*HANDS ON* The Future of Lexus Begins with the Electric 2023 RZ450e

We got a lot to go over with lexuss first fully electric battery fully battery electric vehicle so lets pop the hood and lets talk about the power drain on the camera. Today is Chris Brower from the winding road, the Topher, the daily motor, Etc many channels. We dont actually have a hood struts here, no youve got a which I cant believe I didnt notice earlier. This is the most unless thing about this vehicle. You know what, though, so I have an 03 Lexus IS300 and its got the same style Hood problems, its probably the same one, probably the same assembly lock right, okay, so under the hood we have a 150 kilowatt front motor. So this is, of course, all wheel. Drive standard, you know the in the rear. You have an 80 kilowatt motor that we see on, like the bz4x. All wheel drive so total horsepower. An American units is 308 horsepower and 320 pound feet of torque. It doesnt sound that much in the air of electrification, but if you want to think about it in terms of thats, a pretty uh thats, a pretty German Shepherd, you want to get them on camera anyways. We can see him thats, a pretty dog if you want to think about it in, like Lexus terms, its essentially dropping the 4.6 liter V8 from the Lexus GX 460 and putting it in this small compact crossover in terms of Dimensions, its kind of like an RX And an NX somewhere in between thats a little bit lower than them um Also the battery.

Well, I guess we can come around to like the charging port here. The battery here is the same battery. We have on um thats all the charging ports. On the other side, the other side, the e tron has them on both sides and each on last week the battery is 71.4 kilowatt hours. It can do DC DC fast charging 150 kilowatts, just like the bz4x, for example, if you plug it in at a level two overnight, it can charge up to about nine hours from zero to eighty percent range. With these 20 inch wheels. The range is about 196 miles and if you get the small wheels with the fatter tires its going to give to you uh about 220 miles of range, so lets talk about the exterior design. At this point, oh this dogs coming, oh, is he okay, hi Bobby? Okay, I was hes, you know: Im gon na smell, like wet dog. Now: okay, okay, bye! Thank you, German Shepherd there he goes um. You know, thats, a friendliest German Shepherd Ive ever met, usually theyre, pretty serious yeah. All right so lets talk about what we have going up front here. Well, wheres the spindle Grill its incorporated into the body. This is the spindle body well, and this particular model has a two tone. I made sure we got the two tone because it accentuates this design language for Lexus. I think it looks a little bit better without the two tone paint options and just like the Toyota Crown, I like how theyre theyre uh going for the fences with the design trying something a little bit out of the ordinary, with the two tone.

Now this isnt, the only color you can get on the RZ. What do I mean by that? Well, the rest of the colors are black silver gray. This is the new color called ether in other markets. They get the Copper Crest color that you have on the RX. We dont get that here now. Every single model also has a glossy paint match: Fender, overarches or or wheel arches. Whatever you want to call them. This has the optional 20 inch wheels? These are the best looking Wheels you can get on the RZ. You can only get a them on the luxury grade. On the premium grade, you can get the 20s, but theyre kind of the machine finished two tone setup that we have going on now. Coming from the side, 112 inch wheelbase its the same wheelbase as the bz4x, its the same wheelbase. We see in the Lexus RX the new RX, for example its the golden ratio that you see on like the LX 600 and all Land Cruisers as well. So nice long wheelbase for a compact vehicle and youll see on the inside that it does opening open things up on the inside now, coming around to the back, you mentioned earlier that it kind of reminds you of Aston Martin dbx its not a bad comparison. What do those things go for like 250 Grand to 250 Grand yeah, so every single Lexus RZ at least that launches the 450e with the direct 4 all wheel drive, which I mentioned, has the 308 horsepower.

So you have that unique batch here, theres, no f! Sport trim, which Lexus is putting an app sport on an LX. I dont know why they didnt bring S4 here. Typically, you see an f sport badge on the back or or on the side of the vehicle, but we dont have that. What are your thoughts on that? They kind of teased it in the way that you mentioned these black Fender Arch, whatever things earlier, and they said that body colored ones are coming, they said theyre coming, so that kind of makes me think that there will also be enough support as well give it F, sport performance put 150 kilowatts on each axle. Thatll give us 400 horsepower yeah and now were talking all right so Lexus, I know youre listening make it happen. I do what do you? I do really like the Lexus letter in here yeah thats kind of a new thing that theyve been doing since the new NX right, the new NX, the new LX. Have it um the RX has it. You know you could see like a Lexus badge kind of being put put there, but it looks great. We have the light bar that goes across the back kind of like all the Lexus IS, but I almost get more Vibes of the new Prius, which is not a bad thing. With this light bar, we also have these unique fins here. These Vortex uh emulators vortex. Oh gosh Ill.

