Lexus Hopes Gasoline + Electricity = Glitz -- Guilt

Toyota Motor Corp., whose fuel-efficient Prius compact was the world's first gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle when it went on sale in Japan in 1997, is about to launch the first luxury hybrid: the Lexus RX 400h sport utility vehicle.

Waiting lists, already common with the Prius, are piling up for the SUV, due in showrooms by mid-April. Toyota dealers nationally have taken orders for 11,900 of the 24,000 being allotted for sale in the United States this year.

Tustin Lexus, one of the country's largest Lexus dealers, has taken "more advance orders for the RX 400h than for any other vehicle since Lexus began sales in 1989," said sales manager Darrick Usiadek. About 20% of his orders are from people who had never owned a Lexus, he said — a trend Toyota expects to hold up nationwide. READ MORE..