The 2023 Lexus RZ 450e Is A Great Electric Luxury SUV In Need Of More Range

When it comes to luxury-oriented hybrid electric vehicles, Lexus is a well-established player. There are plenty of luxury buyers out there who yearn to drive a Lexus hybrid for its outstanding combination of power, efficiency, technology, and of course, build quality. Now, as the industry continues to move toward fully battery electric vehicles, Lexus, just like parent company Toyota, is playing a little bit of catch-up, which is why I'm standing by the brand's first ever fully dedicated battery electric vehicle, this right here, the RZ450E. It's built on the same architecture that also underpins the Toyota BZ4X, which means we have standard dual electric motors with all-wheel drive, up to 308 horsepower, and up to 220 miles of range. Now, I already had a chance to drive this vehicle out in California briefly on the first drive about three months ago. However, this week, as you can see, Lexus has sent me the fully loaded RZ450E Luxury to test out for a full week. We're going to put through our usual battery of tests. We're going to range test it. We're going to zero-to-sixty test it. We're going to live with it for a full week. And at the end of this video, we're going to find out, is this all-new RZ450E truly worthy of the iconic Lexus badge? Stay tuned to find out. Now, before we start talking about the exterior styling of the RZ450E, I thought I'd pop the hood and show you guys what's underneath there, because with a lot of electric vehicles, the million dollar question is, does the vehicle have a frunk? Just like the BZ4X, as you can see, the RZ, sadly, does not have a frunk. Now, underneath this unique hood compared to its Toyota counterpart, you're going to find a lot of electric motor componentry. You're going to find the electric traction motor. You're going to find the usual orange cables, the fluid stuff, and of course, not very great packaging, because as you guys know, most competing vehicles offer a small frunk. But unlike the Toyota, the Lexus RZ comes with dual electric motors as standard. That's kind of similar to what Subaru does with their version, the Solterra. However, in the Lexus, Lexus basically ramps up the power significantly. The front motor is the same 201 horsepower unit that's in the front-wheel drive BZ4X. It's paired up with a 107 horsepower unit in the back end that gives this vehicle all-wheel drive. You have a total of 308 horsepower combined and up to 320 pound-feet of torque. That's almost an extra 100 horsepower versus the all-wheel drive BZ4X. And Lexus claims it's good for 0 to 60 in around five seconds. We'll test it out in our actual testing. In the real world, it all goes out through a one-speed reduction gear transmission, and this vehicle uses a 71.4 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery that's manufactured by Panasonic. This vehicle is built in Japan, so sadly, no federal tax credit unless you lease the vehicle. And it also isn't rated to tow. Lexus doesn't claim any kind of towing figures for this vehicle, but as this vehicle sits, it weighs in at just over 4,600 pounds, so it is around 200 pounds heavier versus an all-wheel drive BZ4X. But once you close the hood, which as you guys saw is supported by a prop rod, I really think Lexus should have gone with hood struts. You can take a look at the exterior styling of this vehicle, which if you guys are familiar with the Lexus brand, you're going to instantly recognize this vehicle as a Lexus, but it does have some new styling elements here, kind of going in a new direction for Lexus. You can see, unlike gas-powered Lexus, which have the spindle grille, which is open, this is now called the spindle body grille because it's an EV. It doesn't have any need for openings, which is better for aerodynamics. And you can see this is also the first Lexus vehicle to get an illuminated front Lexus logo. You can see the camera is right above it along with the parking sensors. The spindle body grille has an interesting design where there's like these little textures here to kind of give it the look of the regular spindle grille. You can also get this grille in black with a two-tone black hood going over to the roof of the vehicle if you guys prefer. My tester, thankfully, doesn't have that two-tone look. When you don't have the two-tone look, this area here is black underneath the headlights. It switches to body colored when you have the two-tone look, which is what I showed you guys in my first video. You can see the headlights, full LEDs with an LED daytime running light and turn signal. The triple beam headlights that are optional on other Lexus vehicles is not available on the RZ. Lexus just said that they're simplifying it for the first year, but they probably will offer that at a later date. You can see there are some vents there that try to look like functional vents, but they're fake. Those are actual real vents down here. And I believe Lexus says the coefficient of drag for this vehicle is around 0.29. So it's a relatively slippery vehicle by modern SUV car standards. Now moving around the side profile of the vehicle, you can see the size of the RZ is interesting. It splits the difference between something like the NX and the RX at 189.5 inches long. This is around