Lexus GS test drive since 2012 sedan

How to sell a hybrid

Russia is still wary of green cars. It is somehow not customary for us to think about protecting the environment to buy not powerful all-wheel drive cars, but hybrid versions. Nevertheless, world manufacturers clearly headed for the purity of nature, forcing their marketers to invent new tricks for the sale of hybrids.


Perhaps that is why now the fastest Lexus GS is just a 450H hybrid. It accelerates to hundreds in 5.9 seconds, which is faster and the universal GS 350 AWD (6.3 seconds), and relatively affordable GS 250 (8.6 seconds). So honest, and the motive for buying a hybrid is now completely different. After all, speed has always sold cars better than the concern for the ecology.

The change of marketing vector in Lexus occurred after 2008. In the crisis of Lexus sales, they sank more noticeably than that of German competitors, and now the Japanese brand makes up for the missed. As said by Vice President of the Lexus brand in Europe, Andy Pfaiffenberger, Lexus did not bet on weak motors or diesel engines. Their main argument for Europe is hybrids. If only because this segment was the faster of all, a plus after the crisis. At the same time, the hybrid segment was so promising that BMW, Audi, Infiniti and Mercedes-Benz also pulled their assets there.


To test the new GS 450H, the motor went to the Alps. In the summer, the slopes are unusually green, but the place is well known to Russian skiers Kitzbeel. Many Lexus owners should definitely be aware.

The appearance of the hybrid almost does not differ from the early GS 350 presented. Exactly the same radiator grille in the style of spindle and the lower skirt with air intakes in the style of Darth Vader. But for the hybrid in the maximum configuration, they still made a special delight changed the headlights. Instead of one large lens in the new block, there are three turnips, high and close LED light, and an elegant strip of daylight is underway from below. So GS 450h is more like a flagship hybrid LS.

The presence of non -Tumens is now due to configuration. They have Premium and Luxury, but if you take an optional f Sport package, then their function will be performed by the main headlights with a changed light bunch.

When looking at the car in the profile of a hybrid version, only a small sign on the threshold speaks. In the back, too, nothing has changed the lanterns of the posterior stop-signals remind of the IS sedan.


In the economical mode, a speedometer is located on the dashboard on the right, and on the left there are three columns that speak of savings or a fuel revenge.


But it is worth going to sports mode and a bright tachometer with a red zone will appear on the left.


The projection display shows all the necessary information the speed, engine speed and navigation tips, but it is only visible to the driver.


A large display of 12.3 inches is located in the center of the console. It easily fits a map, navigator readings, as well as animation of sports and hybrid modes.

The Austrian Alps has a law on silence, so it’s a pleasure to move on hybrids in local villages. You will not frighten any cow. Under the hood of a hybrid sedan, an installation is hidden, consisting of a 3.5-liter gasoline engine (292 horsepower), which works on the principle of Atkinson and electric motor with liquid cooling. The gasoline engine is equipped with two sets of nozzles. The first is installed in the intake manifold and supplies fuel when the engine is cold. After heating, the fuel is already injected directly into the cylinders through the second set.

The electric motor is connected to the engine and transmission through planetary transmission, as in the remaining Lexus hybrids. Therefore, the car can move silently on an electric protrusion, either only from a gasoline engine, or from two engines at the same time. The average consumption with very measured traffic in the Alps and rapid movement through German autobahns was about eight liters per 100 kilometers. A completely charged battery in the mountains is enough for several hundred meters only to drive away from home. Then the traditional ICE is turned on, but it still works quite quietly.

It is only a pity that his sound is not as beautiful as other versions. The best, oddly enough, is GS 250, the weakest engine often has to be promoted in ringing, but this is compensated by the beautiful bass of the real V6.


Going down the mountain alpine serpentines or traveling to German autobahns near Munich, you understand that the GS 450H rides almost perfectly. The hybrid version is heavier than 185 kilograms, but the extra riders in the cabin almost do not affect controllability. If you want to go quickly, then we just turn on the sport plus mode, transfer the gearbox to the sports mode and press the gas pedal to the booster button. It seems that so many manipulations are difficult, but in practice it works as a system of fuses.

The steering wheel is very sharp, and in the sport mode, it reacts even to millimeter deviations. After turning on all the GS modes, it goes very assertively. Therefore, there are a lot of settings. Moreover, the Sport Plus mode and the adaptive suspension will not have to be ordered as an option they are present in all the trims of a hybrid. In the Normal and ECO mode, the machine turns into a comfort.

But for the optional package F Sport will have to be paid. It includes not only a more aggressive body body kit, but also a full -fired chassis: the car steers not only with front wheels, but also the rear. An additional pair of steering rods with electric drives allow you to rotate the rear wheels one and a half two degrees. At parking speeds up to 30 kilometers per hour, they turn in the opposite direction, reducing the radius of the turn, and at speeds over 70 kilometers per hour, they shift the wheels in the same direction as the front ones, increasing smoothness during rebuilding. The second function of this system reducing the probability of skidding and assistance to the course stability system.

