Upmarket Japanese brand takes on the BMW iX3 with an all-new electric SUV that’s big on comfort Price from £62,600 On sale May
Will Nightingale will.nightingale@haymarket.com
LEXUS IS ALWAYS keen to point out that it was ahead of the game with ‘electrification’. You can’t argue with that; it was the first premium brand to launch a hybrid back in 2005 and it’s been a major proponent of the fuel-saving technology ever since.
But it has undoubtedly been behind the curve in removing the petrol engine from the equation and going fully electric. Indeed, its sole attempt to date was an electric version of its Volkswagen Tiguan-sized UX plug-in hybrid, and it was rather compromised, with a poor range, slow charging, a tiny boot and a high price.
Thankfully, the new, larger RZ is an altogether more complete proposition. Depending on wheel size, it can officially do 251-270 miles on a charge – not far behind its BMW iX3 and Genesis Electrified GV70 rivals.
That’s impressive when you consider that the RZ’s 64kWh battery is much smaller than those models’. It can accept a charge at rates of up to 150kW, too, so a 10-80% top-up can be covered off in half an hour. That’s a match for many rivals, although the Electrified GV70, in ideal conditions, takes just 18 minutes.
At the end of our drive, the trip computer was showing an average of 3.1 miles per kWh. That isn’t half bad considering the route was hilly and the temperature was just 3deg C. Efficiency in cold conditions is aided by clever infrared heaters that act like warm blankets over the laps of front seat occupants, so you don’t have to rely so much on an energy-hungry heating system; they use just 170W, compared with a potential 5000W if you fire up the climate control. We found the heated seat and steering wheel needed to be on as well to be comfy without wearing a coat, but even then, they bring a big energy saving.
The RZ looks and feels very classy inside, with upmarket materials on the dashboard and the insides of the doors. However, while the 14.0in infotainment system in the middle of the dash is decent enough, it is a touchscreen. That means it’s more distracting to use than the iX3’s and GV70’s systems, which have rotary controllers so you don’t need to press fiddly on-screen icons while driving.
Like the Toyota bZ4X on which it’s based, the RZ has masses of rear leg room, a flat floor to make life easy for a middle rear passenger and more than enough head room for tall people. It has a slightly bigger boot than dire
