Lexus RZ

Lexus RZ is a luxury electric SUV with range

By Jim Bray
July 14, 2026

I just spent a week in an electric SUV that didn't give me range anxiety!

Okay, I didn't venture too far from home, but I did drive this interesting vehicle as if I owned it, driving lead footedly through mostly urban miles with one nearby-city trip. I drove it just as I'd drive my own vehicles, neither of which are powered electrically in the slightest, if you don't count usual electric things like lights, audio, etc.

And after that week of driving it as if it were a Porsche, I still had a nearly 60 per cent charge left. I was amazed.

To put this into perspective, while I haven't driven a lot of all-electric vehicles, the last time I tried taking one on a road trip we cut it short because I had to recharge the damn thing after slightly more than an hour of highway driving. The weather conditions and my lead footedness contributed to that, but it was still ridiculous.

To be fair, my highway driving in the Lexus RZ 450E – since there's no lesson to be learned the second time you're kicked by a mule – was limited to one jaunt to Airdrie, Alberta, which is only about 20 minutes north of my home base of Calgary. But even with that and a whole week of what I consider normal driving around the city, there was enough juice left that I could have probably driven it another week before needing a charge.

My gob was smacked!

But of course, things are never perfect. When I charged it before returning it to Lexus, I let it sit for 22 hours in front of my house, using a regular exterior extension cord running across my front lawn. That's how I charge EV's, because I don't own one and have no intention of owning one. If I did, I'd also get a dedicated charger in my garage. If you're going to go EV, might as well do it right, right?

The RZ's charging port apparently lets you use Tesla's network, which is nice, and I'm confident that it would charge this lovely SUV lickety split. But as it turns out, 22 hours of charging from my home's wiring only gained my about 18 per cent charge (from about 56 to 74 per cent). I thought that was appallingly slow, even with my limited EV charging experience.

On the other hand, I've had at least one EV that refused to play with my home wiring at all and forced me to seek out a dedicated charging station. So, I guess there's that!

I'm a tad embarrassed to note that I forgot to check how many kilometres I got from the full charge the RZ had when I picked it up, so I apologize to you for that. But I'm still impressed with its charge, if only in comparison to other EV's I've tried.

This only makes sense, since technology marches ever onward and range anxiety is one of the chief things keeping EV's from becoming mainstream (there's also such things as price anxiety...). And according to some other reviews of the RZ, this current version is a bit of a mid-cycle refresh and it has increased the electric range (hey, I have one of those in my kitchen!) from its initial release.

Naturally, there are other tweaks from earlier years, but the added battery storage and, therefore, range is up top of the list, since range is the bane of many EV's at this stage of the technology.

It's a pretty nice car, er, SUV, to drive, too. Lexus isn't known for making particularly compelling vehicles for those afflicted with lead feet – there are a few exceptions, such as the LF-A, some IS's, and the like – but I found that putting it into sport mode (you can do this via the big LCD I learned to hate so much) tightens things up nicely and practically eliminates any wallow there might be in "regular" mode.

That single setting made me really enjoy being behind the wheel, much more than I expected. Oh, I wouldn't compare it with more sport-oriented SUV's such as Porsche's Macan or even the Mazda CX-5, but for what it purports to be it's pretty slick.

Another thing to love for the lead footed is the electric torque. It, as with EV's in general, pushes you back in your seat in a most marvelous way that reminded me of the Porsche 911 Turbo S I reviewed many years ago. That's a seriously apples-to-oranges comparison, but that's kind of how it felt. It undoubtedly doesn't hurt that the RZ also features what they call Direct 4 AWD, which is meant to help with the handling.

That, and its luxurious touches, are about the only things the RZ has in common with the 911, but that's fine; the RZ doesn't pretend to be a grand tourer like that and that's okay, too.

The RZ's suspension features coil spring and an independent double wishbone rear suspension. Up front, there's an independent, Macpherson strut suspension. Both ends get stabilizer bars.

