Lexus has given its first electrical automotive in Australia, the UX300e, a big overhaul.
Quite than a standard nip-and-tuck, it’s fitted a brand new battery pack that helps lengthen the claimed vary by greater than 100km in a bid to make the UX extra aggressive with the rising crowd of electrical SUVs duking it out across the $80,000 mark.
Together with the larger new battery, the up to date UX electrical automotive options an improved touchscreen and smarter tech for the driving force, a strengthened chassis, and revised tuning for the electrical energy steering, shock absorbers and brakes.
As you’d count on, pricing has additionally been hiked. Has Lexus performed sufficient with its newest replace to make the little UX 300e related?
How does the Lexus UX fare vs its rivals?
View an in depth breakdown of the Lexus UX in opposition to equally sized automobiles.
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How a lot does the Lexus UX 300e price?
Costs are up on the electrical UX 300e and by simply shy of $8000 for the dearer mannequin; though, each fashions simply handle to sneak under the all-important threshold for the FBT exemption that makes it cheaper to take out a novated lease on an electrical automotive.
The bottom UX 300e Luxurious is round $13,000 costlier than the priciest UX Hybrid, and goes head-to-head with the Hyundai Ioniq 5 Techniq ($79,500) and Kia EV6 GT-Line RWD ($79,590).
It additionally aligns neatly with the Tesla Mannequin Y Lengthy Vary ($78,400), and is aligned with the BMW iX1 eDrive20 ($78,900).
Lexus UX 300e pricing:
- 2024 Lexus UX 300e Luxurious: $79,990
- 2024 Lexus UX 300e Sports activities Luxurious: $87,665
All costs exclude on-road prices
What’s the Lexus UX like on the within?
One of many massive adjustments to the UX is the 12.3-inch display that dominates the dashboard.
Earlier than the replace, the UX had a clunky infotainment system that undermined its pitch as a small SUV for younger patrons. The brand new 12.3-inch display fixes that with polished graphics, wi-fi smartphone mirroring, and a easy menu construction that makes it straightforward to leap round on the transfer.
The lack of most bodily buttons isn’t too keenly felt as a result of there are nonetheless massive shortcuts on your local weather controls, and Hey Lexus voice prompts typically work effectively.
It elevates the cabin, and goes not less than a few of the technique to justifying the worth hike. It’s a disgrace the digital dashboard stays a reasonably primary affair, full with an analogue battery capability gauge that doesn’t fairly match up with the digital vary readout.
Up entrance, the basics are stable. The seats are accomodating and generously padded, with loads of help for longer journeys, and the chubby steering wheel is trimmed in the identical tender, waxy leather-based you get on costlier Lexus fashions.
All the things you contact feels costly, from the soft armrests to the stubby little drive selector, and there’s loads of storage round. It doesn’t really feel significantly electrical – there’s a pronounced transmission tunnel, in contrast to in a ground-up electrical automotive – and the startup sequence ought to really feel acquainted to anybody hopping out of a Lexus hybrid.
Rear seat house stays a UX weak level. It’s not nice within the entry degree petrol mannequin, which is priced in step with a Volkswagen T-Roc, and it’s very poor when you think about what near $90,000 will purchase you in Australia. That’s with any powertrain; petrol, diesel, hybrid or electrical.
Legroom is tight behind taller drivers, and even with a small pilot you’d by no means name the second row spacious. Headroom is appropriate however nothing extra, and the rising window line means it’s not a light-weight, brilliant place for kids to take a seat.
This isn’t a automotive for individuals who use the again seats typically, it’s so simple as that.
At the least there are air vents again there, together with a fold-down central armrest. The outboard seats have ISOFIX factors, and there are three top-tether factors.
Claimed boot house is one other weak spot. Lexus says you get 314 litres again there, and the form of the load bay conspires with the form of the rear glass to make it laborious to load cumbersome or awkward objects.
We’ve criticised the Hyundai Ioniq 5 for the form of its boot, but it surely’s the identical value because the UX and makes it look tiny. Lexus does provide an even bigger electrical automotive within the type of the RZ, but it surely’s considerably costlier once more.
What’s beneath the bonnet?
Energy within the UX 300e comes from a motor mounted on the entrance axle, making 150kW of energy and 300Nm of torque.
The UX 300e will get a 72.8kWh battery pack for 2023, up from the 54.4kWh battery pack that featured earlier than. Vary has been boosted from 315km to 450km on the WLTP mixed take a look at cycle.
We noticed consumption of round 18kWh per 100km in a mixture of metropolis and freeway driving, equal to round 400km of driving vary in the true world.
It may well cost at as much as a modest 50kW on a public DC quick charger, and has a Sort 2 plug instead of the CHAdeMO plug on the earlier mannequin. Most cost velocity on an AC wall field is 6.6kW.
How does the Lexus UX 300e drive?
Apart from the vary readout, little or no has modified in how the UX300e drives.
Lexus has labored laborious to make all of it really feel exceedingly regular; like a daily UX Hybrid however even quieter. And there’s no query it’s extremely quiet.
Apart from a sometimes shrill Toyota beep whenever you flip the automotive on, it’s useless silent. There’s no whirring from the motors, and virtually no roar from the tyres or whistle from the mirrors. The refinement ranges are lifted from automobiles twice the dimensions, and a category above.
