ve had on a long-termer.
• Those who remember old Lexus hybrids’ sorely compromised boots, at ease. Modern battery tech means the IS has 450 litres’ space, which is just 30 shy of a 3 Series. It’s commodious to take this family of four on holiday for a week, just (although the children did get a few bags between their seats and beneath their feet for company)
• For study purposes I traveled the 370 miles to Goodwood and returned as temporarily as possible over a weekend. Economic average? 40mpg. Which, considering how excited I was to get there (and return for lunch with my family), I think is beyond impressive. Yes, even in the monster, I did not immerse myself in the 30s. Again
• The cabin is as beautiful at night as it is during the day. It’s a delight, those first few meters starting at four in the morning, looking at the lovely ice-white lighting and illuminated buttons. A fairly slick control platform, it is
Lexus IS 300h Month 2 Long Term Review: The Critical Fuel Economy Test
The first question most people have when I tell them I’ve switched from diesel to petrol hybrid: what economy are you getting?
With diesel, there’s an assumption that cars will deliver strong mileage, even if the reality isn’t quite there. But with hybrid, it’s split. Some believe a Toyota Prius will deliver 60mpg day in and day out, even if it’s driven at 90mph inches from the rear bumper of a BMW 320d (a surprising number are).
But others are more cynical, believing that hybrid cars are test cycle stars that don’t deliver anything like that in the real world. So, which is it? Cue my regular 100-mile-each-way commute to work (TM), a standard test that allows me to directly compare almost every car I’ve had in on test since 2001.
The Lexus started off… um, pretty middling. The first few runs, the factory-fresh engine was averaging mid-40s mpg. Good for a 223hp petrol car that does 0-62mph in 8.4 seconds; not so good compared to the +10mph of my old diesel Skoda Octavia vRS.
But then a funny thing happened. The mileage clicked over 1,000, I stated to be a bit less circumspect in my running-in-minded control of the hybrid’s revs… and mpg started to go up. We broke a 50mpg average. Then, low 50s. And now? An even 55mpg on the motorway-laden run into work is easily achieved.
I am a traditionalist. I like to take it easy in the car for the first few kilometers, at most saying that I no longer feel like driving modern cars. It seems that Lexus’ economic improvement is proof of this. It also shows that, perhaps, there’s some genuine logic to the hybrid generation too – you see, that 55mpg trip economy has already far surpassed the vRS, and that’s before taking into account the value savings on petrol compared to the diesel. …
Obsession with economy over: the rest of the IS 300h is fairing quite nicely. Certainly the interior quality is a constant delight. I reckon no junior exec is more special inside than this – not even the new Jaguar XE, that I had chance to drive recently. Soft leather, tactile plastics, tremendous solidity: the Lexus cabin aces all comers.
I’m getting into the swing of hybrid driving as well. You don’t really have to do anything different if you don’t want to, but a bit of adaptation can use the tech to your advantage.
For example, starting: it does so in electric mode and will reach 30 km/h with the engine off if you are stable. As the engine responds intelligently and strongly, I began to gently press the accelerator when starting, to prevent the engine from burning out without delay and, I believe, to take advantage of the electric motor that does the heavy lifting to drive the car without wasting fuel.
Reducing speed is also satisfactory, because as long as you stay below 80 km/h, the engine will stop until you want to accelerate again. Moving through road traffic is a little more satisfying because, again, gentle use of the accelerator can keep the “EV” green light on for a passable period of time.
What the Lexus doesn’t do is show the chassis finesse of the new baby Jag. Nor the BMW 3 Series. Compared to those brilliant two rivals, the ride is lumpier, steering more distant, handling less incisive. It’s OK, with sporty initial crispness to make it feel quite lively, but doesn’t have the expertise of its two key rivals.
Really, though, I’m not testing the chassis. I’m seeing if hybrid can be a genuine alternative to diesel in this diesel-dominated sector. And, right now, I’m happy.
Boris Johnson. Islington Town Hall. France. The EU. Diesel is facing attacks from all sides lately, all because some claim he’s as green and white as we’ve been led to believe.
Diesel is great for reducing CO2, and the switch to diesel is a major factor behind Britain’s new cars emitting far less of the greenhouse gas than they were even just five years ago. One of the greenest things you can do is simply swap a decade-old car for a brand new one – and as CO2 relates directly to fuel consumption, you’ll enjoy a healthy saving at the pumps too.
Trouble is, diesels emit higher levels of some other pollutants, including NOx. And it is an excess of NOx that causes inner-city smog on hot sunny days (it’s been linked to other respiratory diseases too). Exceeding limits on NOx, along with particulates, is what the European Union is all set to fine us big for.
It’s not that simple, of course. Brand new diesel cars are not the problem. Indeed, buy one of the latest Euro 6 diesels and you’ll have a car that pretty much matches a petrol car for tailpipe emissions – including NOx. It’s older diesel cars, and HGVs, and buses, and taxis, that are the problem. ‘All diesel cars’ are simply getting rounded up and scowled at by umpteen naysayers.
I love diesel. I love its torque, its range, the fact even small diesels feel like much bigger ones. Every long-termer I’ve ever had has been powered by diesel. But the current furore has got me thinking. Is there really an alternative to diesel for the person driving upwards of 30,000 miles a year?
Enter Lexus. For years, to the surprise of many, it resolutely eschewed diesel in favor of a gasoline-electric hybrid. There is a hybrid edition of each and every Lexus on sale; It is the best-selling edition of the range. Lexus matches its rivals in terms of fuel economy, CO2 and favorable taxes, without deviating from the black pump.
The best seller of the moment? The compact IS 300h, which rivals the BMW 3 Series, Audi A4 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class and which, until the reveal of the Jaguar XE, was the only genuine choice for the dominant German brands (sorry, Infiniti)Array
(Comparisons to the
So I’ve been his father for six months now. An IS 300h Executive, the best-selling variant whose wide and popular specification includes satellite navigation, heated leather seats, xenon headlights and a variety of power buttons. All for £29,995 (plus £610 for steel, the only option we installed), which is even more appealing to tax-conscious corporate car drivers thanks to a CO2 score of just 103g/km and disregarding a 3% diesel surcharge.
It’s a bargain and yet, stepping into it for the first time, you’d swear it cost £5,000 more. Japanese factory-fresh with just 187 miles on the clock, my Sonic Titanium (cool name) was flooded with showroom appeal; so-soft leather steering wheel, firm and low-set seats, centre console that looks as premium as a Japanese hi-fi. You know when you’re in a lower-end 3 Series. Not here.
Then there’s the beginning for the first time. Press the button: it beeps. No shudders from diesel, no slight ticking noise. Hybrid means front-wheel drive and a slower, smooth-accelerating drive is done with instant-response electric power, smoother than the more productive V12. The four-cylinder petrol engine kicks in, but until then you’re driving and moving and you notice it a bit.
When I dropped off the delivery driver at the station, it was a huge compliment to my first ride. First impressions of my diesel vehicle revealed no unpleasant surprises or showed any concerns. Now, let’s find out what it means, for the first time in a decade, to have consistent success in the green bomb. . .
Price (January 2015): £29,995
Price with options: £30,605 (metallic paint £610)
Engine: 2. 5-liter four-cylinder gasoline-electric hybrid
Power: 184 HP (total system: 223 HP)
Torque: 221 lb-ft
0-62mph: 8.4 secs
Maximum speed: mph
MPG: 64. 2
CO2: 103g/km