Fifty Shades Of Green

With the Lexus RX450h, a standout vehicle that drives like a dream, you get to sit in luxury and save the earth at the same time.

I’m on my fourth cup of coffee, suffering the writer’s curse. Even with a deadline sneaking up on me like a scorpion, I barely have three words to start with. Even in my fully padded and soundproofed podcast studio 30 floors above the rest of the city, I can feel the editorial screws tightening up as I stare at my own Everest: the blank page. There is nothing more intimidating, yet at the same time, more rewarding, exciting, and fulfilling when you beat it— especially when you get it right.

A blank page. That’s exactly what Lexus had in front of them in 1993 when they dreamt up the world’s first luxury crossover, the Lexus RX. That enigma just outside of your comfort zone and everything you know you’re good at. They could have cut and pasted a pretty decent SUV from their already many templates, just as I could have slapped one generic sentence after the other to make up a minimum word count. But they chose to write their own story; and 22 years after it debuted in 1997, they have one hell of a tale to tell.

It’s one thing to be driving the world’s first luxury crossover and another thing to save the earth. But to do both at the same time? Well, you can thank Lexus for that. They pretty much invented that marriage. Yes, you could get technical and argue that Ferdinand Porsche invented the first hybrid vehicle—which is true—but it was Toyota who made it affordable. Lexus just came along a few years later and made it desirable.