wivenhoe

EV’s and PHEV’s currently not really suitable for ‘road warriors’ neither are petrol or diesels for urban / town driving. I had 4 PHEV’s before the EV and on long journeys a fairly small 2.0 litre engine was carting around added weight in the battery after about 25 miles. You’ll know what I mean as you drive a 450h. It really is ‘horses for courses’

GSLV6 - I have a RZ and agree with some of your points, but my ownership over the past year have shown a few of them to be outdated as things have moved on. Zap Map is an excellent App which fully integrates in CarPlay - on the hoof you can get it to display the local chargers, their speed and current availability. It even gives how long a charger has been used for, so if they are all in use you’ll know roughly when the first will become available. You can select a site and then Zap Map will use Maps to Google Maps to navigate you to an available charge. The cost is given as well. Recent EV’s will charge from 20% to 80% in less than 30 mins so chargers become free fairly quickly, not hours. Tesla have opened up a lot of their Supercharger sites to non Tesla’s so that helps availability. When I bought my car, Lexus were saying the battery would be 90% at 10 years or 100,000 miles. I think now they are warranting 80% at 8 years, the change due to an increase in range. My range now is about 220 so 80% would be 180 although if they are warranting that, the expectation will be nearer the 90% announced. As the RZ has heated seats and radiant heaters, heating takes little range and even with the Auto on, the range only drops say 10 miles. Even at the lowest temperatures last winter the range drop was negligible - I think a lot of the reports regards significant drops are in temperatures much lower than we generally get in the UK. I’m sure most readers of this RX forum will not be persuaded switching into an EV but I thought I should just set down my experience. I had 4 plug-ins before the RZ, all of which I bought for tax purposes or for the acceleration !

Your dealer definitely shouldn’t charge for the update - in essence it rectifies a major issue with the car ! Good luck getting it sorted - summer is coming and so the increased range whilst having the a/c is very welcome.

Apologies, I was mixing Range mode up with Eco. My defence is I usually use Sport or Normal never Range. Yes, like John I have a HUD. Seems like he and I got the update just in time. I have just read the announcement in the other post regards the 300e. That was announced in the States some time ago. With it being a single motor fwd it gets very close to the Toyota BZ - they have made the distinction even less by announcing an Urban spec which is a cut down spec compared to the Premium RZ. I wonder what the pricing premium for the Lexus will be. Toyota / Lexus seem to now have a strategy where they have essentially the same car but marketed by the two marques - Toyota Yaris Cross = Lexus LBX & Toyota BZ = Lexus RZ 300e

I think the economy drive mode switches off heating or aircon, but I may be wrong. When did they pull the update ? Your dealer was well behind others if they only fairly recently offered the update. Mine was updated mid Feb - it’s a May 23 car. Regards the new cars vs previously delivered cars update, last year new cars were being delivered from about Sept with the update but existing had to wait until about Feb - I think I was one of the first as the dealer sorted it as soon as it was available - maybe me dealing with the MD might have helped. I hope you get the update soon as it really is quite a different car range wise. Apologiesif you seen this before, but have you registered with Lexus Reserve yet ? They do seem to be getting that right, I’ve got a RX450h for 10 days in August to go to Jersey in (there is only 2 Ultra fast chargers on the entire island). I even have the registration to confirm the ferry and this will leave me with another 33 days of free alternative cars over the next 2.5 years.

Gadget - in terms of the update, when did you get your car and does it have a HUD ? I escalated my numerous issues to the MD of Lexus UK and even then nobody could explain why you have an option to turn off the a/c when selecting Auto but it doesn’t do anything. I was really irritated that to de-mist the windows I would see the range plummet. I tried selecting the windscreen defrost button, which turns on Auto and then turn Auto off - didn’t do anything. I wouldn’t rely on this myself, but I was told that the update didn’t necessarily increase the range when the a/c or heating was on - it just displays a less pessimistic range. I can’t believe that is the case as they have withdrawn the update as it trashes the HUD (meaning a total removal of the dash etc) which can’t be the case if it all it did was tweak the displayed range. John on here has seen his consumption improve dramatically since the update. In my case, driving on mainly high speed runs my Total Average is 3.3 miles / kw with the heating / aircon as per a petrol car - it was about 2.7 miles / kw before. I complained about the fact that it took ages for any real heat to come on in winter but then found out all EV’s suffer with this as they don’t have an engine to draw it from ! I always pre-heat the car at home but not when out and about.

The fan will not operate on its own. I have asked Customer Service and the dealer many times how the fan can be used on its own and they say it can’t. I tried changing the setting to ‘not turn on the aircon with Auto’ and it made no difference. I asked CS why have this option if when turning on the fan it operates the aircon and they couldn’t provide an answer. I think the only way to get outside air in under a bit of pressure is to open a window ! In my car it is no longer a problem as I am one of the lucky ones with the update. I have the air / heating on Eco (not the drive) and so the range only drops about 6 miles out of 220 which is neither here nor there. It used to drop from 200 to 160 which was a major concern, hence me originally badgering the dealer and Customer Service for an answer.

My May 23 car looks the same. As John, no issues with that.