Look, it up Ill, put it yeah. What Lexus was saying is that it helps smooth out. The experience makes it more aerodynamic. Speaking of aerodynamics 0.29 coefficient of drag, it is the slipperiest Lexus on the market and maybe ever maybe the CT or something could have been slightly more efficient back in the day. So they said this gives you the the stability as a full spoiler, but you its not going to catch any cross breezes and create lift or anything like that. I think it looks cool. I dont see other than the bz4x, the bz4x. I think it has fatter ones this one. These are definitely pointy. They look like teeth on the back, so lets get in the cargo capacity since were back here and I believe its around 23 cubic feet and one of the cool things is. If you want to. If you have stuff here, you can press this lock button before you get your hands full got my hands full. I walk away, assuming I have the key on me, which I dont it will close and uh yeah youre Off to the Races and you dont have to worry about touching the button, all right underneath here, massive additional storage. I didnt know this was actually under here. So this is great to see this is your level one. It comes standard with the vehicle. I think it takes like 50 hours to charge it from like zero to 80 on a level one, its an emergency situation, pretty much um theres, also more additional storage, as I lift up this piece here and what Lexus was saying is that this car this thing Folds in half it fits in here and also, if you get the optional sunroof covers because theres no sunroof shade in there.

If you get those optional ones, they fit in here, very naturally as well its like they have a space for it and we just threw our bags in here theres plenty of space. Of course, these seats will fold down kind of that standard crossover functionality, but lets go ahead and get in the back seat now and talk about what we have going on the seats in this luxury grade. Theyre all super suede, ultra suede, I dont know the the exact term is for it: ultra suede, ultra suede, so theyre using ultra suede in here super comfortable, very soft to the touch it definitely feels premium. We also have rear vents back here been using this USBC to charge the camera. I believe there are five USBS in here. There are three more up front two back here. You also have heated outdoor seats on this luxury trim. You also have additional 12 volt back here for more power. If you need it, matte pockets on back of each seat, its really really soft. You also have that nice suede on the back of the seat as well now the door material that door slam sounds great by the way soft touch up top, and we have that suede insert here stitching around the bottom and we have the digital latch here that Debuted on the new NX as well as we look up, this sunroof does look pretty pretty big and we have a ton of Headroom back here.

So, even though it has a very sloping and aggressive roof line to get that, you know High coefficient low coefficient of drying high efficiency, we still have that that Headroom back here yeah, I feel a nice yeah yeah. Now, while were talking about it, this has the dynamic Sky sunroof. We first saw it on the Toyota Venza. I think they call it the Stargazer roof, but theres a little button here and a completely like dims, the the like. I can look at the sun. Can you see the Sun or its its like a red, its blood red, its quite beautiful, to be honest but yeah Mike when you turn the car off it defaults to this mode? And when you press this button it runs an electric current through the panes and these little things on the inside align. So you can see out of it and it is tinted naturally, but there is no cover here. So those are, I think, thats an option. Uh, like on the bz4x, for example as well as here where you can get an additional cover to sit on the inside here, because this Stargazer roof is an option, its not standard on the luxury, its an option only on the luxury uh, like these 20 inch Wheels that we showed you earlier, the materials on the door are the same in the front as they are in the back this steering wheel. So it feels different than any other Lexus steering wheel, Ive ever touched, and the reason is Lexus is not using any wood and theyre not using any leather in here its strange at first, but its, not its, not strange in a bad way.

In fact like this might be the the softest best feeling Alexis steering wheel, Ive ever felt more materials. This is a super soft nice material. Here you see that Mark 11, the corner Mark Levinson, is standard on the luxury all right. So if you get the premium, you cant get the 12 speakers and over a thousand watts of power. Now you mentioned that the bass, sound systems, typically sound, pretty good in lexuss, right yeah and the the base system and the premium in this car is – is pretty dang good. It sounds pretty good yeah no wood here, but we have this material here, its Japanese inspired. I dont know the the Japanese word for it, but if I find that Ill put put it up there for you guys, this is exclusive to the luxury grade couple cup holders here, and we also have your your wireless charger up here. You have a parking, assist 360 camera well go and do that Ill, do its little dance, but the best way to just get the 360 camera is this? Now, if you listen, we got a backup beep on here, so I dont know if that would be a driving impression, but you guys can put down below what you think of this backup. Beep dont know if its defeatable or not so Im, just going to put it in park, but the 360 camera on here is fine. 14 inch screen is standard here.

