LEXUS RZ 450E

Lexus enters fast-filling premium electric SUV club with jazzed-up Toyota bZ4X

- ILLYA VERPRAET

TESTED 1.3.23, PROVENCE, FRANCE ON SALE MAY

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 sportiness. The RZ is Lexus's flagship EV, and instead it ought to offer "confidence, control and comfort". Mind you, it still has 309bhp and will out-accelerate quite a few hot hatches.

The RZ is Lexus getting serious about EVs. It's had the UX 300e for a while, but that has never been a heavy-hitter. This new car shares its e-TNGA platform - which is bespoke to EVS - with the Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra (road test, p34), as well as its fairly small battery.

Lexus has now confirmed that the quoted 71.4kWh figure is the total capacity, of which 64kWh is usable. 71.4kWh is already smaller than rivals, and a 7.4kWh safety buffer is much more than the industry average. Lexus says that this ensures the battery should retain 90% of its capacity after 10 years. It's a noble goal which we applaud although whether people running cars on a four-year PCP deal will care is another question entirely.

The small battery is compensated by the low energy consumption of the two motors, claims Lexus. What's more, under normal driving, the RZ mainly uses the smaller, less power-hungry 108bhp rear item. 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.