Lexus RZ 450e review: debut EV left me with the warm glow of my single days
Behind the wheel of the futuristic first EV from Lexus, Stephen Corby was left with an unexpected, wholly welcome sensation.
“Can you remember when you were single, before you had kids, when you used to …”
Let me stop you right there, dear colleague, because whatever the question is, the answer is “no”. I can no more remember what my glorious, sleep-soaked, fire-hose-of-free-time life was like before I chose my wondrous life partner and agreed with her radical suggestion that children would be fun, than I can recall what it felt like to walk around in nappies and defecate on the run.
This cut-off question from a journalist I have known for decades was half raised the other day while we were driving the new Lexus RZ 450e, the first purpose-built electric vehicle from Japan’s only luxury brand, and it struck me that I’m now not only closer to rediscovering the joys of wearing nappies, I’m almost old enough to be a Lexus customer.
Perhaps this explains why I was so chuffed with one of the RZ’s (bridge) party tricks, its new Radiant Heating. Everyone has heated seats these days, but they only toast your buns from your backside in, whereas the Lexus system uses “infra-red radiation to heat the legs of occupants … Radiant Heating heats only the objects in its line of sight, not the air around them.” One dullard, who looked a lot like me, immediately asked whether this meant you would get a tan if you drove in shorts, but apparently it’s not that kind of radiation.
Testing the system proved very entertaining as some colleagues, who’ve never met a buffet they didn’t love, couldn’t feel their enormous thighs being warmed at all, while others agreed with Lexus’s own description that it feels like “a warm blanket on your knees”. I’m struggling to think of a sentence that could more richly speak to the brand’s dear old demographic.
Personally, on a sub-freezing day in South Australia, I loved the Radiant Heating as it provided the kind of intense warm glow in my groin that I have not felt since I was young and single. It was glorious, life-affirming even.
As for the RZ 450e, it was definitely an electric vehicle, with the familiar torque-punch acceleration from any speed, the almost silence pierced only by the distant turbine whine of its electric motors – a 150kW unit on the front axle and an 80kW one on the rear, for a combined power figure of 230kW and 435Nm. That’s enough for a zero to 100km/h dash of 5.3 seconds, and there’s plenty of grunt left to accelerate hard if you need to overtake at 110km/h. Overall, though, what you notice about the RZ is that it is, despite its relatively futuristic powertrain and its almost radical looks (doing away with radiators that must be fed air has meant that the brand’s defining spindle grille has been replaced by a far prettier yet plainer face), this is still very much a Lexus.
There’s a certain easy way to describe the typical Lexus buyer, aside from just fiercely brand loyal. They grew up driving reliable Toyotas, got a bit wealthy, dabbled with flashy German cars and found them flighty and unreliable – and then realised that the Japanese version of luxury and stolidity was what they really wanted.
Like every Lexus, the RZ 450e feels effortless to drive, with the kind of steering that makes cornering a doddle rather than hugely involving. This EV version is certainly capable of carving up a winding section of road and behaves impeccably while doing so, but thrashing one feels like forcing your grandmother to run up some stairs.
The RZ feels modern, but not futuristic, it smells pleasant inside, but not flashily expensive, and the floor mats look and feel like your favourite aunty’s plush carpet. It offers a Sport mode that few buyers will ever use, and an Eco one that will no doubt get a lot of work from the kind of buyer who’s decided it’s time to turn their virtue signal on and go electric.
Claimed range is around 400km between charges – which can take as little as 30 minutes on a DC fast charger, or more like 10 hours on a typical 7kW home system – but we saw closer to 300km, because we drove it like someone had just spilt something hot on our laps (it was just the Radiant Heating, fortunately).
The problem the RZ 450e would have, if its buyers weren’t so fiercely loyal, is the price, which starts at $123,000 for the entry model and rises to $135,000 for the Sports Luxury. You can have a Tesla Model Y with 533km of range for $81,900, or a Kia EV6 GT that hits 100km/h in 3.5 seconds for under $100,000, or a classy German EV like the BMW iX3 for $104,900. If the RZ 450e was built, and priced, by any other brand, you’d suggest they’d be up against it, but because it’s a Lexus they’ve had more than 1500 expressions of interest from people who will only ever buy one kind of electric vehicle, a Japanese one from a brand they love and trust.
Lexus RZ 450e
Engine: Two permanent magnet synchronous electric motors, one on each axle
Transmission: One-speed direct drive, all-wheel drive
Efficiency: 18.7kWh per 100km, range 400km
Price: $123,000
Rating: ★★★½
