Lexus has bridged the worlds of cars and high-end fashion with a new project that challenged four fashion designers to create unique clothing pieces and accessories from more than 2,000 individual parts of a completely dismantled CT 200 hybrid hatchback for an advertising campaign that will appear in the January 2012 issue of Vogue magazine. .
The Union of Concerned Scientist, a non-profit science advocacy group in the U.S., has released its second annual Hybrid Scorecard. The organisation criticised hybrid car manufacturers for not delivering on the technology’s promise, for placing performance above fuel efficiency and environmental benefit and burdening hybrids with features that put them out of the price range of average Americans. A total of 34 hybrid vehicles from the 2011 to 2012 model year were tested for their fuel efficiency, environmental impact, value-for-money and their so-called “forced-feature premium”. The latter is features that don’t improve fuel efficiency but probably make the cars more appealing to money-conscious consumers.