five inches longer than the BZ4X. It's around six inches longer than a Lexus NX, but it's around three inches shorter than the current Lexus RX. Its wheelbase is 112.2 inches long, so that's around six inches longer than the NX. This vehicle is also about an inch wider than the NX and the BZ4X. So it's an interesting tweener car, the RZ. It's not quite an RX, but it's definitely a nice size, mid-size style SUV. Now you can see my tester is a luxury trim, which is the higher trim. It includes the standard 20-inch wheels, although this is an optional gray finished premium alloy wheel that you can get as an option. There's a black two-tone machine look as standard. You can see it has a 235 by 50 R20 inch tires. You have adaptive dampers, but not an air suspension. You can see these wheels lower the range from 220 to 196 miles, which by the way, here's the charge port door for the RZ. It looks like an afterthought, that's kind of the main issue that I have with the RZ is I don't understand why there's this separate piece here that just makes this charge port door stick out like a sore thumb. And then when you push it, you can see the entire panel essentially just moves. That's just not a great sign for a luxury oriented vehicle. And the fact that it's a manual opening charge door is not great either, considering some brands offer a power opening and closing charge port door. Now you can see it's got the J1772 charger with the CCS combo. This will eventually start going away because the U.S. is apparently going to be adopting the Tesla style plug for all their electric vehicles moving forward. So it's kind of again showing the fact that electric vehicles are still very much in their infancy, but like I said, 196 miles of range. It has a 6.6 kilowatt onboard charger, which means on a level two, this will charge from zero to a hundred percent in around 10 to 11 hours, which is very slow. It's about half the speed of some of the competing vehicles, and it'll accept a maximum of 150 kilowatts on a DC fast charger. If you can find that 150 kilowatt, which is pretty common, that's also again, slower than average compared to some of the competitors, which will accept up to 350 kilowatts that only still allow you to go from 10 to 80% in about 30 ish minutes in the right conditions. But again, overall, not really happy with the charging port door and the charging speeds of the RZ. Now looking at the mirrors, these are power folding. You have integrated turn signal mirrors. They're black painted. You can see the panoramic roof is going to be standard. This doesn't open, but it does have that glass that'll also frost or defrost at the push of a button, which is nice. The side profile of the vehicle doesn't really have any chrome, which I actually really like. It does have the signature floating roof design back here on the D pillar. And then you can see here, these are interesting. Obviously they're for aerodynamics, but Lexus basically says they designed the rear to allow for the wind to kind of go and brush the water away when you're driving at speeds, which is why, as you can see, there's no rear window wiper. Lexus says it's not needed because of the aerodynamic airflow with the back of the vehicle, but driving it out in the rain in my week worth of testing, I wished for a rear window wiper, especially if you guys constantly live in a snow area, you're not going to be able to get that snow off or the ice off when you don't have a rear wiper. Now you can see the taillights, full LEDs with that signature LED light blade that goes across the back. It spells out Lexus in the back as well. You have the badging here, RZ450E direct four, which means that stands for their all wheel drive electric system, where it has a separate rear axle driving the rear wheels, giving you all wheel drive. And then you can see here, those fake exhausts are those fake aerodynamic ports or the fake vents at the back, which again, just are there for design. They don't actually have any function to them. Now, opening up the cargo area, the RZ is definitely a practical vehicle and you have a little over 34 cubic feet of storage space with the back seats up. There's no third row on this vehicle. As you can see a nice carpeted area. You can see there's some underfloor storage here, which is nice. No spare tire, I believe in this vehicle. But I do like how this is well finished. If you fold down the second row seats, Lexus says you'll have a maximum of 55 cubic feet of space, which is pretty much the same as the BZ4X. It's going to be on par with most of the competing vehicles. Although something like the Tesla Model Y, I believe has about 20 more cubic feet of total storage space. So moving on to the interior of the Lexus RZ450E. Let me first show you guys the key fob. You can see this is the current Lexus key fob. It's different versus obviously the fob that Toyota uses. I kind of wish Lexus had developed a new key for this vehicle. It has your usual lock, unlock, power liftgate, panic function. If you have access to your smartphone, the Lexus Connected Services app, you'll be able to ping this vehicle from your phone and use your phone as a key where it has a digital key system. You can see the door handles. They look traditional, but this is the same door handle that's on the RX and the NX. So