NEWS Future of the Automobile

Bill Reinert, Toyota's in-house energy guru and resident contrarian, looks like he's just taken a whiff of a long-expired container of milk.

Reinert is serving on a future-of-the-car panel at a high-powered green-think conference sponsored by Fortune magazine and featuring heavyweights such as President Bill Clinton and Bill Ford. Although the symposium is being held in a button-down bastion of Orange County, the ambience is totally Silicon Valley, all iPhones and Aeron chairs, with lots of clever but undercapitalized tech entrepreneurs sniffing around for angel investors. At the moment, Shai Agassi, the charismatic founder of Better Place, is making a dynamic pitch for creating vast networks of battery-charging stations to support electric vehicles that will, he claims, be cheaper than the equivalent gasoline-powered cars. While executives from Ford, BMW, and Fisker Automotive listen with polite smiles, Reinert squirms in his seat, crosses and recrosses his legs, and generally behaves like a schoolkid who can't wait for the bell to ring so he can escape for recess.

When it's his turn to speak, Reinert bites his tongue. He mildly questions the viability of Agassi's wildly improbable plan to create battery-swapping stations for the coming wave of EVs. He lobs a few gentle barbs in the direction of the ethanol lobby, which he privately regards with unalloyed scorn. He outlines his genuinely radical vision of a future where publicly owned and shared cars are used to complete urban mass-transit systems. But by and large, he's on his best behavior, showing the benevolent public face of the world's greenest car company. Until the mics are turned off.

"That's the first law of Disney at work--wishing will make it so," he mutters shortly after bolting out of the conference room and yanking off his tie. "Using ethanol for fuel is like electing the dumbest kid in school as class president. As for plug-in electrics, they're just not plausible right now. Lithium-ion batteries are too expensive by at least an order of magnitude. They're not energy-dense enough. And we generate a lot of our electricity from coal. I don't think Shai is being disingenuous. I think he really believes what he's saying. I see it all the time from those Palo Alto types. They think the whole world is like a computer company, and they're always trying to recreate the dot-com economy. You see exactly the same mind-set with Tesla. It's all going to work out. It worked out with eBay. It worked out with SAP. But transportation is a different world. I mean, Shai's bragging about driving an electric RAV4 with a seventy-mile range. How many of your friends are going to buy that car?

As national manager of Toyota Motor Sales' advanced technology group, Reinert supervises a brain trust--four full-time employees and several outside consultants-- with the freedom to explore, well, just about anything. At the most conventional level, they play the role of product planners, and their fingerprints are all over the new, third-generation Prius. But Reinert also is charged with forecasting fuel prices, analyzing new technology, predicting (and influencing) regulatory developments, conducting life-cycle modeling, and anticipating demographic trends. Trained as an engineer focusing on renewable energy, Reinert is a passionate car guy with a vintage Porsche in his garage. He is an unlikely character playing an unlikely role as corporate fortune-teller, gazing at a crystal ball of his own design to keep Toyota ahead of the curve.

"Bill is a futurist," says his longtime friend David Shearer, a scientist and entrepreneur who's devoted most of his career to the study of renewable energy. "He's a big thinker, and he always has the larger context in mind. He's a leading light in the energy and next-generation transportation spaces. He's superbright, but he can talk about these things in a way that people can understand. And he's able to create bridges to the NGOs [nongovernmental agencies] that are so important in driving these big ideas forward. He has the unique gift of being able to talk to different groups, create excitement, and prepare them to accept ideas that might appear to be contrary to what they believe in. But Bill speaks the truth no matter what group he's with, and sometimes he doesn't make friends doing that."

At first glance, Reinert seems like a singularly poor fit at Toyota, a notoriously conservative company with a rigid corporate hierarchy. Reinert is, by his own account, something of a loose cannon. At 61, he still bears the residue of his hippie years; his young staffers call him Uncle Bill. Also, the glib--and often controversial--pronouncements that have made him a favorite with the media haven't always played well in a corporate culture that prizes the group more than the individual.

