Not for me either. I have to say that if Lex want me in their showroom again they have to offer me something technologically new at that price point.

IMO the ES should have been introduced as the first Lexus hybrid following the success of the 2006 Camry hybrid. Today, coming so late to the party, this car in a Lexus showroom is old news. At best it will cannibalise sales of the ES350.

Admittedly in the intervening years we have come to learn that the complexity of the HSD powertrain actually contributes to its reliability, safe to say no one saw that coming. For that reason most buyers that would be considering the Lexus brand would seem to be quite happy to forgo the promise of exceptional quality with Lexus and instead consider a well equipped Toyota Prius first, rather than the HS250 and CT200H. The sales figures for this pair, the last time I looked, seem to justify this statement.

Toyota will hybridize all their models by 2020. This will give many more choices, from sub-compacts to regular size cars and SUVs. Concurrently, many PHEVs will also be available, starting this year with the Prius PHEV.
Camrys and Luxus PHEVs will follow very shortly.

One thing can be sure, Toyota's electrified vehicles will perform well as anticipated and last for 10++ years, without major problems.

T2....hybrids will become an option on most Toyota models by 2020. HEVs in phase one, PHEVs in phase two and BEVs in phase three. How many years will each phase last depends a lot on batteries performance evolution and manufacturing cost. With light weight 100+ KWh battery packs on the horizon, BEVs could become a potential option by 2020 or shortly thereafter.

@SJC I remember posting on Edmunds about six years ago that the Honda assist hybrid is not a great idea and provided reasons, chapter and verse. Nothing they have done since has changed my mind.

I'll just simply state that if their current scheme is the best their electrical designers can come up with then Honda would be better advised to proceed with technology combining one of their sub liter 4 cyl engines with a 6 spd gearbox since mechanical engineering appears to be more their strength.

Honda have realised that the only serious competition they can mount against the Prius will have to involve a system that similarly includes two powerful electrical machines as per the Prius. Their new CEO stated as such about two years ago. Since then there's been no further news.

Fortunately on those terms there is now a vehicle that has entered the arena that could compete with the Prius and that is none other than the Chevrolet VOLT.

Of course to meet the equivalent price point VOLT would need to lose its Li-ion battery.

But that is no biggie since for that matter neither vehicle needs an alternative energy source in order to compete on mileage. Although this simple fact may be generally lost on the non technical beneficiary - the average motorist.

In their place a robust lead acid battery plus a DC to DC voltage stepup converter can supply all the power and initial voltage needed to start their respective engines via their crankshaft motor-generators.

They would compete not as hybrids but on the strengths and weaknesses of their electric transmissions.
These transmissions already behave with far more sophistication than any mechanical CVT or multiratio gearbox whether manual or auto while at the same time having negligible wear issues.

It would be a contest between The Prius with its partially coupled transmission and the VOLT with its fully decoupled transmission.

The Prius would have the disadvantage of a 12% final reducer compared to the Volt I'm assuming. There are also the power recirculating losses in Toyota's HSD torque splitter which are significant.

It is hard to make an armchair speculation.
On one hand there is the 2004 Prius tear down as described on the Oak Ridge National Lab's website. Much information on its operation is given and there is also the Google Groups website Prius_Technical_Stuff.

Conversely there is very little information on how the VOLT accomplishes the same task of seeking to depress its engine rpms at low load particularly when just cruising at high road speeds. I'll just finish by saying that reducing unnecessary engine friction is key to efficient operation. Manufacturers go to great lengths doing other stuff which is nice but in the long run - no cigar.

@Nick
Sadly, Honda appears to have soured something like 200,000 of their hybrid owners - actually I didn't even know they had sold that many HCH since 2004.

See Heather Peters on Dontsettlewithhonda.org

Apparently Honda dealers were experiencing wear problems with the HV battery on many cars under warranty so Honda issued firmware updates that significantly reduced the dependency on the battery system. This had the effect of crippling the IMA (integrated motor assist) system which accordingly impacted mileage and performance.

This was not anecdotal, many of the owners who received the reflash reported this. The website also covers the class action suit that was settled just recently.

In the event, the lawyers received $8.5m while owners comforted themselves with just $500 though under certain conditions they may qualify for a furher $500.

If all 200k owners went forward with the first claim lawyers pointed out that Honda would be on the hook for $100m (so their fee wasn't excessive !) LOL

So Nick, with honda-s-acura-flagship-goes-hybrid it may be they are rebooting outside of the mass market to try once again with a fresh team, this time from the Acura division.

What I have to say is this. In regard to the IMA, from a powertrain perspective it may sound like a good idea to have a high torque electric motor help out an Atkinson cammed engine suffering from poor torque at low revs. However above 2000 rpm, a speed range which they frequent most often, the 80Hp ICE needs no help from any crankshaft mounted 15HP electric motor.

What has long ticked me off about the IMA is that Honda goes to all that trouble to provide a variable speed electronic drive (the inverter) together with a variable speed mechanical drive (the CVT). And seemingly ignores the fact that electric drives scale up very well. In other words if you have a 15HP drive you are not too far away from implementing a full blown 120HP drive. Not so with mechanical drives :

The shop manual for an automatic transmission specifically warns you to support the transmission when separating it from the engine - it could fall and CRUSH you.

Ever seen the 60Kw and 40Kw inverters in the latest Prius ? A compartment the size of a shoebox houses both of them together.

Furthermore the electric motor with a 15Hp frame size capable of 15HP @ 1500 rpm as supplied by Honda can, with a reconfigured winding, also produce 120HP @ 12,000 rpm. That is a major advantage for electric motors which are priced mostly on their torque whereas rpms not so much.