Not without purely marketing innovations. In the lakesher segment for a long time, no one can be surprised at banal climate control, but it is still necessary to sell cars. Therefore, the climatic installation was added to the sensors, and now the GS turns off the blizzards if there are no passengers on the seats. And if there is, then the warmer air will blow on your feet, and on the head and chest it will be colder in order to prevent overheating under the scorching rays of the sun. In addition, the upper air will be more dry, not allowing stacked fogging, while the lower will be more wet.

Another abundance is special particles that not only purify the air, but also eliminate unpleasant odors. To create moisture, condensate is used, which in most cars simply flow out into the street. As they say in Lexus, this moisture even gives a cosmetic effect after a long sitting in the car skin and hair feel much better than after an ordinary air conditioner draining air. Therefore, now it is almost like to go to Lexus almost like a spa to go.


The main thing is that GS has remained a comfortable business sedan. There are convenient orthopedic chairs with settings in 16 positions and control panels in the rear armrest, and Mark Levinson music with 17 columns, which affects not so much by the power of bass as the purity of sound. The interior decoration also corresponds to modern fashion. In addition to black wood, bamboo or nut, there are spectacular inserts of polished aluminum or black varnish. The round selector next to the automatic transmission received another Sport Plus sports mode. The usual Sport S only exacerbates the engine response and makes GS a little more active, and Sport Plus makes shock absorbers with rigid and focuses to the steering wheel.

However, the GS450H has not so pleasant features. For some reason, the Japanese did not make double side glasses, but limited themselves to only a special vibration-insulating film. It is clearly not enough to hide parasitic noises from huge mirrors, but otherwise, noise insulation is an ideal engine or wheels is practically inaudible.

I did not like the navigation speaking in the voice of a revived coffee maker. She makes it pointless in the same way to cross the current road, and describes some turns so incomprehensible that it would be better to be silent at all. Finally, the GS has a rather large list of systems that will not be available in Russia: adaptive cruise control, working at any speeds, a night vision and tracking driver, as well as a collision prevention system and an assistant retention in the strip. The whole problem in the microwave radar sensor, the frequency of which in Russia still coincides with the army.

But the volume of the trunk is not at all for a hybrid. For most hybrid models, this is a real Achilles heel batteries eat most of the useful space. But in GS they thought of putting one battery on another in such a way as to most efficiently use the space behind the back passengers. As a result, it was possible to get quite decent 482 liters of volume by 61 percent more than that of the predecessor.

The GS450H is essentially two of the packages: Premium and Luxury, and F Sport is only a superstructure over Luxury. The basic version costs 2 million 625 thousand rubles with air suspension, Sport Plus mode, navigation and ordinary bixenon headlights. To add a 12.3-inch display to it, a three-zone climate control, a heated steering wheel, the LED headlights and 17 columns of Mark Levinson, you will have to pay a total of 3 million 118 thousand rubles.

For steering wheel steering, a body body kit and a black ceiling will have to pay another 42 thousand. Not cheap, but now hybrid Lexus is not just a more expensive and slow car, the only advantage of which is a slightly lower average consumption. Now it is a rear -wheel drive sedan with a sports character and an ultramoded hybrid installation under the hood. For this approach, I want to put the five, if not the car itself, then at least its marketers.


Alternative
BMW 5 Active Hybrid. One of the main competitors Lexus. It is impeccably steer and is not at all inferior in the dynamics GS450H. The trunk volume is only 375 liters, acceleration to hundreds of 5.9 seconds, and in the electric trustement, the German hybrid will last four five kilometers no faster than 35 kilometers per hour. It is now unavailable on sale in Russia, but the test of this car can be read on the motor.

Audi A6. A little loses to competitors in power along with an electric motor, a two -liter gasoline engine produces 245 horsepower. However, for the hybrid version of the speaker 7.5 seconds to a hundred does not seem so flawed. In electric car mode, the car will last no more than three kilometers, and the luggage volume is as scanty as in the BMW 375 liters. There is a hybrid from 2 million 696 thousand rubles.

Mercedes-Benz E400 HYBRID. This model has not yet appeared on sale and it is not known whether it will be sold in Russia. Under the hood, she has a 3.5-liter V6 engine with a capacity of 308 horsepower and a torque of 380 nm. Between the engine and the eight -speed gearbox is located an electric motor with a capacity of 27 horsepower. In the electric truster, it will pass about a kilometer, and the luggage volume is unchanged 540 liters. The price is still unknown.

Technical characteristics Lexus GS 450h
Body engine type+electric motor
Working volume, see Kub 3456
Max. Power, L.S./rpm 292/6000
Max. moment, nm/rpm 352/4500
The type of drive is rear
Transmission Hybrid Transmission (endless transmission with electronic control) with a sectral switching mode with a 2-step electric motor gearbox
Front suspension independent on double transverse levers
Rear suspension independent multi -link
Brakes Disc ventilated in front and back
Dimensions (DHSHHV), mm 4850x1840x1470
Wheel base, mm 2850
Equipped mass, kg 1985
Max. Speed, km/hour 250
Acceleration 0100 km/h, from 5.9
Fuel consumption (comb.), L/100 km 6.1
CO2 emissions (comb.), G/km 141
Luggage compartment volume, l 465
Fuel tank volume, l 66
Price, rubles from 2,625,000
 

Source: Motor magazine [June 2012]