Outside Toyota, Reinert is the company's most articulate - and highest-profile - spokesman on energy issues. (Scott Samuelsen, director of the National Fuel Cell Research Center, calls his lively presentations "out-of-body experiences.") But although Reinert is himself a staunch environmentalist and he's pushing research in areas ranging from fuel cells to carbon sequestration, he doesn't have much time for conventional wisdom or political correctness. He's been especially critical of the commercial prospects for EVs, and he was cast as one of the skeptics in Who Killed the Electric Car?
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NEW Pontiac G8 will live on as a Chevrolet Caprice

Only hours into his latest tenure at General Motors, Bob Lutz was back at what he does best, namely, slipping product information to the media and giving enthusiasts a reason to believe in the beleaguered auto company.

Asked about the future of the Pontiac G8, slated to end production with the 2009 model year, Lutz told Automobile Magazine the car would find its way into Chevrolet showrooms under the Caprice name.

"The last time we looked at [the G8], we decided that we would continue to import it as a Chevrolet," Lutz said. "It is kind of too good to waste."

CEO Fritz Henderson has repeatedly denied that the G8 would survive as part of another brand, saying he's "not a fan of rebadging."

But Lutz, citing export agreements with Australia and the fact that the Holden Commodore is already sold in many countries as a Chevrolet, assured us GM would not let the car die.

Lutz also confirmed that the Cadillac CTS-V Coupe was still very much in the pipeline, and noted that members of the government taskforce took special interest in the super coupe.

"When we went through design and looked at the future product, the procession stopped at the model of the Cadillac CTS-V Coupe," Lutz told us. "I think that some of these guys are personally going to buy CTS-V Coupes."

Lutz also noted that a CTS-V Wagon is still a possibility, saying, "I think that'd be fun. I'm sure we'll build at least one."
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NEW AND LUX CARS : Jaguar XJ 2010

There are classics in car design, such as Ford's Mustang and Porsche's 911, whose shapes have persisted with subtle variations for forty years. Jaguar's XJ sedan is almost equally long-lived, but sales have dropped as it passed through many iterations that were all much too closely based--even the last all-aluminum model--on Sir William Lyon's original design. Now, finally, the XJ has a completely new shape, impressively handsome and vastly better, in terms of space and comfort, than any of its forebears.

The initial presentation to the American press at Hedsor House, an archetypical English stately home, was the best I've experienced in half a century of seeing new cars before their public showing: we were marshaled onto a second floor balcony overlooking the home's beautiful park and its long driveway. Two of the new cars--one of each wheelbase--approached and moved smoothly around the area so we could see them from every direction while Jaguar design leader Ian Callum talked about their design. Given that it is impossible to properly judge a new design until you have seen it in motion, this was a brilliant way to present a vitally important product.

The XJ has some elements reminiscent of the midrange XF, in particular the nearly rectangular trapezoidal grille, but in all respects the XJ is more refined, elegant, and impressive. Its six-window side profile is elongated and beautifully delineated by a bright metal surround culminating in a thicker section at the pointed aft end.



The C-pillars are a glossy black on every car. Questioned about making it body color, Callum insists that the difference is important, even on cars painted black, where only surface reflectivity, not color, changes. There is no question that the upper looks wider with darkened glass and the blacked-out pillars. Dramatic elongated taillights owe nothing to the past.


The body sides are quite plain, with only a small chrome vent on the front fender behind the wheel opening and a slight indentation through the front doors that disappears a third of the way back on the rear door panels. There are sharp peaks to the front and rear fenders, well outboard, to emphasize the body's width.


The front profile rounds down following the wheel opening, allowing the hood and grille to thrust forward, with the headlamps joining the disparate profiles. A subtle bulge above the center of the headlamp cover recalls, almost subliminally, surfaces behind the headlamps of the original XJ. The interior is pure classic Jaguar, raised to the nth power. The sound system is so good that by contrast it puts the Lexus "concert hall" into the provincial high-school gymnasium category.