I follow an RZ forum in USA - https://www.rzforums.com Whilst it is predominately Americans there are some owners from Europe and the UK. It’s fairly active. Below is a post from a guy in US - bearing in mind none of the cars have the update there, his results are astounding. Also, the US version of Lexus Link+ seems far more informative than the UK version although he may be using a Lexus charger Just curious if anyone else has been experimenting (playing) with their car's regenerative braking system? I have, and I believe it does have an impact on range and efficiency. It takes a little getting use to, feathering the braking by using the accelerator pedal, but a little practice and experimenting with the regen level, you can drastically reduce your use of the brake pedal and increase the car's range. My charge before last was to 80%. I did my normal driving over about a week's time with the regeneration level set to 3 and 4 (3 and 4 down arrows showing on the instrument cluster and HUD). I drove a total of 157.1 miles on the charge, down to 23%. The remaining range showed 50 miles and an average of 4.1 miles/kWh. That would be a total of 207 miles on an 80% charge assuming the car's numbers are accurate. I have a 450e with 20" wheels. My driving was around town (semi-rural) with 25, 35 and 45 to 55 mph speed limits, the AC and radio were always on. Another interesting thing was the charge data from the Lexus app. - by the way, I got it the next morning this time. It showed the charge using 37.221 kWh to get back to an 80% charge. 157.1 miles divided by 37.221 kWh comes out to 4.22 miles/kWh, higher than the car's average of 4.1. Attached are shots of the cluster info and charge data. I'd like to hear what others are experiencing using the regenerative braking system? /d3/attachments/0/549-bc8591c9d5242fdcd7fba31bf708e8d0.jpg /d3/attachments/0/550-e48822d439002eb357f4a26ec70526f2.jpg

Received written confirmation of my booking in August. Nor only did they confirm the model they provided the reg !

I have been told by the dealer the canbus is not as accessible on the RZ as the RX. It pains me to say this - driving an unpopular car does have the advantage that the thieves don’t bother with it. On a more serious note, I suspect all EV’s are less of a target as they are not wanted in the Middle & Far East which is where a lot of the stolen RX’s & Range Rovers end up.

Charging procedure should be the same as you are used to. When you say the charge port is not locked, can you remove the cable after the “starting” message on the charger. I’m sure it’s the same on the Tesla, you plug in, start the charger and can’t remove the cable until the charger has closed down and the green light in the charge port is out. Do you get a green light when you plug the cable in ? If you don’t then the car has an issue. My car had to have the AC charge module replaced but it would charge on a DC Ultra / fast. Someone on here had the opposite problem - their DC module was faulty but could charge on AC chargers. Good luck getting it sorted - it’s seems to be a bit of a lottery on whether the local dealer has experienced EV technicians

Was your Siri text issue where Siri didn’t read back before sending so you weren’t sure what went ? I had that and the issue was an Apple problem - I updated iOS to a beta and it sorted it. Did your phone have an update ? I’m asking in case the issue repeats

Couple of points - a new RX is exactly the same in terms of touchscreen, bongs and the like. I think you would have to get a previous generation one to avoid them. Initially I felt the same re the bongs but as John says you turn them down ! - and get used to them you can turn them off but it is a bit of a faff Can you remember if the battery display also showed the %. If it didn’t then it has not had the update that has made all the difference in terms of range, particularly with the aircon / heating on Eco - seems to reduce range by about 10 miles out of 220. Rear screen, heated seats, radio and the like have no real effect on range. The radiant heaters are effective and again gave little effect on actual range. If it has had the update, the range is a forecast on the basis of previous drives so it will dive if previous drives have ‘gone for it’ Sorry if the above seems a bit defensive but after a year and importantly the update, I have now think the upsides outweigh the downsides - but I am not a road warrior.

My car was in for its first service today and I collected the solar charger. I've put it under the floor in the boot, hopefully hardly to be used. It was noticeable that they removed the RZ from the showroom and replaced it with a NX, such is the demand of a new RZ. I changed the tyres to Michelin Cross Climates about 4k ago and the video review confirmed that they and the brakes "were like new" so lugging the very heavy battery around doesn't seem to increase.

Lexus Reserve called today to confirm my booking for a RX. They also confirmed that they escalated my complaint about the 43 days running from last year and they said that it would run from 1st March this year.

I can’t help with the info but when my 12v battery went flat I called Lexus and the AA guy plugged his diagnostic in the OBD port and he said he couldn’t access the necessary codes as Lexus had shut them so only registered dealers could access them. Good luck sorting it.

Because competitors quote ‘lite’ policies on comparison sites, NFU refuse to use them. I prefer the full cover provided by them e.g. new replacement car for 2 years for written off or stolen cars on a new car insured from day 1.

Definitely sounds like overinflated. Mine and others on here were also overinflated. John on here said it was normal as they overinflated them for the long sea journey and they’re not checked before handover. I also swapped the Dunlops for Mitchelin Cross Climates and they much quieter on my 20”.

The answer for you GMB may well be to not spend £ 70k on a ‘silly thing like a car’ and drive a 12 year old car, but if I can afford it - which I can and did, then who are you to sit in judgement. The point of the post was about EV values

Today’s article in the Times foretells of a massive problem for EV manufacturers and owners. I really do wish I got my car on a PCP rather than pay £ 73k for it ! https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bccce247-5329-4226-a7ed-ddd1ec5d8150?shareToken=6aef5b61eb7b210146611e0ea7d23a7d

John - as Tickedon says - I emailed lexusreserve@lexus.co.uk. They responded by asking when this week I was available for a call to go through the arrangements. The T&C’s talk about providing a DVLA Check Code from the DVLA website which they need to use as they insure the Reserve car - https://www.gov.uk/view-driving-licence The code is only good for 21 days so I’m not sure how that will work when reserving a car months ahead. They will probably ask for a code nearer the time I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’m going on holiday to Jersey later this year. On the island they seem to have only 2 Ultra chargers. - the majority are only 7kw - I’ve booked a RX 450h Reserve car ! I’ll find out on Monday whether I have secured the booking or not.

Just checked. It now says the 42 days is limited to 2 weeks a year - so how am I to use the 42 days they have said I get but over 2 years ? They really can’t much right can they.