This is the same screen. We have on lets say the Lexus RX NX and I like the big rotary dial knobs here. They have a nice resistance to them, nice resistance on the volume knob as well climate control. Most of your things are right up here now. This is a a button that has never been seen in a Lexus before so we have radiant heating on the Lexus RZ, which is similar to what we saw on the bz4x. So weve seen it before you have this little infrared lamp. Essentially, that is showering super hot rays of goodness to your legs, but you can also use it to heat up your hands because it gets warmer actually than the heated steering wheel. You also have it on the passenger end as well, and yours is much bigger, takes up the whole area area. Mine is just like the the steering column here so two spots, two spots of it and its its never going to burn you. Lexus uh is able to reduce the temperature. It can sense when youre touching it, which I thought was pretty crazy and it allows you to not use the the fans and the traditional climate control in here as much, which will help increase your range of course. Now, behind the steering wheel, we have a seven inch mid. This thing looks like its. You know five years old, already weve seen it a lot of other vehicles. Theres no 12 inch screen in here, for example, like you see on the new Highlander or the new RAV4, is an option.

So we have a small seven inch screen back there. The quality is average its not that high resolution compared to this screen. We also have a massive head up display on here customizable, with these buttons on the steering wheel, just like we saw on the new NX and RX so thats carried over here as well. We also have the proactive driving assistant feature here, so this little sensor here will look at my eyeballs, so it can slow down the car uh when youre in traffic. It also has traffic jam, assist. It has front cross traffic, alert, Lane change, assist, Etc. On this vehicle, Lexus specific, if you say Lexus you trigger the word, so I got to be careful Lex, really put a lot of attention on the the rotary dial for the shift knob. Here you push down and you twist to go and drive simple. As that you push to go in neutral and you push and and go left for R and P for Park its super simple. I I think I actually like it better than their hybrids, where you kind of move the stock around. This is very simple. To use. Very intuitive they also brought a lot of attention to the knurling. This reminds me of like a dumbbell but its not going to tear your hands up. This is plastic, but its that similar grippy surface, that you see on a dumbbell or a barbell with the radiant knee heaters, we dont have a glove box just like the bz 4x.

So what is that doing? For the the cargo situation? Well, Lexus kept saying chain underneath here actually can you believe this is also that ultra suede material down here so Alexis doing the things in the shadows thats going to get sticky from things well, dont put sticky things down there, youll be youll, be fine um. So you have that and then here you can open this up both ways, so you can see the additional uh cargo capacity in here. This is felt line, not Alcantara or ultra suede lined. What is this thats a Tracker? So if we drive off with the car, they will find us and there. What is this is this for coins or something we also have the little felt line here, for maybe a stick of gum. One of the you know Pez dispenser. I dont know which Alexis people, like probably this, looks like a gum slot yeah yeah. Can you see it better from this angle? Gum slot Ill see you guys in the comments what you think this is for now I mentioned the steering wheel. I guess I can mention the panel switchers. You have different modes of regen here. You do not have one pedal driving, but I guess its an additional level of interaction. You can have with your battery electric vehicle a lot of modern cars forego the sunglasses holder. This is lined with felt and if we look at this material here, this is actually pretty soft.

Here I was in the uh e tron last week and they had a rougher headliner. Now some of its competitors will have like a suede headliner, which is obviously Superior to this. But, to be honest, I Im happy with this its its its its adequate. We also have a little LED light here for your vanity mirror in the future. Lexus will be bringing a steering yoke or what do they call it drive by wire? You might have to bleep that word. Did you get zapped for saying it earlier or something someone was very upset when someone one else said it really: yeah, okay, well, thats, literally what it is, but anyways this has in the future. Theyll have a drive by wire system. It will have a cost as well so thats, something that surprised me. I thought itd just be like a no cost option, because it is so radical uh, but were gon na find out today, because we havent driven it yet but well find out today how it compares to the old school steering wheel. Also, we do not have a digital rear view mirror in here. The previous had one the premium EDM had one yeah. That is an optional feature, I guess on premium and luxury it is not standard. Now it is auto dimming and you do have you know your garage door openers here, but just keep that in mind. Digital rearview mirror not standard even on the luxury grade, but thats.

All I have to share with you guys today definitely come back March. 13Th. 7 A.M. Eastern time did I get the Embargo right? Is it right, uh its 7 A.M? Eastern yep, okay, come back then, and well be able to share all our driving Impressions with the new Lexus RZ. If you guys enjoyed it, hit the like button Ill catch. You in the next one peace, Music. Thank you, foreign, Music, Music.