Why Paul McCartney dislikes his free Lexus LS600h
Beatle Sir Paul McCartney is seen as quite a green fellow. In fact, he has done so much for the promotion of green motoring that Lexus decided to give him a brand spanking new LS600h – for free. This luxury sedan is not yet available in South Africa, but will set you back around £84,000 in the UK.
To Paul’s dismay and utter disgust, the vehicle was air lifted from Japan to England in May 1 loaded on a Korean Air flight. The effectively created a carbon footprint almost 100 times larger than would have been the case had it been transported by sea – like most normal people would see their cars do.
“Paul was offered a Lexus as a gift and ordered the hybrid limo because it helps to reduce emissions. He’ll be horrified after learning it was delivered by plane. Paul has always campaigned for green issues and he can’t understand why anyone would send an enormous car from Japan to Britain on a plane,” a source said according to the Daily Telegraph.
Carbon offsetting firm CO2balance.com calculated that the air travel created a carbon footprint of 38,050kg, compared to nearly 400kg for a similar three-week boat journey. They said that the additional pollution is similar to driving the vehicle around the world six times!
The LS600h is driven by a 320 kW 5 litre V8 petrol engine as well as a high-output electric motor powered by a 288V nickel-metal hybride battery. Drive is transferred to the wheels via a newly developed dual-stage electronically-controlled, continuously-variable transmission (E-CVT). Thanks to the hybrid electric drive, the LS600h is said to offer V12 power from a V8 engine – the BMW 6 litre V12 7-series offers around 327 kW in comparison. BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz offer 12 cylinder top-of-the-line models, with Lexus opting for a greener alternative…
Relevance for South Africa: Thankfully, our Lexus’ arrive by ship. And there are rumours that Lexus SA is working on bringing a host of hybrid models to local shores. Watch out for the RX SUV as well as the medium sized GS models.
For more information and pictures see AutoBlogGreen – another excellent blog on all things to do with green transportation.
By Christie Viljoen
Sources:, Daily Telegraph, Ecorazzi, LeftLaneNews, Lexus, Wikipedia
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