After the UX 300e, Lexus is preparing a second electric SUV, more imposing and this time equipped with a new body. Based on the same platform as parent company Toyota’s new BZ4X, the RZ 450e will have all-wheel drive and debut next year.
For its debut in the 100% electric, Lexus showed a certain timidity. Derived from an existing model, the UX 300e only breaks one record: that of the longest warranty at the moment, with a battery covered for 1 million kilometers and ten years. On the other hand, it must deal with autonomy and performance much more arbitrary, as well as with the total absence of all-wheel drive. So many shortcomings that will be repaired next year, thanks to the arrival of the new RZ 450e. For the official presentation, we will have to wait until the first half of 2022, with production starting in July. Only a teaser has so far been unveiled. But it suffices to confirm that the style promises to be quite close to that of the LF-Z concept, revealed in the spring of 2021, with taillights encompassed in a thin band, a receding stern and rather imposing dimensions.
A fairly imposing and powerful SUV
![lexus lf-z concept](https://www.largus.fr/images/images/lexus-lf-z-electrified-concept-2021-3_1.jpg)
![lexus rz tail lights](https://www.largus.fr/images/images/050d-teasermedia-focusedstill2_1.jpg)
Based on this study, the length would thus reach 4.88 m. This seems compatible with a name strongly evoking the RX 450h, 4.89 m long. This time, however, there is no question of starting from an already known base. Lexus will rework in its own way the eTNGA platform released by the Toyota BZ4X, both highly modular and uniquely designed for 100% electric. With, probably, a power much higher than that of its cousin, which tops out at 217 hp. As a reminder, the LF-Z concept boasted of 544 hp! However, it seems unlikely that the production model will go that far. 90 kWh battery, instead of 71.4 kWh at Toyota, much more likely to stay, competitors like the Tesla Model X and Audi e-Tron already offering similar or greater capacities. For once, the production version will also retain the mini “yoke” steering wheel, like an airplane joystick. An originality that will also be available on the BZ4X, but not before 2023 in Europe.
Innovative “steer by wire” management
![lexus lf-z passenger compartment](https://www.largus.fr/images/images/lexus-lf-z-electrified-concept-2021-12_1.jpg)
Privilege of premium label, it is indeed Lexus which will release, with us, the direction “steer by wire”, without physical link between the steering wheel and the wheels. Already tested without much success by Infiniti and soon used by Volkswagen, this technology promises in particular to be able to maneuver without tangling your arms, unlike what we have recently seen at Tesla. It will indeed be possible to offer ultra-direct steering at low speed and much less when the pace increases. The brand also promises a more dynamic behavior than at the parent company. But on paper, its Direct4 all-wheel drive does not reinvent electric mobility, despite the possibility of switching from traction to rear-wheel drive “in the blink of an eye” mentioned by Lexus. Here we find an electric motor on each axle, as on the BZ4X and almost all other “connected” SUVs with four-wheel drive. Will the RZ (name already used by Alfa Romeo for a roadster in the 1990s) manage to stand out? Only a test will be able to show it to us.