jruhi4

I won't delve into whether you think the Union of Concerned Scientists indeed lives up to their lofty name or are needless panicmongers on the possibly overblown issue of global warming, but they have put together a nice Hybridcenter.org website which includes the UCS Hybrid Scorecard for most of the hybrid vehicles sold in North America (they do need to update it for the new and upcoming Mercedes S 400, BMW X6 and 7 Series, plus Porsche Cayenne and Audi Q7 hybrids, though). Included, fortunately, are the five Lexus hybrids (the FWD and AWD versions of the RX 450h are listed separately).

The UCS Hybrid Scorecard not only ranks the hybrids from U.S. and Japanese carmakers with an Environmental Score (0 is worst, 10 is best) and a Hybrid Value (Very Low to Very High) that is the environmental “bang for your buck”, but also addresses the issue of Forced Features (None to $$$$$), which, in their words, is "a measure of how many 'premium' or 'upgraded' features are included on a hybrid as standard equipment, but are not included on the base-model conventional counterpart. Forced features artificially drive up the price of hybrids".

Given the interactive nature of the list, a "cut-and-paste" doesn't really make sense. Rather, just click on the link and have at it: http://www.hybridcenter.org/hybrid-scorecard/

encore888

Thx for the link, I was reading the articles around this when it came out, a number of media outlets took the takeaway message as 'hybrids loaded up with extra features'. Overall, it makes sense that the HS 250h and the RX 450h are at the upper end of environmental friendliness and value, the GS 450h at medium, and the LS 600h L definitely not a value option. The mild hybrid GM SUVs do get low bang for the buck as far as emissions.

SLegacy99

This is interesting, but it would be more valuable if told you a break down of premium over the comparable model.