A Weekend Drive with the Fully Electric Lexus RZ 450e
I first encountered the Lexus RZ during a nighttime drive a couple of days before its big launch in the Philippines in 2023. It was a significant drive and launch in more ways than one as it was the first-ever battery electric vehicle from Lexus to be introduced in the country.
A quick drive with the RZ for a couple of hours is not nothing, but when I was offered the opportunity to have it for the whole weekend, it was an easy yes. With electric vehicles gaining more and more acceptance with Filipino motorists, it was a chance to experience what Lexus had to offer in the EV front in terms of real-life driving conditions.
The weekend itself was a rarity—no schedule, no commitments, no pressing deliverables at work—and so I set a course down south to Cavite to visit family and friends. It wasn’t south like Tagaytay-coffee-and-cake south; it was more like traversing the sunlit sprawl of lesser-visited corners of the province—through the open stretch of SLEX, the smooth curves of CALAX, to the towns of Carmona, Indang, and Silang.
No disrespect to any of Lexus’ premium offerings, but the RZ is most certainly not your tito’s hybrid RX. Not to belabor the point, but the RZ 450e is the first fully electric Lexus built from scratch, and it shows. The moment I pressed the start button, the silence was almost unnerving. It wasn't unlike stepping into a high-end audio studio before the track drops.
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Of course, I didn’t let the serenity fool me. Underneath the RZ’s sculpted spindle body and minimalist interior is a DIRECT4 all-wheel drive system that knows when to purr and when to prowl. Along the expressways, the RZ surged forward with the slightest tap on the accelerator. It wasn’t jerky or wild, but direct, powerful and composed. That means overtaking trucks and cars feels less like a gamble and more like a confident chess move.
I had to keep reminding myself that all that power comes without burning a single drop of gasoline.
The number one issue for most prospective EV owners is still range anxiety—that creeping fear that your car will die out on you while on the road like a smartphone out of juice. But here’s something interesting about the RZ: on a full charge, the RZ’s 71.4 kWh battery gives drivers a solid 300 to 400 kilometers of range. That’s Manila to San Juan, La Union with plenty of power left over. So when I left for Cavite that Friday night, I didn’t even bother planning a charging stop. And as it turned out, I didn’t need to.
From Quezon City to Indang and back, with stops for coffee and dinner, detours, and bursts of acceleration along CALAX, I still had enough power to do another round trip.
But the biggest takeaway is that Lexus isn’t sacrificing quality and driving comfort for earth-friendly features with the RZ. If anything the car shows that it's possible to have both. It’s still every bit a luxury vehicle with zero tailpipe emissions, crafted with the same obsessive detail as every other Lexus. In some ways, it can be the perfect gateway for anybody thinking of going full electric with their choice of mobility, especially for those who like their sustainability efforts dressed in leather and stitched with takumi precision.
The premium-ness of the RZ is best experienced, of course, inside. Toyota’s luxury unit has sold the concept of omotenashi, or the Japanese principle of anticipatory hospitality, to its clients for years, but all it takes is a few minutes inside the RZ to know what upscale sophistication is really all about. The seats hug you without being clingy, the materials feel premium but unpretentious, and the digital display interface is idiot-proof; I didn’t need a PhD to pair my phone to play my music or punch in the restaurant in the navigation system where I was to meet my friend in Alabang.
Of course, I’m writing this review from the POV of a single guy living in the city; someone who needs to drive through traffic gridlocks on a daily basis to keep appointments and then drive out of the city for leisurely weekend jaunts. It’s for the guy who doesn’t need to flex but does anyway, subtly, and the guy who’s conscious of the future but not willing to give up great design to get there.
On those parameters, there’s no doubt the RZ gets top marks.
