Lexus RZ

Yahoo

19-03-2025

With so many cars spuriously purporting to be sporty or have racing genes, it's refreshing when the presentation for a new one hardly even mentions athleticism. The Lexus RZ is the firm's flagship electric car, and instead it ought to offer 'confidence, control and comfort'.
Mind you, it still has up to 309bhp and will out-accelerate quite a few hot hatches.
The RZ was Lexus' first step into getting serious about EVs. It had the UX 300e for a while, but that was never quite a heavy hitter, whereas this car is and goes toe to toe with the likes of the Tesla Model Y, Nissan Ariya and Hyundai Ioniq 5.
The RZ shares its e-TNGA platform – which is bespoke to EVs – with the Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra.
A cheaper, front-wheel-drive model (badged 300e) joined the range in 2024 to address issues concerning range and price.
If you don't like people looking at you when you're parking in Tesco, this is not the car for you. Its sharp lines and size make it stand out.
At 4805mm in length, it's a fair bit longer than the bZ4X, Ioniq 5 and Skoda Enyaq, yet it's hard to figure out where that extra length has gone, because the RZ doesn't feel any more spacious inside than those cars.
Sure, adults won't be short on rear leg room and the boot is big, but that's equally true of those smaller cars.
Lexus has equipped upper versions of the RZ with small infrared heaters to try to save some all important battery. Traditional heating isn't energy-efficient and the sister bZ4X is known to chew through battery trying to heat and cool the car. These heaters act a bit like a blanket for your legs and knees. They work well and interact seamlessly with the heated seat and steering wheel.
The car's materials are a cut above the bZ4X's, thankfully, although they are very spec-dependent.
Higher trims bring the soft leather and interesting technical materials to rival the Genesis GV60 but lower ones introduce some coarser leather and cheaper plastics.
The 14.0in infotainment touchscreen is as easy to use as a phone, but it can be distracting, because it hosts the fan-speed controls.
Leg room in the back is huge, making the RZ one of the most practical electric SUVs on the market. The boot too is right up there with rivals and features underfloor storage for the charging cables. There's no under-bonnet storage, mind you. And no glovebox if you get the infrared heater.
The standard model makes 308bhp from its two electric motors, resulting in a 0-62mph time of 5.5sec, which is basically hot hatch pace. It's really brisk and makes mincemeat of country lane overtaking manoeuvres.
Like with any decent-powered EV, there's real neck-snap acceleration under full throttle in its sportiest setting. But it's very unlikely that you will be doing this very often. Why? Keep scrolling to get our verdict on the range…
The front-wheel-drive model cuts power to 201bhp, extending the 0-62mph time by about 2.5sec. But it's not like it's slow, and Lexus isn't making huge dynamism claims for the RZ anyway.
Despite not being offered with adaptive dampers, the RZ is a very smooth and quiet-riding car that's reassuring, satisfying and surprisingly plush-feeling – although not exciting – to drive.
You can genuinely feel the effects of what Lexus calls Direct4, a system whereby power and braking force are rapidly shuffled between the front and rear axles to control and reduce the pitch and dive that normally accompanies acceleration and braking. It stops short of being transformative but does introduce a pleasant calmness to the way the car drives.
Although the software can cleverly distribute torque, the front motor is more powerful than the rear one, so the RZ feels at best neutral when cornering under power.
That's fine, though: it's not trying to be sporty, remember. And even so, the RZ musters adequate grip, while its standard steering is well weighted.
Naturally, the FWD model goes without the Direct4 system. But there's a comfortable honesty about the 300e's straightforward ride, handling and steering.
We have also tried Lexus's One Motion Grip steer-by-wire system on the European press launch. It was technically still a prototype system, but it still worked impressively and added some sense of occasion.
Having just 150deg of movement between locks ensures you never have to take your hands off the steering 'wheel', which is why the yoke shape works.
Weirdly, it seems to impart ever so slightly more information about grip levels than the conventional steering. The widely variable ratio robs you of the last 5% of precision, which would be a problem on a sports car but isn't on a comfy SUV.
The battery capacity is 71.4kWh, which is smaller than key rivals'. The small size is compensated by the low energy consumption of the two motors, claims Lexus.
What's more, under normal driving, the 4WD RZ mainly uses the smaller, less power-hungry 108bhp rear motor. When you ask for full power, that naturally combines forces with the 201bhp front one, but the software sends power back and forth as it sees fit for the prevailing situation.
Indeed, the official consumption figure of 3.4-3.7mpkWh is Tesla-like, but the end result is still a pretty disappointing WLTP claimed range of 272 miles, which drops to 252 miles on the 20in wheels that the vast majority of UK-bound RZs will have.
The car's rapid-charging rates are also unimpressive, 150kW being the bare minimum we would expect from a new premium EV.
Either way, neither range nor charging speed is a particular strength of the RZ. In real-world driving, it advertises around 210 miles of usable range on a full charge, dropping to about 165 miles as soon as you turn on the air conditioning (just as both the bZ4x and Solterra will).
Range is improved in the FWD model by it ditching the 108bhp rear-mounted motor and running on the 201bhp front one only. The WLTP figure jumps to 295 miles.
The RZ heralds some interesting new technology and is all the better for it on the road.
Its practicality and interior quality are the reasons you would be drawn to it. The FWD 300e is our pick of the RZ range simply because it goes further on a charge.
If it does have a problem, it's that there are a lot of premium SUVs, many of which can go farther and charge more quickly. But there's likeable character, comfort and smoothness here, and Lexus knows how to look after customers.
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