The Lexus RX500h has landed, producing respectable performance figures from a hybrid four-cylinder engine. But can the large luxury SUV from Japan hold its own at this price point? Ben Zachariah finds out.
2023 Lexus RX500h
Despite Lexus introducing a handful of all-new model lines in recent years, those familiar with the brand should recognise the RX as a legacy SUV.
Australia missed out on the first generation – offered in overseas markets in the late 1990s – but the second generation arrived in Australia in mid 2003 badged as the RX330.
Since then, the RX has evolved, shortening the gap to its European rivals – of which there are many – and standing tall as a genuine and viable alternative to the go-to large SUVs from Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz.
In fact, according to the industry body responsible for tallying Australia’s new-car sales, the Lexus RX sits in a category with 18 competitors – not including some large SUV models with both wagon and ‘coupe’ bodies.
All of which means the Lexus RX has to stand out and offer a compelling reason why it deserves your attention, and on that front, there are plenty of things to consider on the all-new RX.
The latest generation of the RX has now landed in Australia, and this particular one is the range-topper: the 2023 Lexus RX500h F Sport Performance.
How much does the Lexus RX500h cost in Australia?
The latest RX line-up covers a lot of ground, catering for those shopping at a few different price points, as well as overlapping with some other SUVs from the Lexus stable.
While the range starts at $87,500 plus on-road costs for the RX350h, the RX500h F Sport Performance tested here begins from $126,000 before on-road costs.
The competition at that price point is no joke, with buyers potentially cross-shopping the Jaguar F-Pace, Genesis GV80, and the Range Rover Velar.
Despite looking the same and having similar powertrains, the RX500h has a long list of extra features that result in the $38,500 premium over the entry-level model.
While the original RX330 badge from 2003 denoted a 3.3-litre V6, the RX500h actually uses the same 2.4-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine found in the RX350h, but combines it with twin electric motors mounted on each axle.
The result is a combined 273kW and 551Nm, making it the most powerful hybrid model ever sold by Lexus in Australia.
For perspective, the Lexus LFA supercar only produced 480Nm of torque from its 4.8-litre V10.
When the RX500h isn’t being driven on pure electric power at low speeds, the engine sends power through a six-speed automatic transmission, rather than a CVT found in the RX350h.
Along with all-wheel drive, the RX500h boasts a rear steering system, adding four degrees to the back wheels to help in tight, low-speed corners as well as nipping into car parks.
The RX range includes features such as bi-LED headlights, synthetic leather, and tri-zone climate control, while the RX500h adds 21-inch matte black alloy wheels, black exterior highlights, a panoramic sliding roof, digital rear-view mirror, semi-aniline leather upholstery, intelligent park assist, and active sound control.
That’s all well and good, but you and I know that a veritable shopping list of features does not maketh the car – in other words, the recipe isn’t as important as what comes out of the oven.
| Key details | 2023 Lexus RX500h |
| Price | $126,000 plus on-road costs |
| Colour of test car | Sonic Iridium silver |
| Options | None |
| Price as tested | $126,000 plus on-road costs |
| Drive-away price | $141,412 |
| Rivals | Audi Q7 | BMW X5 | Range Rover Velar |
How much space does the Lexus RX500h have inside?
Some families may want as much room as they can possibly manage for their money, but it is possible for large SUVs to feel overly expansive once you close the door. But this isn’t something that plagues the RX.
Despite being classed as a large SUV, the cabin in the RX doesn’t come across as being too big. It feels like there’s plenty of space for occupants without going overboard – a compliment that can’t always be given in this segment, with some of its rivals feeling too wide and dwarfing the car’s occupants.
But nor does the RX feel as if it’s ever cramped inside.
My only real complaint was with the front seats. Being a member of the population with a behind that Sir Mix-a-Lot would be unable to deny, the seat base felt too narrow, making it difficult to get comfortable. This was immediately noticeable whenever getting into the car, rather than being an issue that gradually made itself known over a long distance.
The conspiratorial part of my brain wonders if that’s a deliberate effort by Lexus to ensure that only people that look a certain way buy its cars, but it’s more likely that there simply aren’t enough fatties in the company’s engineering department in Japan that can rival the rears found in Western markets such as Australia and North America that have a large ‘large’ population.
The rest of the cabin, however, was frankly superb.
As with all high-end Lexus models, the buttons and switchgear look modest yet feel very high quality to use.
It was easy to find a comfortable seating and steering position as the driver, and there’s plenty of room in the second row for transporting adults in comfort.
This level of luxury is very attractive, being usable, comfortable, intuitive, and subdued all at the same time. The design and materials do a convincing job that you’ve spent your money wisely, and the RX never feels embarrassing or ostentatious as other high-end cars can sometimes feel.
The 612L boot – accessed with a kick sensor under the bumper – will be more than enough for most people day-to-day, with 1678L available with the power-folding seats dropped via a button in the cargo area.
As Kez Casey noted in his RX350h review, some European SUVs have the ability to lower the rear suspension to improve load access – something the RX misses out on.
| 2023 Lexus RX500h | |
| Seats | Five |
| Boot volume | 612L seats up 1678L seats folded |
| Length | 4890mm |
| Width | 1920mm |
| Height | 1695mm |
| Wheelbase | 2850mm |
Does the Lexus RX500h have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto?
