5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE... LEXUS RZ
The first step in the Lexus plan to go fully electric by 2035 is a crossover, obvs
1 IT’S THE FIRST BESPOKE LEXUS EV
Lexus announced its 2021 financial results recently (six per cent up on 2020, a fairly decent job all things considered) and along with the announcement that it would go all-electric by 2035 were a few pics of its first bespoke EV, the RZ, arriving later this year.
2 NO GRILLES ALLOWED
Sure, the Lexus UX EV has been on sale for almost two years, but that car has petrol and hybrid versions while the RZ has been designed as electric only from the very beginning. See, look at that bluff front end. No combustion engine cooling needed here. What do we even call that bit of the car now?
3 IT’S A TRIPLET
We’re used to seeing a bit of platform sharing among various manufacturers, but the Lexus RZ will be built on Toyota’s brand new electric only e-TNGA platform and will also appear in different guises as the Toyota bZ4X (a Renault Captcha rival) and the Subaru Solterra.
4 IT’LL HAVE A DECENT RANGE
While the company’s current electric offering, the UX300e, offers a meagre official WLTP range of ‘up to’ 196 miles, the RZ should be able to better that figure quite nicely with a 71kWh battery offering a 280-mile range. It’s also set to share the bZ4X’s 214bhp twin motor all-wheel-drive powertrain for maximum performance from that low slung body.
5 IT’S THE FIRST OF MANY LEXUS EVs
Lexus hasn’t just teased us with the promise of one new electric car on the way, the RZ is the first of a brace of cars in production to meet its ambitious electric targets. These include an RX-style SUV, a sporty saloon and promisingly an LFA-style supercar. No idea when they’ll turn up though.