Life is going to be difficult for all luxury car makers now (much like the 1930s, when many makes disappeared), but we think Jaguar has an excellent chance, if only based on the fact that everyone who saw the XJ was eager to drive it as soon as possible.
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NEWS : Ferrari Scuderia Spider 16M 2009

FERRARI SCUDERIA : Your retinas may be reeling from the visual assault of the blinding yellow Ferrari Scuderia Spider 16M, but that optical barrage doesn't pack half the wallop this Italian inflicts on your cochlea. There is nothing graceful, respectful, or restrained about the Ferrari's exhaust note. In response to any quick stab of the aluminum accelerator pedal, the engine-control computer tells valves in the exhaust to bypass the mufflers. I call those baffles valvole di vaffanculo, because to open them is to raise an acoustic middle finger to anyone within earshot. Valvole in Italian means valve. Vaffanculo, if you have never watched The Sopranos, is Italy's favorite NC-17 way of telling you to go fly a kite.) Luckily, the 503 rambunctious horses under the glass cover provide sufficient thrust to make the car disappear in an invisible cloud of hydrocarbons before anyone has the chance to flip the bird back at you.

Only 499 of these screaming, $313,350 superstars will be built, with about 150 coming to North America. To make a 16M, the F430 Spider gets a weight-saving plan similar to the one that turned the F430 coupe into the 430 Scuderia. The 16M name is a celebration of Ferrari's sixteen grand prix titles. You know, just in case you and the now-deaf peasants around you needed a reminder that Ferrari is at the top of the sports car food chain.



In losing its fixed roof, the mid-engine two-seater gains 193 pounds and loses about a third of its torsional rigidity. The coupe, however, is such a robust stepping-off point that Ferrari insists you won't notice the loss. And you hardly do, save for a wince-inducing shudder that reverberates through the chassis any time the F1 automated manual transmission bangs off one of its brutal - but breathtaking - full-throttle upshifts.

On back roads, the 16M is a ferocious missile with beautifully weighted and pinpoint-accurate steering. The light front end responds instantly to your every command, and the rear-biased weight distribution helps put all the power to the ground. But wheel spin and tail-out antics are to be avoided in this Ferrari. Its creators have infused just enough understeer at the limit to help keep the 16M facing forward, but should you add too much power in a corner, the stability control intervenes smoothly. It's so good that, frankly, there's no conceivable reason to switch off the car's stability control on a public road.

As you might expect, the 16M's driving dynamics are virtually without fault. The engine is as happy loping along at 1500 rpm - where the flat-crank V-8's bizarre engine note sounds almost mopedlike - as it is belting out 8500 rpm. The adaptive dampers provide a supple ride with excellent body control, and the brakes are simply amazing. The interior appointments are less luxurious than in the standard F430, but no material anywhere on this car is left wanting for quality.


There's even a big surprise - the stereo. Thinking it would have no chance competing against the engine's opera, the tire roar, and the wind whoosh, we turned up the volume and prepared to hear barely a whisper. Instead, we had front-row access to a live concert courtesy of JBL-branded speakers dancing to the tune of tight bass, crisp treble, and a surprisingly well-defined and well-positioned sound stage.

Of course, when we asked for more information on the sound system, we were handed technical specifications on that magnificent 4.3-liter V-8. Point taken.


Dock it
Want an FM radio? You have to pay extra--the 16M comes standard with only a sixteen-gigabyte iPod Touch that fits neatly into the dash. A volume-control rocker switch is mounted near the shifter. You select your music via the iPod's touch screen, provided you can see the teensy display from the driver's seat.
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News Update : Fifty Years of Honda in America

NEWS :Fifty years ago, Fidel Castro seized power in cuba, the Army promoted Elvis to Spec 4, and Alaska and Hawaii gained statehood. The music died when a light plane crashed with the Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, and Ritchie Valens on board. Hula hoops were hot; Edsels were not. An American Honda Motor Co. Inc. sign was quietly erected above a Los Angeles storefront.

Tail fins reached their apogee in 1959, the Volkswagen Beetle fought the Renault Dauphine for import-car supremacy, and Honda began stitching new wrinkles into America's cultural fabric.

Barely a decade after Honda started hanging war-surplus engines on bicycles (see time line), Japan's restless tiger was on the prowl. Planning division chief Kihachiro Kawashima toured both the Asian mainland and the United States in search of export opportunities. The Asian mainland countries' rising prosperity and close cultural kinship with Japan made them the obvious choice, but Honda's sales strategist Takeo Fujisawa believed otherwise, citing the company's policy of facing the toughest challenges first. "We must attempt to penetrate the difficult U.S. market before we go elsewhere," Fujisawa insisted.