if you touch the little piece there, you can see the mirrors will electrically fold in. There is no auto walk away lock feature or auto unlock feature when you have the key on you. When you walk away, the vehicle doesn't do that. Lexus and Toyota just sadly doesn't do that. When you want to open the door, you can see this handle doesn't move. There's a little pressure pad on the back of the door handle. And when you push that, that's what opens the door for you. It's their digital latch system. And you can see my tester is the luxury trim, which means we have the ultra suede, the plush leather interior. This is the interior known as thunderstorm and macadamia. And as I stand here getting rained on, it's kind of appropriate given the name of the interior. It reminds me of the rainy cloud, cloudy overcast day that I'm basically standing. And you can see a bluish interior with contrasting stitching. All the ultra suede is basically covering the seats, including the headrest. There's a couple of places where there is the semi-aniline leather. These seats are heated and ventilated, and they adjust in 12 different ways. And you get a three person memory function on the driver's side. No massaging seats. Would have been nice to see Lexus include that, but this is less expensive than some of the more expensive Lexus models. You can see the door panel has this soft touch injection molded plastic. That is the macadamia color. You have the more of that ultra suede and the thunderstorm color. You can see more of that padded leather area, window controls, one touch for all four. They feel really high quality, nice quality switch gear. And it also is illuminated unlike what you get in the BZ4X. Down here, it is hard touch plastic. And you also have a little bit of storage over here, along with the matching blue carpet on the floor, which all looks very, very nice. Now, as I get inside this vehicle, you can see the step in height is pretty SUV traditional. I believe this has just under eight inches of ground clearance. And as you can also see, my tester is missing the direct adaptive steer technology. So we don't have the yoke, or at least Lexus doesn't call that. We have the traditional steering wheel, which I love the look of this as I get in and shut the door. The door has a nice solid sounding thunk, and this vehicle does not offer any kind of soft closed doors. Now, starting the car up, you can see start stop button here is right high on the dash, and it doesn't get blocked by the steering wheel, which is nice. As I push the button, you can see the steering wheel is power telescoping. You have a, I believe that's a seven inch digital cluster here with a 14 inch touchscreen over here. This is their Lexus connected services or the Lexus informed system here where it's their latest system. The new one that of course they first introduced on the NX, which is nice. You have a small seven inch display over here, which I don't love. Lexus has an all digital display that they just introduced on the TX and on the GX, but it's not here in this vehicle. And then you can see this also has a heads up display. You have rain sensing, a windshield wipers, automatic windshield wipers, and then the luxury trim includes the 13 speaker Mark Levinson premium sound. If you're an audiophile, I highly recommend checking that option for it. Now, all the RZs come with the Lexus safety system 3.0. It has a driver recognition system that'll tell if you're drowsy or not paying attention. The steering wheel itself is power tilt telescoping, like I said, and you have the usual touch sensitive buttons here with the ability to kind of change what these buttons do based on pushing this button over here. It'll change the actual type of button here where this is a touch sensitive control paddles on the wheel that control the regen braking. There's four different levels of regen. It doesn't quite give you true one pedal drive, but it does give you the ability to kind of slow the vehicle down by just lifting off the throttle, which is nice. The wheel itself has a good amount of range and adjustability. And then your three person memory buttons are over here. The horn sounds good. It doesn't sound puny. It sounds pretty nondescript, but appropriate given the size of this vehicle. And then you can see materials. You have a soft touch injection molded plastic here. It's also soft touch over this area. Although I'm surprised this isn't like leather stitched or leather stitch on the upper portion. So there are some areas where I think Lexus could have done better. It is nice and softly padded around here where you're going to rest your knee there, which is a nice touch. Now you have dual zone climate control, which is great. You have heated and ventilated seats with an automatic function. You also have their radiant heater here where this vehicle will kind of push hot air from the knees here and on the front driver passenger side, which is great in colder climates. You also have the ventilated seats and you'll be using that in colder climates as well, because as you can see, when I turn on the climate control, it really drops the range. 