2023 Lexus RZ 450E: Test Drive Review

[@Mark-de4hj]

Great real-world review. I have been seriously considering this car and your assessment on the ac is very important as I too live in a climate where its over 100 degrees in the summer. I also think the missing glovebox is a miss and you did not cover this but the panoramic roof is fixed? All my previous roofs opens so not sure if I can do without that feature. Lastly, I am not a fan of 'frunks' due to the fact that the front of cars are generally filthy and I would not want to be retrieving stuff from there but sure wish this came with a spare tire which is very important to me. Still, there is no other EV on the market that I would buy right now if it came right down to it.

[@kennyclark284]

Not quite ready for prime time, it seems. However the reflection in the center screen gets 5 out of 5 stars.

[@William24009]

Thanks for sharing, excellent review.

[@anthonymitchell9337]

I have been a Lexus fan for over the last 20 years and have owned three. I really want to like this vehicle but it's a disappointment. $60K for a vehicle with a range of 196 miles (without running the AC) is ridiculous. Lex/Toy could have done so much better. Swing and a miss.

[@slscamg]

This is the biggest “meh” car on sale today. You can tell it’s Toyota just playing around with the tech until we have some leaps in battery tech that will really bring EVs to everyone.

[@misaelramos83]

They've been working on their dud hydrogen cars instead. Solid state has been year away for 20 years or something.

[@randomname9758]

I'm surprised they didn't test the air conditioning. I mean that's one of the first things you would test.

[@TestDrivenTV]

It's not that they didn't test it. They chose not to prioritize its performance in the decision making and engineering process.

[@Mildern]

You probably had it in eco or range mode. The AC works pretty normally in normal mode. @@TestDrivenTV

[@tbone9405]

Lexus / Toyota very sad first attempt at an EV? Low range, efficiency, AC performance, charging times, expected a lot more from Toyota, pass on this!

[@robertporter1984]

I expected more from Lex and Toy.

[@plainlybasic2300]

AC will put a hit on ANY battery vehicle. 50 miles off of the 220 is a 23% decrease, which isn't actually that bad. AC is also temperature based. If your uncomfortable then the temp down and turn on the recirculation.

[@TestDrivenTV]

Well actually, it was significantly worse than most every other EV we have tested in the past year. That's the benefit of being able to sample a wide variety of vehicles - we can compare how they perform against the others. This one was a major fail by comparison to its peers.

[@Mark-de4hj]

@@TestDrivenTV Long as the test was done on similarly hot days..

[@albertgan9423]

BYD will eat this alive

[@MrChadder007]

That price is a weee bit way too high when comparing it to Tesla and others.

[@Xavier7799]

Range is way to low.

[@RangerMan2002]

Hard pass.