Trip high quality is superb. No effort has been made to ship a sporty-feeling automotive right here, which implies it feels beautiful and relaxed on pimply metropolis streets. It floats alongside like an even bigger automotive, and has a long-travel feeling over velocity bumps that may produce other small SUVs feeling a bit tinny.
With mild steering and a tiny footprint, the UX is a cinch to pilot in tight areas. Beneath the pores and skin it shares loads with a Toyota Corolla, which implies it’s proper at residence within the metropolis.
Imaginative and prescient out the entrance and sides is sweet, though there’s an honest blind spot over your shoulder, and the cameras and sensors imply there’s no actual excuses to scrape a wheel or ding a bumper.
There’s no eye-opening electrical punch off the mark, however the UX 300e is certainly sooner than the petrol and hybrid. It’ll spin its entrance wheels in case you try to take off in a rush, and has sufficient get-up-and-go to place the typical household SUV in its rear-view mirror away from the visitors lights.
It’s a disgrace at this value you’re nonetheless coping with wheel spin although, given rival electrical SUVs at this value can be found with all-wheel drive.
Even the range-topping UX 250h can really feel a bit breathless and shouty whenever you wish to get a transfer on, which isn’t one thing you may say concerning the electrical mannequin on take a look at right here.
On the freeway, the electrical UX defies its compact footprint. It feels massive on the street, and doesn’t get knocked round by vans or crosswinds – then once more, that is also credited to its 1840kg kerb weight.
Save for a touch of street roar from the tyres, that very same sense of quiet from town carries over to the open street. So does the snug experience, though massive crests and dips could make it really feel heavy, bobbing round because the suspension works to manage the additional mass relative to a hybrid.
Coupled with a easy, sensible adaptive cruise management system and a lane-keeping help that solely will get concerned when required, the spectacular refinement makes this just a little electrical automotive you’ll wish to drive lengthy distances… simply not too lengthy, given it’ll solely cost at 50kW utilizing public DC cost infrastructure.
What do you get?
UX 300e Luxurious highlights:
- 17-inch alloy wheels
- LED headlights
- 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen
- 13-speaker Mark Levinson audio
- Twin-zone local weather management
- Heated, ventilated entrance seats
- Heated steering wheel
- Heated outboard rear seats
- NuLuxe leatherette upholstery
- Washi instrument panel stitching
- Lexus Linked Providers
- Lexus Security System+
UX 300e Sports activities Luxurious provides:
- 18-inch alloy wheels
- Acoustic entrance facet glass
- Tri-projected LED headlights
- Adaptive high-beam
- Leather-based-accented upholstery
- Moonroof
- Head-up show
- Panoramic View Monitor
Is the Lexus UX 300e secure?
The Lexus UX 300e has a five-star ANCAP security score primarily based on testing carried out by Euro NCAP.
It scored 96 per cent for grownup occupant safety, 88 per cent for baby occupant safety, 82 per cent for weak street person safety, and 83 per cent for security help.
Customary security tools consists of:
- Autonomous emergency braking (AEB)
- Pedestrian detection (day, night time)
- Bicycle owner detection (day)
- Adaptive cruise management with cease/go
- Blind-spot monitoring
- Lane Hint Help
- Visitors signal recognition
- Rear cross-traffic help
- Computerized high-beam
- Entrance and rear parking sensors
- 8 airbags
The UX 300e Sports activities Luxurious provides:
- Tri-beam LED headlights
- Adaptive high-beam
- Encompass-view cameras
How a lot does the Lexus UX 300e price to run?
The Lexus vary is backed by a five-year, unlimited-kilometre guarantee. The battery is roofed for as much as 10 years or 160,000 kilometres if its storage capability falls under 70 per cent.
Lexus presents capped-price servicing of $295 per go to for the primary 5 companies, with intervals of 12 months or 15,000 kilometres.
The UX 300e comes with a three-year subscription to the Encore Platinum Electrified program, which incorporates automobile loans, entry to valet parking vouchers at taking part areas, and three years of free charging at Chargefox public cost stations.
Consumers of the UX 300e additionally obtain a professionally put in AC residence charger from JET Cost as a part of their buy.
CarExpert’s Tackle the Lexus UX 300e
The UX300e hasn’t been elevated to a category chief with its newest replace, but it surely has turn into simpler to advocate because of the larger new battery.
Toyota deserves credit score for investing the money and time in becoming a extra power dense pack to the UX.
The very fact it’s managed to suit an additional 18kWh right into a battery the identical dimension because the one it replaces exhibits how briskly battery know-how is transferring… or how far off the tempo the pre-update automotive was.
Quiet, snug, and opulent, it ticks all of the packing containers you’d count on of a compact Lexus – however its small boot, tight again seat, sluggish DC charging, and lack of efficiency or all-wheel drive alongside a Tesla Mannequin Y, Kia EV6, or Hyundai Ioniq 5, make it a pleasant first step into the world of electrical energy for a small pool of individuals as a substitute of an outright rival for the EV leaders.
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BUY: Lexus UX
MORE: All the things Lexus UX
