Not only is the Lexus CT200h the world’s first full hybrid entrant in the ‘compact premium’ car category, but it is also Lexus’s first compact model. It was previewed with the LF-Ch concept shown at Frankfurt in 2009.
The CT200h’s hybrid drivetrain has already had two years’ service in the third-generation Toyota Prius, and inherits a great deal of proven reliability from the two generations of Prius before that, stretching back to 1997.
Step by careful step, Toyota’s premium automotive brand, Lexus, is growing in stature. Having been a bit-part player in Europe for so long, the firm launched its first diesel, the IS220d, onto the compact executive saloon market in 2005, in the process attacking BMW, Audi and Mercedes’ traditional big-hitters head-on.
Now, just as then, Lexus is entering the European arena where those established luxury car brands do most of their business: the ‘compact premium’ segment. The Audi A3 and BMW 1-series rule the roost in this sector at present.
This time, however, Lexus’s new boy isn’t using the conventional form of motive power currently popular in this market segment. The CT200h may have a familiar five-door bodystyle, but it has a petrol-electric parallel hybrid powertrain closely related to the one in Toyota’s environmental poster boy, the Prius.
As you’d expect, there’s only one power source available in just the one state of tune. Your choice is limited to the amount of kit you want in and on your CT200h. The range kicks off with the SE-I model, going through SE-L to the lavishly appointed SE-L Premier and more sports orientated F-Sport trim.
So is this the car that will finally make the compact hybrid truly desirable, or is it just an overpriced, over-equipped and predictably compromised economy car?
