For The Autopian: The 2023 Lexus RZ 450e Is A Fine Electric Lexus, But It’s Not Groundbreaking. And That’s The Point
Let’s conduct a little role-playing exercise. Pretend you’re a hardcore Lexus stan (yes, they do exist). For the past few years, it’s only been Lexus for you and nothing else; maybe you had some bad experiences however many years ago with unreliable BMWs or Audis. Since then, you won’t settle for anything less than Lexus’ level of bulletproof quality, excellent customer service and what some consider the only consistently good dealer networks in the business.
But now you’re curious about all these electric vehicles you’re starting to see everywhere. Range and performance are a little less important to you than all the stuff I just described. And besides, you care about the environment, and also: Who actually likes paying for gasoline, anyway? At the same time, you aren’t sold on the gimmick-y nature of many modern EVs, and you also want a driving experience that’s not far off the RX crossovers your family has been leasing for years now.
If this scenario is even close to true for you, you’re one of the approximately 4,900 people in America for whom the brand is aiming the new 2023 Lexus RZ 450e this year. This EV represents just about everything Lexus’ diehard customer-base loves about the brand, with batteries instead of an engine. But it is not groundbreaking or even deeply competitive in the growing EV arms race. Parent company Toyota treated battery EVs with skepticism and, in some ways worked against them behind the scenes for years, so the RZ feels like an attempt to catch up in class after not doing the reading or finishing the homework.
