Lexus RZ (2025 - ) Electric review

Lexus has yet to share UK pricing in full, but don’t expect much change from £55,000. However, Lexus did say it is targeting a monthly payment figure of around £500 on a PCP agreement for the RZ300e Premium Plus model. This is chunky but not far off what you’ll pay for a Polestar 4 or BMW iX2 on similar terms. When the RZ first arrived, it wasn’t the most efficient EV in this segment. However, following this round of updates Lexus claims the RZ is good for an extra 58 miles between charges. When you do need to top up, charging from 10 to 80 per cent takes around 30 mins, though costs will mount if you rely on expensive public charging. On the other hand, charging at home on an off-peak tariff will help to keep your costs down. Company car drivers can still make the most of Benefit In Kind advantages, but electric cars are now subject to VED and the additional Expensive Car Supplement which applies to anything costing over £40,000.

Lexus is highly renowned for its reliability, and it recently took home Most reliable brand at our Drivers’ Choice Awards for the fourth year in a row. Lexus has an especially good reputation for looking after its customers and it will extend its three-year/60,000-mile standard warranty for up to 10 years if you commit to servicing your car at a manufacturer approved centre. There’s also a separate eight years of cover for the battery to give you extra peace of mind.

Even the entry-level RZ comes with an impressive amount of safety kit including adaptive cruise control, lane departure warnings with steering assistance, emergency braking, traffic sign recognition, front and rear cross traffic alerting, driver attention monitoring and our favourite feature, blind spot monitoring. There’s also what's branded as an e-Latch system in the door handles to prevent you opening the door into traffic, cyclists or pedestrians and the RZ can even alert you to fast traffic approaching from behind. The presence of all these systems does mean the car finds plenty of opportunities to warn you of surrounding hazards, yet many of the features can be turned off in the Driving Assist menu and you can mute the overly sensitive speed warning by selecting the symbol at the top of the main screen.

Comfort is where the RZ comes into its own; in true Lexus style the RZ is smooth and quiet with hardly any wind or road noise disrupting the peace. The soft padding on the steering wheel provides the premium feel, though the sheer variety of materials used in the interior gives the RZ a less contemporary feel than the Scandi chic you’ll find in a Polestar. Space is good, though, with ample head- and legroom in the back, plus the boot is a decent size with space under the floor to stash your charging cables. Up front, the seats are comfortable, and the viability is good all around. As part of the recent changes to the RZ, Lexus has upgraded the suspension, added more soundproofing and reduced the amount of vibration entering the interior all of which seem to do the trick. We drove the front-wheel drive RZ 350e Premium Plus on 18-inch wheels and a sporty top of the range all-wheel drive RZ 550e F Sport Takumi running 20-inch wheels and we found the former had a slightly jigglier ride, while the sportier car felt smoother and more planted thanks to its tweaked suspension and more rigid body.

The big news is the introduction of ‘steer-by-wire’ technology to F Sport versions of the RZ. This removes the need for a physical steering column, instead introducing electric controls and swapping the traditional steering wheel for a yoke. It’s a nifty bit of tech which adapts your inputs to your speed allowing you to steer full lock during slow manoeuvres without going ‘hand over hand’. It’s a talking point, helping the RZ stand out against the closely related Toyota bZ4X and it is more intuitive than you’d expect. However, we’re not convinced the novelty is worth the extra cost, especially as the tiny indicator stalk moves with the yoke, making signalling on roundabouts awkward. The trim hierarchy starts with Premium, rising through Premium Plus and Takumi all of which all stick with a normal round steering wheel. Meanwhile F Sport and range-topping F Sport Takumi complete the range. All versions are well equipped; even the entry-level RZ gets heated and electrically adjustable front seats, a heated steering wheel, a reversing camera, an electric tailgate, a wireless phone charger among other creature comforts. The infotainment on the 14-inch central screen is not the snazziest, but it is wireless compatible with CarPlay and Android Auto so you can use your phone instead. Upgrading to the Premium Plus adds a handy head-up display, while higher grades gain a panoramic roof which can dim at the touch of a button along with other toys.

There are now three power options for the RZ all of which come with a 77kWh battery. The line-up starts with the 224 horsepower front-wheel drive 350e, followed by the 380 horsepower 500e with Direct4 all-wheel drive and the range-topping 550e with 408 horsepower which again has all-wheel drive as standard. The latter is the preserve of F Sport models which have been stiffened up to help cope with the power, but without making the ride too firm. These models also have a manual virtual gear shifting feature to simulate the revs of a combustion engine. We found the fake gear changes quite jarring and rather than making the car feel more involving, the high-pitched synthetic noise was verging on unpleasant. It felt at odds with the RZ’s otherwise calm and relaxing demeanour, so we quickly switched modes and made the most of the effortless way it accelerated. We managed to achieve slightly more than the claimed 3.4 miles/kWh energy consumption on our test route which is not bad and suggests you could get around 250 miles of real-world range. We didn’t get to try the 500e but expect it would feel similarly brisk. Meanwhile, the 350e on smaller 18-inch wheel is likely to be the best-seller and it would be our pick of the bunch. It didn't feel lacking in power, so it provides a good balance of performance against range which gives it a fighting shot at reaching 300 miles between charges.