Handling and driving feel are good out of the box, but I found it a tad soft (as what one might expect from Lexus), but as mentioned above, when I put it into sport mode, it made things appreciably more interesting.

It's a very comfortable vehicle, too. The seats are, as one might expect from a Lexus, first rate and I had no trouble getting to a comfortable driving position. There's memory, too, which connects to the door mirrors and steering wheel position, too, as it should. There's also heating and ventilating up front.

One thing I noticed that you don't get is a rear window wiper. Now, this is more of a fastback than a wagon/hatchback (though there's a hatch), but when it rained during my test period, I missed it. Probably wouldn't be a deal breaker, however.

What would be deal breakers, to me anyway, don't necessarily have to do with Lexus and are more things I hate about where the car market has gone. It's the stupid nannies that are purported to help us stay safe but which either encourage people to not bother honing their driving skills or just piss off the ones who do.

So, it's beeping at you all the time, or fighting for control of the steering wheel, yadda yadda yadda. You can mitigate the annoyance but I'm noticing a trend where you can no longer shut this crap off completely – so you still get annoyed. In my case, that meant I still shouted at the car to shut up and leave me alone, but I didn't shout as loudly.

I hated the touch screen, too, which emulates a smart phone so that, when you're driving, you can take your eyes off the road to swipe and poke at it – hopefully when the road is perfectly smooth so your hand pokes or swipes where you want it to. Again, this is not just a Lexus/Toyota thing but is getting appallingly common in the industry, where I guess they're trying to appeal to today's digital generations.

Yeah, but I've been digital since digital came around and I appreciate simplicity in my vehicular interfaces. Sure, I'm old, but I don't need all this "accessibility". When I do, I can use CarPlay, which makes the centre stack LCD screen emulate my phone, and it works just fine. And of course, the RZ offers CarPlay and Android Auto.

But carmakers keep adding stuff like Google interfaces and features. No, thanks. I want a modern vehicle that connects to my phone, not an iPad with seats and wheels. I already have smart devices coming out of my ying yang.

I don't know if it's happened yet, but someone is going to get hurt thanks to a driver's poking around the screens, not watching where he/she/it is going. Hell, it almost happened to me while reviewing a a different vehicle.

Maybe that's why governments have mandated vehicles that can mow down pedestrians without hurting them. That would be typical. Rather than encouraging good driving – and good "pedestrianing" – they force carmakers to spend millions redesigning their vehicles so the blissfully unaware walking into traffic can be blissfully unaware with some kind of impunity.

Then there are the Toyota/Lexus touches that make me almost wonder if the company is trying to appeal to blind drivers. I mean, a front cross traffic alert can be handy if you're coming through an intersection where there are lots of cars parked around, blocking your view of the road – but most of the time that isn't the case, and the damn vehicle hollers at you about the vehicle you're already watching cross in front of you.

You can shut this one off completely, but you have to do it every time you fire up the car and it's only accessible by poring through levels of menu. If there were a button or switch (button? Switch? What are those?) with which you could fire up the feature when you want it I think it would be great.

But NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Then there's the beeping that's heard when you shift into reverse. This is a common thing with commercial trucks and the like because it warns people outside the vehicle of what you're doing (assuming they don't have their ear buds in). And that's great.

But NOOOOOOO! Here you get the beep, but only INSIDE the vehicle. How stupid and insulting is that? It's almost as if Lexus/Toyota (I've noticed this on some Toyota hybrids over the years, too) think their customers are too dumb to notice that a) they've shifted into reverse, b) the rear camera has fired up, c) the damn vehicle is moving BACKWARDS.

Geez.

How's that for a rant?

Lexus Canada's sample 2026 RZ's base price is $82,960. The vehicle also had a special, two-tone paint job that was cool but which added $1405 to the tally – which, to be fair, isn't too expensive if you look at what some other brands charge for fancy paint.

Anyway, though it might sound surprising after all this ranting, I really did like the Lexus RZ 450E, all things considered. In fact, to date, it's my favourite EV.

How's that for high praise?