2022 Lexus RZ 450e will lead brand's BEV offensive

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2022 Lexus RZ 450e will lead brand’s BEV offensive

At the recent press conference where Toyota’s President, Akio Toyoda, gave a broad overview of the company’s electrification strategies during this decade, 16 fully electric – also known as BEVs or battery electric vehicles – were shown on stage. Most are probably just 3-dimensional models of future products but they certainly attracted a lot of speculation and attention, especially the electric Hilux and a SUV that has styling reminiscent of the FJ Cruiser.

To date, Toyota has launched one BEV model which will go on sale in 2022. This is the bZ4X, which is said to have been developed with involvement of Subaru, which will sell a similar model it calls the Solterra. Mr. Toyoda also showed a video of himself and Koji Sato, President & Chief Branding Officer of Lexus International, testing a Lexus BEV prototype around a test course. It’s typical of the Toyota President who, being a racing driver himself, also gets involved in product development.

An uncamouflaged model of that BEV appeared to be in the group of Lexus prototypes also displayed. The BEV will go into production in 2022 and while details have not been released, Lexus has shown more uncamouflaged pictures of the car. The BEV prototype will be the new RZ, a SUV crossover that will be the first of range of Lexus vehicles that have been designed from the start to be BEVs. Apart from having sold hybrids for many years, this will not be the first fully-electric Lexus model as the all-electric UX 300e has been available for about 2 years now. However, that model was not developed only as a BEV.

*UX 300e is the fully electric version of the UX compact crossover.*

e-TNGA
With the RZ, which will start with a 450e variant, the vehicle is built on a completely new dedicated platform called e-TNGA, a version of the TNGA (Toyota New Generation Architecture) that has been used for all recent new models. While the bz4X is RAV4-sized, the RZ 450e looks like a RX-sized model with similar styling themes but a closed front end typical of EVs.

All-wheel drive with DIRECT4
Not many details are available at this time though it can be expected that the powertrain will be something similar to what is in the bZ4X, with higher output and a bigger battery pack. The all-wheel drive system will be an exclusive control system called DIRECT4 which dynamically controls the drive force to the wheels constantly optimizing the power delivery. It can be fully front wheel drive or rear wheel drive or varying combinations of front and rear drive as conditions require.

The new RZ will also be available with a steer-by-wire system. This is said to eliminate the traditional hand-over-hand action for lower speed driving or parking. It would be possible to do a full U-turn with a simple rotation of the steering wheel.

*Steering wheel in the Toyota bZ4X which will initially be offered in SUVs for the China market.*

Lexus says there will be a ‘comfortable and unique shape’ which provides a clear view to all relevant information from the instrument panel to the heads-up windshield display. This suggests that the RZ may also have that steering column with a wing-shape. In the bz4X, it will initially be offered in China and then progressively appear in other markets.

Battery warranty up to 10 years
As a measure of the brand’s confidence in its BEV technology, Lexus is offering (in some markets) a 10-year (or up to 1,000,000 kms) extended care on all functional defects of the vehicle’s main battery pack and capacity degradation below 70%, provided that the regular health checks foreseen in the maintenance program are followed. This is a separate warranty from the vehicle warranty which covers the powertrain.

The new RZ range will begin the Lexus offensive to have BEVs in every segment, and account for 100% of the brand’s total sales in Europe, North America, and China by 2030.