LEXUS NX

Don’t be fooled by the looks: this really is an all-new NX – and this time there’s a PHEV

- FELIX PAGE

TESTER ’S NOTE

Lexus’s trick electronic door handles are now linked to the front and rear cameras and won’t open if there’s a cyclist or another unseen hazard approaching from a blindspot.

Judged on the images here, you’d be forgiven for writing off the Lexus NX’s transition to a second generation as no more dramatic than a mid-life facelift.

Indeed, save for the addition of a new rear light bar, a spelled-out badge across the bootlid and subtly reworked side detailing, there’s little to mark this out as the latest version of Lexus’s best-selling European car. And that’s probably not bad news for those in control of the firm’s coffers. In the UK alone, the outgoing NX – even at seven years old – accounts for roughly a third of the brand’s sales so far this year, outselling the larger RX by about three to one.