190 miles here, turn it on, it drops it to 151. So kind of keep that in mind. It is going to lower the range if you guys have the AC or the heat on in this vehicle, which isn't great. Now the Lexus interface system here you can see is really quick and snappy and responsive. I like the fact that the climate controls stay down there at the bottom. They're always there. And then if you want to go back to the Lexus system here, you can see it's very bright. It's very clear. It's responsive. It has built in embedded GPS, which is a cloud based system. Most of you are probably going to skip that and you're just going to use the GPS on your phone. Going over here, you can see there's your drive mode display, which you can also access it by just pushing that button there. You can see there's four different modes, normal, eco, sport, and range. Sport mode changes that to a slightly red look. You can also change the way that looks in the settings over here. There's also a range function. Don't like how there's not an actual button for changing the drive modes. As you can see, I put it into range mode and it shut off the air conditioning. So that's something to keep in mind. There's also a custom mode as well. So there's technically five different settings to change that. Now, if you go here into vehicle customize, you can also go into the illumination and change the thematic ambient lighting, which also includes a shadow illumination function, which the shadow illumination looks really cool in the door panels and the thematic ambient lighting here. You can see multiple different colors. This is the rainforest green. You can also go to like a blue, a meteor, a red, a pink, a white, an orange, a dawn yellowish color. So like that, this is optional on the luxury trim or it's included on the luxury trim. It's optional. It's part of that, that trim upgrade. The premium trims will just have the thematic ambient lighting without the multiple colors where you can change it. And overall it's a nice ambient light, but it's not quite as nice as what you're going to find in some of the European offerings. You can change the, again, the brightness there. The heads up display, you can adjust again through here. It's a nice size. This is not on the BZ4X as you guys know. And then as you can see over here, looking here, you can kind of adjust all your different stuff. So this is all fairly easy to use. And I also love the CarPlay function. When I put the vehicle into reverse, you can see there's your backup camera, your full 360 camera with front and rear parking sensors, trajectory and whatnot. It has automatic cross-traffic braking, front cross-traffic alert. So all the great safety tech features that you expect and the resolution and the camera quality is also a fairly decent. Now my tester is missing the digital camera rear view mirror for an extra 200 bucks. All of them come standard with this glass panoramic roof, which as you can see, push this button, it's opaque. But then when you push that, it turns to a transparent look. Push it again. You can see this is basically taken out of the Toyota Venza. It's definitely a nice touch, but this does not sadly open and there's no shade that opens and closes as well. The seats, you can see are comfortable, supportive. I love the ultra suede, although I question the durability of it, but I believe this is a synthetic material. Over here, as you can see, there's no glove box because that's where the radiant heater is. Instead, Lexus wants you to put all of your stuff in the glove box down here, where you can see I have the owner's manual and booklet. There's some nice dark black wood trim over here. The shifter is interesting. It's the same one that's in the BZ4X. You push down on the ring to go into neutral, twist it to the left to go to reverse, twist it to the right to go to drive, push the P button to go to park, and then you have your electronic parking brake over here. This is a nice padded center console area, and then you can see here, open that up, it's deep. That's a really nice storage area where you can basically put a lot of your stuff from where the glove box would go and put it in here. My camera equipment all fits in there very nicely. It also opens up from the other side as well, so the passenger can have access to it. But overall, the front seat area feels pretty similar in space to something like the RX or the NX or the RX in general. It's a really nice feeling interior where you can see out of it very nicely, and the materials, again, are pretty nice as well. But let me go ahead and hop into the back seat area of this vehicle and show you guys the space. Now, again, it's got those digital latch door handles, which, by the way, have the little button that you can push on the inside, or you can pull out if the power goes out. And then the materials back here, you can see they're the same soft-touch materials, which is nice. These seats are the same ultra suede, which looks good and they feel great. They also have the ability to kind of recline, and you can also fold them down to give you almost a completely flat low floor when you want to fold down those seats. But back here, you can see there's 37 and a half inches of legroom back here, which is about an inch more than versus what you're going to get in the Toyota BZ4X and the Lexus NX. This also has technically more space back here versus the RX, which is kind of interesting. It's all because of the packaging and the