After seven years of service, the end of the Lexus NX we know today is in sight. His successor is impatient and we were allowed to stroke his snout for a while. As it turned out: it is a very nice beast.
Highlights
- Hybrid and plug-in hybrid
- Four- and front-wheel drive
- Many safety systems as standard
- In the showroom at the end of this year
The Lexus NX may not be an everyday appearance, for Lexus the medium-sized crossover is the volume model. In its seven-year existence, it sold 170,000 times, 1,100 of which in our country. That means that one in three Lexus is an NX, and when you also consider that seven out of ten buyers are new to the brand, you understand that the NX is at the head of the table in the Lexus home. At the end of this year, however, he will transfer that chair to his successor, the all-new, second-generation NX, which we were introduced to last week.
Lexus NX
The design may seem like a cautious evolution, but 95 percent of the parts are new. In addition, the new NX is larger. To be precise: 2 cm longer, 2 cm wider and half a cm higher. The wheelbase also increased by 3 cm, creating more interior space. Those are not empty words; we took a seat in the rear seat and there the legroom is quite decent, while the headroom is also good despite the sloping roof.
Lexus NX
Soon also plugin
While the current model is very clear with regard to the choice of powertrains, decisions will have to be made in the future. The flared 300h AWD is replaced by the 350h, which is available as both AWD and front-wheel drive. In both cases you get a 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with CVT on the front axle. The 2WD only has an electric motor at the front, the AWD has a second electric motor on the rear axle. In that case, the front one is a bit less powerful, so that for both versions the system power is 242 hp below the line. With this, the 350h goes from 0 to 100 km/h in 7.7 seconds and reaches a top of 200 km/h. Maximum towing weight is 1,500 kg braked in both cases. The rear electric motor always works with the AWD.
The biggest news is the 450h+, which is not only the first plug-in hybrid NX, but even the very first PHEV ever from Lexus. That is remarkable, because until now the Japanese have held to the position that hassle with charging cables was not part of the premium clientele, but they have now come back from that. In conversation with Techzle (interview will follow at a later date), Lexus Europe boss Spiros Fotinos explains that the ongoing transition has also shifted those boundaries. In addition to its 2.5-liter four-cylinder with CVT, the 450h+ has electric motors on the front and rear axle, which means that it is always AWD. The system power is 306 hp, preliminary figures call a 0-100 km/h around 6 seconds and an average consumption of less than 3 l/100 km, which should yield CO2 emissions below 40 g/km.
Lexus NX
The battery pack has a storage capacity of 18.1 kWh, which means that the NX 450h+ should be able to move about 63 km fully electrically, with a top speed of 135 km/h. The normal top is just like with the 350h at 200 km/h. The on-board charger has a capacity of 6.6 kW, with which you can recharge the empty batteries at the charging station between 2:30 and 2:45 hours. You can also use the regular mains, but then you have to be patient between 6:00 and 6:30.
The new NX is on the GA-K platform that we now know from the Toyota RAV4, but Lexus says it has tuned it completely differently, so that the NX still has its own character.
Takumi, Tazuna and Omotenashi
No, that’s not veni vidi vici in Japanese. A lot of care has been taken in the interior by what they call ‘takumi’ (craftsmen) at Lexus. In concrete terms, this is expressed in beautiful materials and a high-quality finish. And now that we’ve arrived at the Japanese lesson, the whole thing is designed in the spirit of ‘tazuna’, the theory that rider and horse should feel each other optimally (sure, Mazda fans, that sounds like jinba ittai, but just slightly different). Everything is placed as intuitively and logically as possible, so that the driver can operate everything with two hands on the steering wheel and two eyes on the road. A good example is that the (partly self-assignable) buttons on the steering wheel are displayed in the head-up display. One more Japanese word to unlearn: Lexus calls the whole ‘omotenashi’, which would mean something like ‘ultimate hospitality’.
Lexus NX
Hey Lexus!
The NX is the debut stage for a new multimedia system, which Lexus says is more than three times faster than the current one. The difficult to operate mouse/button on the center tunnel has finally been retired, from now on it is enough to say ‘Hey Lexus!’ to say, after which the car does everything you ask of it (within the limits of reasonableness and decency of course).
We briefly touched on it, thanks to the wheelbase increased by three centimeters, it is nice and spacious inside. In addition to good headroom, you also have plenty of room for the knees in the back. The trunk space in the PHEV is just as large as in the regular hybrid, thanks to the placement of the battery under the floor of the passenger compartment. The tailgate opens and closes electrically in a smooth four seconds.
Lexus NX
Safety
The new third-generation Lexus Safety System + is standard on all trim levels. The package offers a wide range of well-known safety techniques such as Pre Collision, pedestrian recognition and lane assistance. Particularly noteworthy is that the electric door control (E-Latch) works together with the blind spot monitors. If someone tries to open a door while traffic is approaching, a warning chime will sound and the door will remain closed. That is called Safe Exit Assist and will be music to many cyclists’ ears.
Just a little patience
We still owe you prices and further performance specifications. The second generation Lexus NX will only come to our country in the last month(s) of this year. By then we will of course know more and can tell you how it drives.