If you read the motoring press then you might believe that the RX400h, with its part electric/part petrol "hybrid" engine, has been sent from above to single-handedly slay climate change. According to much of the coverage, there is no need to feel guilty - if you ever did, that is - about driving an SUV, given that the RX400h achieves up to three times the fuel efficiency of its market rivals and an equally impressive reduction of polluting exhaust fumes. The message is clear: relax everyone, the panic's over. A breathless review in Automobile magazine talks of a car that "accelerates with V-8 gusto and cradles its occupants in leather-lined luxury". The hyperbolic review ends: "The Lexus RX400h provides the well-to-do with a sacrifice-free ride to social responsibility."

The key is in that last sentence: a sacrifice-free ride to social responsibility. I suspect that it will be popular and will be used to counter arguments about driving such monsters.

Emily Armistead, a climate campaigner for Greenpeace, is enraged that sections of the motoring media have hailed the RX400h as a "green" SUV, seeing that its carbon emissions, while lower than its rivals, are roughly equivalent to that of a Ford Mondeo estate. "It has marginally less impact on the climate, but it is demonstrably not a green car," she says. "You're still driving two tonnes around unnecessarily to do the shopping." Armistead points out that the differential in Vehicle Excise Duty between SUVs and cars is tiny - about £100 a year. When you consider that it can cost £1,200 to get new tyres for a Range Rover, this is never going to persuade their owners to consider more fuel-efficient, less polluting vehicles.

The article is here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,2763,1505293,00.html