Environmentally Friendly Luxury Cars

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Environmentally Friendly Luxury Cars

High gas prices, the war in Iraq and concerns about global warming are fueling interest in cars and trucks with alternative powertrains, like gasoline-electric hybrids, clean diesels, ethanol and farther in the future, fuel cells that run on hydrogen.

But if you're a lover of luxury, don't expect too much choice when visiting the showroom. There are relatively few truly eco-friendly options for luxury-brand car and truck shoppers.

Or, rather, "there aren't any," says Jim Motovalli, the editor of E/The Environmental Magazine, and the author of Forward Drive: The Race to Build the Car of the Future. "Luxury cars are too big to be eco-friendly."

Hyperbole aside, if you do your homework, you'll find a limited number of high-end, eco-friendly cars available now or set to roll out soon. They include the Lexus RX400h, an SULEV, which stands for Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle, with a hybrid gasoline and electric drive system; the Mini Cooper Convertible, which gets an estimated 26 miles per gallon city/35 mpg highway; and the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid, set to hit floors in 2009.

"The sentiment in the country is so strong behind the 'green' movement that no matter what your income level, no matter what your class in society," says Wes Brown, a principal of Iceology Inc., a Los Angeles-based research and consulting firm, "you want to project that you're cognizant that we all have to do something about the environment."

Not Your Father's Diesel

For European luxury brands, that means clean diesels, which already dominate the car market there.

Diesels are a quick route to better fuel efficiency. They get about 30% more miles to the gallon than gasoline engines of the same size.Today's diesel engines are nearly the opposite of the ones many American drivers remember from the mid-1980s, following two Mideast oil crises. Those old engines were smoky, noisy and underpowered. You didn't want to get behind an old Mercedes diesel on the highway, struggling up a hill. They were easy to identify, because they always had a sooty rear end.On the contrary, the diesel-powered Mercedes-Benz E320 Bluetec is more likely to blow your doors off as it passes you up the hill, with no visible exhaust.Better fuel economy is the one thing modern diesels have in common with the old ones. So why haven't clean diesels taken the U.S. market by storm, as they have in fuel-conscious Europe?For one thing, diesel fuel was cheaper than gasoline 20 years ago. Today, it's about the same.Tough U.S. emissions rules are an even bigger factor. Before 2006, even modern diesels couldn't pass U.S. emissions tests, mostly because the diesel fuel sold in the United States contained more sulfur than diesel fuel sold in Europe. Since 2006, the U.S. government mandated low-sulfur diesel, and diesels are starting to make a comeback.But another hurdle is that California, New York, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont have even tougher emissions rules than the federal laws. Even with low-sulfur fuel, the newer diesels can't be sold in those states.That will change, too, starting next year, when Mercedes will offer "50-state" diesels with improved emissions-control technology. Other German luxury brands will soon follow, including Audi and BMW.

Hot For Hybrids

Diesels may be the wave of the future, but hybrids are what people want right now.

A so-called hybrid-drive system is actually more of a "dual drive," with two engines instead of one: a conventional gasoline engine and an electric motor.The car runs on the electric motor at low speeds. The conventional motor kicks in when accelerating, driving at highway speeds or sometimes simply when running the air conditioning. Unlike conventional cars, hybrids get better mileage around town than they do on the highway.Toyota's Lexus luxury division offers several hybrids. The RX400h SUV and the GS450h sedan were among 30 cars and trucks recognized by J.D. Power and Associates as "2007 Automotive Environmental Index Top Models," based on their fuel economy.

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