A small expeditionary force headed by Kawashima arrived on the West Coast in June 1959. To save expenses, the Honda gang shared a one-bedroom apartment and stacked motorcycle crates by hand in the company's Pico Boulevard warehouse. Frustration set in when the first Honda Dream motorcycles proved to be too fragile for the sustained speeds and long distances it would need to cover to be successful in America, but there was a lucky fallback: the 50-cc Honda Super Cub cycle used by the team for errands roused unexpected interest. Since Piper Aircraft was already using the Super Cub trademark, Honda's pioneering product wore an unassuming Honda 50 moniker.

Were it not for the 50's sheer brilliance, Honda would surely have burned through the $1 million it borrowed from Japan's Ministry of Finance to gain a foothold here and gone home licking its wounds. Neither a moped nor a scooter nor a conventional motorcycle, the 50 combined a female-friendly step-through chassis with a clean, quiet engine. Breakthrough features included molded-polyethylene body parts, seventeen-inch wheels and tires, and an automatic clutch to facilitate one-hand riding.

The Honda 50's single-cylinder overhead-valve engine produced 4.5 hp, enough to propel the 143-pound bike to 43 mph. Humming like a well-oiled sewing machine, this $249 ride delivered more than 200 mpg. Fifty years after it arrived here, the Honda 50 is universally regarded as the two-wheeled Model T, with more than 60 million sales to its credit. It's still manufactured in fifteen countries on three continents.

The Honda 50 was the anti-Harley. Sales brochures called it "the thrifty, nifty Honda 50." Instead of selling them through traditional back-alley motorcycle dealers, Honda recruited agents in Popular Mechanics and offered sales franchises to hardware stores, lawn-mower repair shops, and even college bookstores. By the end of 1961, Honda's network of 500 dealers reached the East Coast, and by spring 1963, $5 million was budgeted for advertising.

To woo that business, Grey Advertising executives pitched to Honda management a campaign - created by a UCLA student as a class assignment - refuting the sinister black-leather biker's image. Photos of fashionably dressed suburbanites toting their kids, cargo, and even a pet on Honda 50s ran with the tagline, "You meet the nicest people on a Honda." The ads ran in Life, Look, the Saturday Evening Post, and during the Academy Awards TV broadcast. In 1964, the Beach Boys chimed in with their "Little Honda" pop tune extolling the simple joys of riding a Honda 50.



Throughout the 1960s, Honda tortured the British brands with a flood of increasingly more sophisticated sport bikes. The coup de grâce arrived in 1969; Honda's CB750 was the seminal superbike, with a front disc brake, a four-cylinder overhead-cam engine, and a $1495 price. By 1983, the entire British motorcycle industry was through.

Motorcycle success whet Honda's appetite for expansion into automobiles. Here, the initial frustration came not from technical or marketing challenges but rather from the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI). Government bureaucrats within MITI intended to block Honda from joining the ten enterprises already slicing up the local car and light-truck pie. In 1963, before legislation could be passed that would give MITI the power to enforce its directives, Honda rushed a mini-truck and a 500-cc sports car into production.

Ripples from that disturbance reached American shores in 1969, when the Honda 600 minicar went on sale in Hawaii, followed by the three West Coast states a year later. The irony of Honda's simultaneous introduction of the world's most sophisticated motorcycle and a tiny, underpowered car was lost on Americans preoccupied by Vietnam, the breakup of the Beatles, and the demise of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix.



The Honda 600 ripple finally touched the East Coast in 1972, where I was a budding car tester. By that time, two variations were offered: the original foursquare $1473 (N600) sedan and a $1610 (Z600) coupe shaped like a ski boot. A noisy, 598-cc SOHC two-cylinder engine sent 36 hp to the front wheels through a four-speed manual transmission or an optional two-speed automatic. Unlike Honda's first four-wheelers, this one was air-cooled and fed by a single-throat carburetor.

I clocked the run to 60 mph in 20.8 seconds and observed a top speed of 75 mph. Barely ten feet long (three feet shorter than today's Honda Fit), the Honda 600 rolled on ten-inch tires and weighed in at 1355 pounds. In spite of its safety shortcomings, the 600's combination of affordability, maneuverability, and 30-plus mpg lifted Honda's annual U.S. car sales to more than 20,000 units.