platform. You can see almost completely flat floor back here. You have rear seat air vents. You have heated rear seats with two USB ports, an actual 12-volt power outlet over here, although it's not a three-prong. You can see you have two storage cubbies over here, and then you also have an armrest that folds down, gives you two cup holders. In terms of the headroom space, you can see at five foot seven, there's tons of headroom for somebody my height. If you're over six feet, you might find it to be a little bit lacking. However, the glass roof, you can see there's this little area here that kind of takes up the view, but it's nice that you have this, you know, sunlight coming in over my head. You have ambient or LED lighting, map lighting back here, which is great. But overall, the back seat of the RZ is definitely a great selling feature, so if you want to use this as a family car, the RZ is certainly going to offer enough space to do so. So here we are on this rainy summer morning driving, again, the brand new 2023 Lexus RZ450e. I already had a chance to drive this vehicle at the first drive in California about three months ago. I spent some time with the BZ4X, a front-wheel drive single motor version, which kind of has the same battery pack, and I thought that vehicle was perfectly acceptable, but it also wasn't perfect, or it wasn't great on in real world testing versus like a lot of its main competitors. So now that we're in the RZ, this model here is the luxury oriented version. So as you guys know, it has almost an extra 100 horsepower, the same battery pack, it has a completely different interior, completely different exterior, and this luxury trim that we're driving essentially is going to compete with vehicles like the Tesla Model Y, the Genesis GV70 electrified, the Volvo XC40, the Audi Q8. There's a lot of new competitors in the space, and Lexus is late to the party, and I think they're also a little too late, especially when you talk about the range. At a full charge, this vehicle is only showing 199 miles, that's with the climate control off, turn it on and it drops to 137, more on that later. But when I last tested this vehicle, I got 4.66 seconds, 0 to 60. It is slightly damp out here. It's in sport mode. Let's see what we get in our actual testing here in the real world. A little bit of slippage, but it's going. All-wheel drive, remember, 4.73 there, and that's with a slight wheel slippage. So this thing is definitely quick. I mean, Lexus claims 0 to 60 in 5 seconds, which when I last tested this vehicle, I got 4.66. I'll try it on again in a couple more runs and see what we can get. Although, keep in mind, it is slightly damp, which will probably lengthen the 0 to 60 time by just a hair. But overall, this car feels quick. I mean, it feels like it has an additional 100 horsepower over the BZ. The quickest that I got with the front-wheel drive model was 6.6 seconds. So this is almost two seconds faster, 0 to 60-wise, than that vehicle. So clearly your money, your extra $18,000 for the base price to this car from a BZ is clearly money well-spent if you guys really want the extra speed. Let's try it over here on this stretch. I'm not going to brake at this time. It didn't really like that, but try it again here. It's literally fighting for traction, but we're going 4.86 there, and that's with it more going slightly uphill. I'll try it one more time up ahead there to see what we can actually get. But this vehicle is quicker than vehicles like the Lexus NX 450h Plus. I tested that at 5.5 seconds. It's also quicker than a Lexus RX 500h F-Sport Performance. I tested that at 5.7 seconds. This is about a second faster. In terms of the straight line acceleration, it should match that of a Tesla Model Y long-range dual motor. So that model Tesla claims 4.8. I haven't had a chance to test that vehicle out, but that's kind of like the benchmark. So Lexus clearly has enough speed and power for this vehicle. And in terms of the rest of the driving dynamics, this vehicle is built on their TNGAE architecture, which is technically a blend of their gas powertrain platform with this electric motor. It's a skateboard architecture, and the RZ weighs in at around 200 pounds heavier than the BZ4X. This vehicle at 4,600 pounds is certainly heavy, but it's not as heavy as some competitors that are over 5,000 pounds. And you certainly feel that the handling dynamics, while this car is not sporty, it also feels very Lexus-like. It's got a really smooth, quiet, comfortable ride. It's also very quiet in this vehicle as well, in terms of the road noise, the vibrations, and whatnot. It feels like I'm essentially driving an electric Lexus RX, which is a great, you know, comparison to make because the RX is one of the best driving luxury vehicles out there. The steering is electric power steering. It has zero feedback, but it has pretty good precision. The vehicle changes directions with authority, which is nice. It just doesn't have much in terms of road feel, which is fine. The target market for a vehicle like this doesn't really necessarily care too much about that. But I'm basically sitting, that's the front cross-drive alert that does that, that makes that noise. I'm basically sitting in a vehicle that feels like a great luxury SUV. And then I also like the sounds this thing makes. The BZ doesn't make any kind of sounds when you put your foot down. The RZ does. It has that synthesized sound that gets louder in sport mode, which is actually kind of nice as well. I definitely like, you know, that extra character that Lexus is giving you with the RZ. I think it's important when you're thinking of a vehicle like this, you want it to feel a little bit more special because again, you're, there's a reason why you're paying the extra amount of money for something like this. But let's try it again here on this little stretch and see if we can also get closer to that first time. No wheel spin this time, just lots of power. 