Lexus GS 450h hybrid premium saloon springs C-Charge trap

With Porsche slugging it out with Ken Livingstone to maintain its capital-city street cred, the Lexus GS 450h premium sports saloon was born to be riled by successive London Mayors by extolling the virtues of its hybrid-powered winning formula to side-step Congestion Charge histrionics.

The GS 450h mid-size four-door executive pins down the ecologically-accommodative Lexus Hybrid Drive System technology that means the C-segment performer goes like stink whilst not causing an environmentally-damaging one by coming in way under the 225 g/km CO2 threshold for Band G.

Resultant from the Congestion Charge proposals drawn up, owners of the Lexus GS 450h - and those considering purchase prior to October's C-Charge revision – will fly beneath the radar until 2010. Those buying after will only have to fork out a far more realistic £8 daily charge.

This, crucially, is because as the planets first performance hybrid saloon, the Lexus GS 450h emits 185 g/km of CO2, and therefore will cost no more to circumnavigate Westminster than a Ford Mondeo 2.0 Duratec.

Drivers of the equally-powerful BMW 540i, Jaguar XF, Audi A6 Quattro and Porsche 911 Carrera are currently having to stump up at least £8 per day to enter the Congestion Charge Zone, with that set to triple in October courtesy of their general sooty-ness being measured at between 230 and 270 CO2 g/km.

So, whereas owners of cars like BMW, Jaguar, Audi and the Livingstone-baiting Porsche are having sleepless nights figuring out how they're going to find £25 every time they journey into the bowels of the capital, Lexus-driving city slickers can still travel first class without having their credit-crunched still further.