The 600 served as the warm-up act for the real star of the Honda car show, which followed with fortuitous timing. The original Honda Civic was introduced in 1973, mere months before the Arab oil embargo triggered the first energy crisis. Powered by a 50-hp, 1.2-liter water-cooled four-cylinder, the two-door Civic became the instant darling of the EPA's new fuel-economy tests.

Gas mileage wasn't the only issue of the day. Meeting the so-called Muskie Law, which called for sharply lower exhaust emissions by 1975, was deemed an impossible task by most carmakers. Honda defied conventional wisdom by announcing that its new Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion (CVCC) engine could exceed the standard without a catalytic converter or unleaded fuel. This approach used two separate intake tracts per cylinder. A dedicated carburetor throat and tiny intake valves fed small precombustion chambers a rich air/fuel mixture that was easy to ignite. After combustion began in the anteroom, the resulting flame front lit a substantially leaner main mixture in each cylinder. Having extra air for combustion minimized the formation of unburned hydrocarbon, carbon-monoxide, and nitrous-oxide emissions. More significant, the Honda Civic CVCC topped the EPA's mileage charts from 1974 through 1977, with some ratings exceeding 40 mpg.

CVCC technology also benefited the Honda Accord, which arrived in 1976. During eight generations, Honda's mainstream model evolved from a $3995, 68-hp two-door compact riding on a 93.7-inch wheelbase into today's 271-hp four-door with a 110.2-inch wheelbase and a fully loaded price that tops $30,000. From 1989 through 1991, the Accord was the best-selling car in America.

Car and motorcycle sales gains, along with growing resentment over Japan's rising share of the U.S. market, prompted Honda to ponder a local manufacturing base. Operations began in 1979 with motorcycle assembly in Ohio. Three years later, those facilities grew into a million-square-foot factory for building Accords and, later, Civics. Learning from VW's mistakes when it established a Pennsylvania operation to build Americanized Rabbits, Honda made sure that U.S.-made Accords were indistinguishable from those imported from Japan. Further expansion, with new engine and transmission manufacturing plants, gave Honda sufficient capacity in Ohio to begin exporting U.S.-built cars to other markets, including Japan.


Honda's next courageous step up the prosperity ladder was the creation of a second sales channel for its Acura models. In 1986, three years before Nissan and Toyota followed suit with their Infiniti and Lexus brands, the Acura Integra and Legend gave faithful Honda customers an opportunity to spend more money while remaining true to the fold. Finishing at the top of J. D. Power's Customer Satisfaction Index from 1986 through 1989 was instrumental to Acura's success.

Having established solid foundations around the globe, Honda has spent the last two decades stretching its tentacles into new markets, traipsing boldly into realms ignored by most vehicle manufacturers, and keeping the competition honest. Today, Honda is the world's largest engine producer, thanks to its broad range of lawn and garden tools and electric generators. Honda's land and sea power toys include ATVs, motorcycles, scooters, personal watercraft, and outboard motors.

The sky is definitely not the limit for this brand. A decade of development evolved a 1997 pencil sketch by Honda engineer Michimasa Fujino into a 480-mph, five-passenger business jet. Honda's 2006 announcement that the $3.65 million HondaJet would be produced in the United States generated more than 100 customer deposits in three days. The first production flight is targeted for next year, and our hands have been raised high for an early test flight.

Soichiro's Sidekick



Although Soichiro Honda (far left) deserves ample credit for instilling his firm with technical brilliance, Honda would not be the powerhouse it is today without Takeo Fujisawa's inspired contributions. The two joined forces in 1949 when an upstart gang of twenty employees desperately needed finance and marketing expertise. Like Honda, Fujisawa had graduated from the school of hard knocks. While his business brain was the perfect complement to Honda's mechanical intuition, it was Fujisawa who suggested the move from two- to four-stroke engines and the lightweight, 50-cc motorcycle--which became the Super Cub--" on which a young couple would start whistling happy melodies." After twenty-four years of meshing together like well-oiled gears, Honda and Fujisawa retired from the Honda Motor Company in 1973.