4.5 there. So no wheel spin, don't brake torque it. You can easily do 4.5 seconds, zero to 60 runs in this vehicle in dry, you know, perfect conditions with the battery almost fully charged. So I think that the speed is great. Could Lexus do an even faster F version? Absolutely. I mean, the closest competitor I'm thinking to this vehicle is the Genesis GV70 Electrified. I got 3.7 seconds in that vehicle, which is way faster than Genesis's claims. So yes, it's still almost a second faster than this vehicle, but this is certainly not slow. So in terms of the performance, those of you who, you know, are coming from any other Lexus product, you're going to get into this and be blown away. I mean, it's quicker than vehicles like the LC500. They're, you know, luxury Grand Tourer V8 powered sports car that has a five liter V8. This is actually just as fast as that vehicle. So that's kind of, it kind of puts it into perspective because today, today or not today, but like previously the quickest accelerating Lexus is still the LFA. There hasn't been anything that's faster from Lexus that'll accelerate faster, but this is pretty darn close to being up there. So it's kind of an achievement of electric vehicles and how, how fast and obsolete they're making gas powered, fast gas powered vehicles because of just how quick they are. Now let's talk a little bit about the range in this vehicle, because this car is rated at 196 miles, 220 if you guys go for the 18 inch wheels on the base or trim. In my week's worth of testing, this is where the RZ really just falls completely short for me. The range is just absolutely atrocious on a full charge. Like I mentioned, 199 miles. When you turn on the climate control, like what I've turned it on now, it drops to 153. Now that range figure is an estimation based on how you drive the vehicle, which it can fluctuate and change as you drive earlier. It said 137. In my real world testing, I had a chance to put a couple hundred miles in this vehicle and drive it for a little bit. It was only getting around 150 ish miles on a full charge. That's with the climate control off. It's been kind of mild here. Uh, it's, you know, we're, we're in the early parts of summer, so I wouldn't, I didn't have to have the AC on. Um, but this vehicle does have the radiant leg warmers, the heated steering wheel, the heated seats, the ventilated seats. So Lexus wants you to use those features first before you turn on the client and climate control. Um, but 150 ish miles on a full charge is awful. I mean, that number would have been acceptable like 10 years ago, but today compared to the 300 plus miles is a range that you're going to find in the luxury space. And with lucid, for example, doing 500 miles, granted, that's a much more expensive car. Uh, the Lexus really comes up short. So this is where Lexus should have really launched this vehicle with at least, you know, 250 ish to 300 miles of range. I mean, even the Genesis GV 70, which is below average in the range is 236. So this is well below average. And in the real world, it's not great. And in the real world, this vehicle doesn't charge very quickly. Uh, it only has a 6.6 kilowatt onboard charger. It takes about 10 to 11 hours to charge this thing on a level two at my home, uh, where it's accepting around 23 miles per hour of charge. Most other EVs in the segment will do 30 to 40 miles of, uh, per hour of range. When you have it on a level two on a level three, a DZ fast charger that has, this has the same battery pack. Uh, and again, it'll accept up to 150. That's your, that'll vary of course, because Lexus is very conservative with the charging speeds of this vehicle because they are wanting to ensure longevity, um, in the long run, which is fine. That's what Lexus and Toyota are known for. But I think in the EV space, it's really going to disappoint a lot of you, especially when you look at something like the, uh, Tesla model Y, which is $10,000 cheaper than this vehicle. And it also does up to 330 miles of range. Now, does it do that in the real world? I don't know. I haven't had a chance to test one out yet in real world driving, but just know that this vehicle's range is about a hundred miles short in the real world of what I think most people are going to expect, especially when you're paying this kind of premium. Now, in terms of the rest of the car, the interior is fantastic. The seats are comfortable. The driver assistance tech really works well. You can see out of the vehicle nicely. It's quiet. It feels like a well-made Japanese luxury car. So it excels as a Lexus, but it fails as an electric vehicle in terms of range and in terms of