When Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus division launched its hybrid sport utility vehicle for 2006, the RX 400h, The New York Times wrote, “the hybrid is about to enter the latte generation’s comfort zone.”

Today’s hybrid vehicles bear little resemblance to the two-seater Honda Insight, which debuted in the United States in 1999. They are larger, more mainstream in appearance and emphasize luxury, high-tech wizardry and power.

“Some of our buyers certainly are people who want to do their part to save our environment,” said David Baum, a sales and leasing consultant with Betts Lexus. “But we also have another group of people who are performance-minded. They see that they can have V-8 performance out of a smaller engine and achieve greater fuel economy.”

Baum said the torque of the 400h’s electric motor, combined with the horsepower of the gas engine, make for “a little spunkier performance.”

Charlie Notis of Johnston was so eager to be one of the first to have the Lexus SUV that he ordered his about nine months before the model arrived on dealers’ lots. Already a Lexus driver, he thought the SUV would be a perfect vehicle for his wife, Elaine, and a fun toy that he could experiment with.

“We were excited about the fact that at the same time that we were going to get a luxury vehicle with a lot of power, we were getting a very fuel-efficient vehicle that is better for the environment,” said Notis, a meteorologist and co-owner of a weather consulting company, Freese-Notis Weather.

Notis, who says he is something of a technology and gadget fiend, researched the 400h for about a year before signing up for a three-year lease on one. The SUV carried a sticker price was about $5,000 more than the non-hybrid RX, but he felt that the extra cost was worth it. His wife, Elaine, is the primary driver of the SUV.

“We wanted an SUV because my wife is always hauling things when she does a lot of the chores and running around town,” Notis said. “The SUV is very good for city driving, since that’s where you get the best mileage with the hybrid.”

Hybrids combine electric motors that operate most efficiently at low speeds with gasoline engines that operate most efficiently at high speeds. The electric engine recharges itself during deceleration.

When he first got the vehicle, Notis made a hobby out of experimenting with it and monitoring its gas mileage on its computer system. The computer breaks down the mileage into five-minute intervals and even graphs the changing patterns so that “it basically teaches you how to drive it more efficiently,” he said.

Although the 400h is rated 27 miles per gallon on the highway and 31 miles per gallon in the city, Notis has gotten his to perform at almost 40 miles per gallon. “We were having perfect weather, about 70 degrees, so I didn’t have the air conditioning on,” he said. “I drove for 28 miles in the city, just to see how high it would go.”

Baum said Betts has sold about 75 of the 400h SUVs since last April. For most of 2005, customers who wanted to buy one were put on a waiting list, which was sometimes as long as six to eight weeks. Other area automobile dealers selling hybrids also report a backlog in orders.

“We have a 60-person waiting list right now for the Prius,” said Rob Bierma, the new car sales manager for Toyota of Des Moines. “For that car, it’s been anywhere from six months to a year wait since Toyota came out with a new body design in 2004, one that’s a little more mainstream in appearance.”

Bierma also sells a hybrid version of the Highlander SUV, and is taking orders for a soon-to-be-released hybrid version of the Camry sedan. He estimates that Toyota accounted for about 90 percent of the 212,000 hybrids sold last year in the United States. His dealership sells about 15 hybrids per month.

Last fall, Bierma was one of the first people in Greater Des Moines to buy a Highlander SUV for his wife, Lynda. She traded in the larger Sequaia SUV that only got about 18 miles per gallon for the Highlander hybrid, which is rated to get 33 miles per gallon in the city and 28 on the highway.

“We have two young boys, so the sport utility was a good choice for us,” Bierma said. “Even though it’s smaller than our old one, it still has plenty of room inside for her, the boys and all their toys. And it’s a lot easier to park.”

Sales of another SUV hybrid, the Ford Escape, were also robust in 2005, according to Jim Bitner, general manager of Charles Gabus Ford. “As gas prices go up, so does the interest,” he said.

When gas prices were close to $3 per gallon in 2005, Mike Corley, sales manager for Holmes Honda, said he had a three-month waiting list for the Honda Civic Hybrid. And he’s still sold out of them.

Several more hybrid models will hit the market later this year, and others have been announced to soon follow, including the Porsche Cayenne. Notis already has his eyes set on one.

“I’m waiting another year or so for the LS 600h, the hybrid version of the Lexus flagship car that I’m driving now,” he said.