Toyota Motor Corp., taking another step toward electrifying its lineup, began selling the first Lexus gasoline-electric hybrid sedan, the GS450h, in Japan on March 16, 2006.
Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe was on hand for the official launch in Tokyo.
The domestic sales debut was followed by overseas sales, including in the U.S. the next month.
The GS450h combined a high-output 3.5-liter V-6 gasoline engine with a high-performance electric motor and dynamic performance that was on par with a conventional 4.5-liter vehicle.
The hybrid provided 339 hp and a 0-to-60-mph time of 5.2 seconds. In fact, the hybrid GS was more powerful than the nonhybrid version at the time. It had an EPA fuel efficiency rating of 25 city and 28 highway.
It was redesigned for 2013, and The New York Times called it “quite simply, the best — or, at least, the most impressive — hybrid that Toyota makes today.”
Lexus discontinued the GS sedan in 2020 after four generations, three years shy of the car’s 30th anniversary.