charging speeds. And I'm a little more harsher on this vehicle versus the BZ because the BZ is cheaper by around $18,000 on the low end, about 10,000 on the high end. And the BZ also has roughly about 30 to 40 more miles of range, which is more acceptable, but still kind of behind the class. Um, and the fact that this vehicle also doesn't qualify for the tax credit, however, Lexus has priced it lower than its main rivals, like the Genesis GV70 electrified. However, when you start to again, look at the Tesla, this is where the V the Lexus really starts to fall completely short, but overall it's definitely still a decent first effort from Lexus. It's just going to put a lot of breaks or pause on people when you're looking for an electric vehicle, especially when you can also go into the Lexus showroom and essentially buy an NX 450 H plus a plugin hybrid that does literally triple the range of this, uh, in gas and electric hybrid mode. And it's roughly about the same money. So if you're spending a full week with Lexus's first ever fully dedicated battery electric vehicle, I have to say when I first initially drove this vehicle in California, it came across as better in the real world versus on paper, especially when you look at the range and the charging figures. But after spending a full week with the RZ, I have to say as a luxury vehicle, the RZ excels this vehicle feels every bit like a Lexus inside from the plush seats to the well-made interior to the really nice materials to the great tech. I love the 14 inch infotainment system in this vehicle and the more conventional conventional instrument panel versus what you get in the Toyota BZ 4X. The backseat also offers plenty of space, more rear seat legroom than some competitors. The trunk isn't the biggest in the segment, but it's definitely very usable. Sad about the fact that there is no frunk in this vehicle. And in terms of the driving dynamics, this vehicle essentially just feels like an all electric Lexus RX from the way it rides to the way it handles, uh, to, uh, the way that, uh, the interior just feels really well made in terms of the acceleration, zero to 60 in four and a half seconds is quick. Is it the quickest accelerating EV in the segment? No, absolutely not, but it's going to have more than enough power for most Lexus shoppers. And the fact that this is one of the quickest accelerating vehicles that Lexus builds really just shows you how electric vehicles are making fast gas powered cars, uh, completely obsolete as the industry continues to move toward electric cars. But when you start looking at the RZ as an electric vehicle, this is where Lexus really should have spent a little more time with this vehicle before they released it to the public. Because in my real world testing 150 miles ish of real world range, it's just mediocre. It's paltry. It's unacceptable considering how much money this vehicle costs. Now, for those of you who don't plan to take wrong road trips and you have again, like a gas powered vehicle or a Lexus hybrid to drive, um, this will be great as a second car to drive around town, to do shorter distances. You can again, theoretically DC fast it, but it doesn't really DC fast charge quick in the real world. And it also slow charges on a level two, even which Lexus really should have addressed. Now, Lexus does have a solution because they do offer you up to three years of loaner car service. If you guys want to go on road trips, you buy this vehicle, you can just go to your Lexus dealer and take one of their hybrids. If you want to go on a road trip, which is a great stop point to show those of you who want this vehicle that you can still purchase it and then get a hybrid loaner, um, to drive on a longer road trip. So that's a nice little perk that Lexus isn't going to give you, but just keep in mind, there are far better EVs out there that have much better range. Now, in terms of the pricing, this car starts at just under $60,000. As I start to get rained on this luxury trim is around $5,000 more at 65 with options. My tester came to around $67,000 and some change that is actually a really good price in the space because the Genesis GV70 electrified starts at around and then if you guys want something like the Tesla, that's going to start at around and all this is about $10,000 more than a fully loaded BZ4X at the lower end. So kind of keep that in mind. This car, like I said earlier, does not qualify for the federal tax credit because it is built in Japan. So as a first effort, it's a great luxury car, but not a great EV, but Lexus does have some perks of course, to kind of show you that the company is going to work on improving their EV technology. And they also have that little stop gap for those of you who want to take road trips where you can go to a Lexus dealer and take a loaner of your choice to go on those longer trips. And with all that said, I hope you guys have enjoyed my full overview on the brand new 2023 Lexus RZ450E. If you're also looking to see the latest cars I'm testing, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Redline Underscore Reviews. Like us on Facebook. And as always guys, please keep subscribing to the Redline Reviews YouTube channel for all the latest reviews. Thank you so much for watching. I'll catch you all in the next video.