Jim Motavalli (the author of Forward Drive: The Race to Build Clean Cars for the Future) takes the new Lexus HS 250h for a spin:
Lexus likes the concept of luxury hybrids so much that it now offers four of them. The fourth, with a tongue-twister of a name—HS 250h—was shown to the press today. Lexus calls the HS 250h the world’s first dedicated luxury hybrid, which means designed from the ground up. There are actually very few dedicated hybrids at all: The Prius and the new Honda Insight come to mind. Still, there’s a lot of Toyota Prius and Camry Hybrid (mostly the latter) in the HS 250h, which is not a bad thing. Think of it as hybrid-over-easy, all the benefits of hybrid ownership without any of the sacrifices. – from BNet