CarBrandLogos archive · Lexus · 2022
The brand's first purpose-built electric car, and the first to be steered by wire.
Discover the storyPhoto: Alexander Migl · CC BY-SA 4.0
The story
Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Lexus RZ, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.
01
Lexus had sold hybrids for two decades before it built a car designed from the start to run on batteries alone. The RZ, launched for 2023, uses the e-TNGA architecture shared with the Toyota bZ4X and Subaru Solterra, in a mid-size crossover body designed under Daichi Kimura.
The interior of RZ 450e PROTOTYPE · Tokumeigakarinoaoshima · CC BY-SA 4.0
02
Two things separate it from its siblings. Direct4 distributes torque between the front and rear motors continuously rather than reactively, shifting the balance under acceleration and cornering to control pitch and attitude. More radically, some markets were offered a steer-by-wire system with no mechanical link between the wheel and the front axle, paired with a yoke rather than a rim, which allows a variable ratio quick enough that the yoke never needs turning past a quarter-turn each way.
Osaka Auto Messe 2023 - Lexus RZ SPORT CONCEPT · Tokumeigakarinoaoshima · CC BY-SA 4.0
03
Early reviews praised the ride and the interior and were unimpressed by the range, which trailed rivals at launch. A later update addressed that with a larger battery and more power, along with a performance version that adds simulated gearshifts, on the theory that some drivers want something to do with their hands. It is built at Motomachi, alongside the plant's more exotic output.
Lexus RZ 450e"F SPORT Performance" ) interior · Tokumeigakarinoaoshima · CC BY-SA 4.0
At a glance
Produced
2023–presentDesigner
Daichi KimuraBody
5-door SUVTechnical specification
Badge at launch
This is the marque emblem that accompanied the RZ's era. The full identity timeline is documented in the brand archive.
Explore the logo history →From the journal
Contemporaries from the 2020s
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