1906 Soichiro Honda, the eldest son of a blacksmith and bicycle repairman, is born in a small village located 170 miles southwest of Tokyo.

1937 Following his car mechanic apprenticeship and participation in a few amateur races, Honda begins manufacturing piston rings.

1948 The Honda Motor Company is established to equip bicycles with war-surplus generator engines.

1949 Honda begins manufacturing a 98-cc two-stroke engine for its first motorcycle, the Dream D-type.

1950 Honda's savvy business partner, Takeo Fujisawa, advocates the move to four-stroke engines.

1952 Honda introduces the Cub, with an overhead-valve four-stroke engine and an automatic clutch.

1955 Honda tops the motorcycle sales charts in Japan.

1959 The American Honda Motor Company is established in Los Angeles to sell motorcycles.

1962 "You meet the nicest people on a Honda" advertising begins. Honda completes Japan's first major race circuit at Suzuka City.

1963 Honda's first four-wheeled models are an S500 sports car and a T360 mini-truck, each powered by a DOHC, four-carburetor, four-cylinder engine.

1964 To promote its reputation as a carmaker, Honda enters Formula 1 racing. In 1965, Richie Ginther's 1.5-liter Honda RA272 wins the final race of the season at Mexico City.

1966 Honda sweeps all five grand prix motorcycle world championship classes, from 50- to 500-cc.

1969 Honda's first superbike, the CB750, is powered by an OHC four-cylinder. Sales of N600 minicars begin in Hawaii, with expansion to California, Oregon, and Washington the following year.

1973 The Honda Civic, powered by an innovative Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion engine, meets stringent U.S. emissions standards without a catalytic converter.

1979 Honda begins manufacturing motorcycles in Marysville, Ohio, adding Accord production in 1982 and Civics in 1986.

1986 The Acura brand is launched with the introduction of the Integra and the Legend.

1991 The Acura NSX, Japan's first supercar, wins Automobile Magazine's Automobile of the Year award.

1997 Production of the Honda EV Plus electric car commences. Honda's Twin Ring Motegi motorsports complex opens in Japan.

2000 The Honda Insight is the first gas/electric hybrid sold in the United States.

2003 The HondaJet twin-engine business aircraft completes its maiden flight.

2008 The Honda FCX Clarity is the first (limited) production electric car to be powered by a fuel cell.
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News : 2010 Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid and Lexus LS600hL

For 2010, the Mercedes-Benz S-class gains its first-ever hybrid powertrain, a clear indication that its maker is shifting from a strict diesel approach to efficiency and finally acknowledging the worth of hybrids as an essential step on the path to electric propulsion. What's more, the Mercedes S400 Hybrid is the world's first production hybrid automobile using lithium-ion batteries (the Tesla Roadster is powered solely by Li-ion batteries). Hybrid propulsion systems aren't anything new, of course, but they're still rare in the luxury class, where the Lexus LS600hL has been standing alone for the past two years.

Mercedes and Lexus systems wouldn't be more different if they had been designed on different planets. The Lexus approach adds some $30,000 to the price of the sedan, not to mention nearly 600 pounds, compared with a conventional LS460L. Included for those extra dollars and pounds are a four-wheel-drive system, a 221-hp electric motor, nickel-metal-hydride batteries, and a 5.0-liter V-8. Loaded to the gills, the LS600hL is Lexus's flagship sedan, designed to offer V-12 performance with V-8 fuel economy.

Mercedes has taken a decidedly different route - one that adds less weight and complexity. Similar in design to Honda's Integrated Motor Assist hybrid powertrain, the Mercedes setup has a compact, ring-shaped electric motor sandwiched between the engine and a conventional automatic transmission. Like Lexus, Mercedes employs braking regeneration and engine shutdown at stoplights to curb consumption. Although the Lexus can propel itself a few feet at very low speeds with the engine off, that function is not available in the S400. Nor does Mercedes offer 4Matic four-wheel drive in this hybrid.

Instead of promising performance similar to an S-class with a larger engine, Mercedes chose to introduce its hybrid model as a more environmentally conscious way of traveling in luxury. The S400 Hybrid should cost about the same as the $90,225 V-8-powered S550 when it goes on sale in the United States this September. It uses the European-market S350 as a starting point, so behind the three-pointed star lurks a six-cylinder engine. The 3.5-liter V-6 produces 275 hp, the same as the base V-8 did in 2006, the last time an S-class was available to U.S. customers with a six-cylinder. And that V-8 didn't benefit from an additional electric motor.



