In Holland, the LS is only available in hybrid form. Not sure about other European markets, though due to tougher environmental regulations, I doubt that the regular LS will be available, and if it is, the price difference will be MUCH more than in the US. Of course, Lexus is a small player in Europe, but Lexus scored pretty well with the GS, IS and CT hybrids (The first two are not hybrids in US).
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Joaquin Ruhi
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Actually, GS Hybrid was offered in the U.S. (@mikeavelli used to own one).
Yes, you are correct. But especially for Europe there was also a GS300H (in addition to the GS450H). This car has been recently discontinued.
Lots of so called "automotive experts" also do not know how to drive a hybrid. I own an '18 LS500H AWD now for 10 weeks and with conservative driving (go with the flow in mainly the right lane, max 75 mph going downhill) ), I average into the mid 32's miles per gallon. But I learned to maximize the hybrid system and I know my daily roads quite well to "hypermile" without becoming a nuisance on the road for others. You just don't drive a hybrid like you drive a regular car and you certainly don't care for the 0-60 metric. It's totally irrelevant. On two occasions it was very nice that my car has more than enough power to merge on the highway when some sucker wouldn't let me "in", other than that, I drive it smooth and sensible. That is what the car excels in, not the Motortrend approach. I find the car (and tis transmission) smooth enough. Not perfect though, but ok for me. And I beat the EPA figures by quite a margin.
That has been my experience in my 2015 ES 300h. In fact, the fun of driving the Hybrid is not to drive the throttle as a toggle switch (ON or OFF) but to try to keep it in EV mode as often as possible for as long a distance as possible. Driving the car smoothly does help a lot.