2023 Lexus RX 450h+ plug-in hybrid falls wanting prime mover

The Lexus RX mid-size crossover is the mainstay of Toyota’s luxurious model within the U.S. and the model’s longtime bestseller. It was the primary Lexus to get a hybrid powertrain—approach again in 2005—and every technology has developed to protect its virtues and preserve it acceptable to upscale consumers and their households.

The brand new 2023 Lexus RX is the fifth technology of the posh SUV, with deliveries to start out late this yr. It is going to launch with typical and hybrid powertrains—together with a performance-oriented RX 500h mannequin with a brand new Direct4 hybrid system. However even past that, an additional mannequin will be part of the lineup someday subsequent yr: the plug-in hybrid RX. 

Coming at ‘a later date’

The Lexus RX 450h+, because the plug-in model is understood, will probably be provided “at a later date,” the corporate stated. It is going to be provided first in different markets with extra aggressive emission limits, for which learn Europe. Whereas Lexus’ U.S. website nonetheless calls it a 2023, no mannequin yr for the U.S. model was offered at a media preview of the brand new RX lineup held outdoors Santa Barbara, California. So on this supply-chain-constrained actuality, it is likely to be a 2024 if it launches later subsequent yr.

It is going to be the second plug-in hybrid for Lexus, following the smaller Lexus NX 450h+ that launched for 2022. The 2 fashions share not solely a 2.5-liter inline-4 engine however the identical 18.1-kwh lithium-ion battery pack. That makes the plug-in RX the one one to forgo Toyota’s tried-and-true nickel-metal hydride cells, utilized in all RX hybrid variations with out a plug.

Along with the engine and the two-motor hybrid system powering the entrance wheels, the RX 450+ makes use of the 40-kw “E-4” motor present in its AWD hybrids to supply full-time all-wheel drive. Lexus declined to share energy outputs or efficiency specs, saying that data too would come at later. The NX 450h+ plug-in hybrid, its quickest mannequin, is rated at a mixed 302 horsepower.

I drove a pre-production European-market model of the plug-in RX 450h+. Lexus burdened the automotive wasn’t to U.S. specs, saying its parts and a few of its software program didn’t replicate U.S. manufacturing variations. (Certainly, the show display screen briefly froze on one show till we power-cycled the automotive; European-style door mirrors and shows in kilometers underscored the purpose.)

The corporate requested reporters to restrict themselves to brief drive loops, so everybody may have an opportunity within the single plug-in hybrid. We suspect that might have been as a result of its European cost receptacle meant the automotive couldn’t be charged at U.S. charging stations. Accordingly, the one approach to cost the battery to display electrical mode was to run the automotive in its recharging mode, utilizing the gasoline engine as a generator—workable, however hardly environment friendly.

Expensive, peppy, easy, quiet

Over roughly 15 miles within the automotive, I got here away with some early impressions of what the primary plug-in RX ought to be like when it arrives within the U.S. It’s more likely to are available on the excessive finish of the vary—as does the $55,000 plug-in hybrid. Our European RX take a look at automotive included wooden steering-wheel trim and a video rear-view mirror, options absent from the U.S. fashions we drove.

On the street, not surprisingly, the RX 450h+ drives very very like a bigger, much less agile model of the plug-in hybrid NX. It begins out as an electric-only automobile, and switches into hybrid mode solely when the battery is depleted or, beneath sure circumstances, if the driving force flooring the accelerator to supply most energy. Drive modes embrace “EV” (to the boundaries of the battery), “HV,” which blends hybrid and electrical, and “Maintain Cost,” which retains the battery cost.

Acceleration in electrical mode was good, and solely once I switched to hybrid mode did I notice how very quiet the cabin was when working solely on battery energy. The regenerative braking wasn’t all that robust in its default setting, although the steering-wheel paddles may enhance (left) or lower (proper) the extent of regen. Annoyingly, nonetheless, it reset to the default degree after each cease.

The smaller NX 450h+ is EPA-rated at 37 miles of electrical vary (versus 42 miles for the Toyota RAV4 on which it’s based mostly). With the battery exhibiting three-quarters full, our Euro RX plug-in confirmed 31 km (19 mi) of electrical vary remaining. So we’d guesstimate the EPA vary score of the larger RX plug-in with the identical pack will find yourself between 25 and 30 miles.

Is it value it? The probably decrease vary makes a plug-in hybrid RX much less helpful than the smaller NX—or the sought-after Toyota RAV4 Prime—but it surely’s a much more fashionable automobile within the Lexus lineup. It is going to be the primary mid-size plug-in hybrid from Lexus, competing in opposition to related fashions from Audi, Hyundai, Kia, and Volvo. We’d count on a sticker value of $60,000 or extra. You be the decide of whether or not that value for that vary is sensible—or whether or not a 300-mile battery-electric mid-size crossover stands out as the higher guess.

–
Lexus offered airfare, lodging, and meals to allow Inexperienced Automobile Stories to carry you this first-person drive report.