The V-6 is similar to the 3.5-liter unit found in other Mercedes cars and crossovers, but this version has different pistons and cylinder heads. It also runs on the Atkinson cycle, a common hybrid approach. The Atkinson cycle uses late-closing intake valves to stretch the expansion (power) stroke for increased efficiency. The one sacrifice is some loss of torque, especially at low rpm.

And that's where hybridization comes in. The electric motor in the S400 contributes up to 118 lb-ft of torque, more than making up for the Atkinson sacrifice. In fact, total system power is quoted at 295 hp and 284 lb-ft, topping the 268 hp and 258 lb-ft ratings in a C-class fitted with the 3.5-liter V-6.

As a result, the S400 Hybrid, Mercedes says, reaches 60 mph in about seven seconds, but it can't come close to matching the sports-car-like S550, which takes only 5.4 seconds. The payoff in fuel economy, though, is substantial. Mercedes estimates that the S400 will achieve 23 mpg in the city and 33 mpg on the highway. The latter figure sounds optimistic to us, but even if the S400 earns an EPA combined 25-mpg rating, that's a fuel savings of nearly 50 percent over the V-8. And, let's face it, how many luxury sedan owners really need all of a V-8's prodigious thrust?




Lexus would say all of them - and to that end, the LS600hL loses none of the performance of the nonhybrid LS. Total system output is a robust 438 hp, sufficient to slingshot the LS to 60 mph in 5.5 seconds, according to Lexus. That's only 0.1 second slower than the nonhybrid version, but the more expensive Lexus achieves a combined 21 mpg in EPA tests, beating the all-wheel-drive LS460 by 3 mpg.

The Lexus suffers in one area that the Mercedes doesn't - cargo capacity. The large nickel-metal-hydride batteries and the extra air-conditioning system needed to keep them cool reduce trunk space from 18.0 cubic feet to only 11.7. Mercedes was able to locate its smaller and more energy dense Li-ion battery pack, which consists of thirty-five cylindrical cells supplied by the French firm Saft, in the engine compartment, leaving the S-class's 16.3-cubic-foot trunk intact.

On the road, the Lexus somehow manages to be lithe and nimble; it's an uncommonly responsive supersedan despite its supertanker weight. It combines an ultrabrisk throttle response with very strong brakes and a reassuring blend of grip and traction, although it's let down by a somewhat detached chassis, androgynous steering, and a ride that seems to vary almost at random between brittle and cushy.



The biggest benefit of the Lexus hybrid system is its smoothness. The two electric motors and two planetary gearsets allow the big V-8 to loaf except during hard acceleration. Flat-out, the LS600hL might not be any faster than the regular LS, but it doles out power far more effortlessly.

The Mercedes, by comparison, feels like a normal V-6-powered S-class. The Benz and the Lexus behave so differently that you realize this isn't a battle of which car is the better sedan, it's a clash between two philosophies. The Lexus was admirably early to market, but suddenly it seems that Benz's more elegant system reaps nearly the same benefits.



Indeed, rumor has it that this hybrid system will be standard equipment across the board on the next-generation S-class set to debut in late 2012. Mercedes also has a two-mode hybrid system coming this December in the ML450, and we're confident that Lexus has a few more hybrid tricks up its sleeve. So, which is it going to be? Will we see more luxury hybrids with straightforward powertrains, or will the Lexus model prevail? The answer isn't completely clear, but there is one thing you can bet on: hybrids are here to stay.

The Specs

Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid
On sale: September
Price: $90,000 (est.)
Engine: 3.5L V-6/electric hybrid, 295 hp (combined), 284 lb-ft (combined)
Battery: Lithium-ion, 0.8 kW-h
Drive: Rear-wheel

Lexus LS600hL
On sale: Now
Price: $106,035
Engine: 5.0L V-8/electric hybrid, 438 hp (combined), 385 lb-ft
Battery: Nickel-metal hydride, 1.9 kW-h
Drive: 4-wheel
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