Lexus listened to the critics and has ditched the touchpad in the latest RX, opting instead for a 14-inch touchscreen for infotainment with satellite navigation, DAB+ digital radio, Bluetooth, wired Android Auto, and wireless Apple CarPlay.
The menus are quick and easy to navigate, and the wireless CarPlay only had one or two instances where it didn’t automatically sync on start-up. That may sound like a negative, but most systems with wireless Apple CarPlay tend to have their fair share of hiccups.
Only once, at the end of my time with the car, did the multimedia system really have an issue – when I was swapping between two apps on screen, and the processor couldn’t handle it. The system froze for a few seconds before restarting itself, giving me about 15 seconds of black screen before it came online again.
I still remember my dad’s Datsun 180B being difficult to start on cold mornings, so it’s hard to get angry when the highly advanced computer system fitted to my luxury SUV trips over itself once in a blue moon.
Most of the time, my phone was sitting on the wireless charger in the centre console, everything connected and working as expected, and I was able to access more than 100 million songs via Spotify while the car maintained a safe distance to the vehicle in front as we hurtled down the freeway at 100km/h.
Directly ahead of the driver is a digital instrument display that is easy to read, but one of my favourite features was the head-up display. Some HUDs can be annoying and intrusive, but the little display on the windscreen was clear and useful without ever being bothersome.
What I really appreciated, though, were the touch-sensitive steering-wheel controls that link to the HUD. It’s sometimes difficult to remember exactly which button resumes cruise control or which skips the track – but place your thumb on the button (without pressing it), and you’ll get a diagram of the controls with that button highlighted, so you know what you’re about to engage when you press it. Genius.
Is the Lexus RX500h a safe car?
Announced in February 2023, the Lexus RX has a full five-star safety rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), the nation’s independent vehicle safety authority.
The RX scored highly across all the major assessment categories, recording 90 per cent for adult occupant protection, 89 per cent for child occupant protection, 89 per cent for vulnerable road user protection (ie, pedestrians and cyclists), and 93 per cent for safety assist (technology).
| 2023 Lexus RX500h | |
| ANCAP rating | Five stars (tested 2022) |
| Safety report | Link to ANCAP report |
What safety technology does the Lexus RX500h have?
As standard, the Lexus RX range comes with dual frontal, side chest-protection and side curtain airbags, along with a driver’s knee airbag and a centre airbag.
Safety technology includes autonomous emergency braking, lane-keep assist, lane-departure warning, emergency lane keeping, blind-spot monitoring, and speed-limit assist.
On the highway, the driver assistance technology was a welcome guiding hand and never felt intrusive, as they sometimes can.
How much does the Lexus RX500h cost to maintain?
Lexus offers a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, with hybrid models – including this RX500h – gaining an additional 10-year/unlimited-kilometre battery warranty, provided the hybrid system gets an annual health check completed at a dealership.
The RX500h has a one-year/15,000km service schedule (whichever comes first), capped at $695 for the first five services at a Lexus Dealership – and excluding wear and tear items such as brake pads and tyres.
A comprehensive insurance quote for an RX500h starts from $4017 annually, though may vary depending on the variant and equipment. The figure is based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on location, driving history, and personal circumstances.
| At a glance | 2023 Lexus RX500h |
| Warranty | Five years, unlimited km |
| Service intervals | 12 months or 15,000km |
| Servicing costs | $2085 (3 years) $3475 (5 years) |
Is the Lexus RX500h fuel-efficient?
For reasons outside our control, our time with the 2023 Lexus RX500h was shorter than we had planned, which meant we weren’t able to get an accurate fuel economy reading.
However, when the vehicle was initially collected, the fuel economy was providing a very high reading, but that immediately began falling after some time on the road and began to settle in the nines.
Our limited time in the car was a good mixture of highway stints with cruise control, stop-start peak-hour traffic, and city driving.
The onboard graph showed most of our city driving was using an average of 7.5 litres per 100 kilometres, with occasional bursts in the double-digits, suggesting the manufacturer’s claim of 6.5L/100km is both accurate and possible to beat.
According to the government’s Green Vehicle Guide, the 500h averages 7.4L/100km in urban driving, and 6.3 on the freeway, for an average of 6.5L/100km.
I still remember when my dad’s late ’90s Honda EK Civic sedan would return an average of 7.1L/100km from its 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine – look how far we’ve come in a few short decades.
The RX500h is also Euro 6 compliant producing 148 grams of CO2 per kilometre, which is considered better than average for this segment.
Fuel Consumption – brought to you by bp
| Fuel Usage | Fuel Stats |
| Fuel cons. (claimed) | 6.5L/100km |
| Fuel type | 95-octane premium unleaded |
| Fuel tank size | 65L |
What is the Lexus RX500h like to drive?
Being the RX500h, this is meant to be sportiest of the range, debuting the new F-Sport Performance grade. Which means it has 21-inch wheels, tyres with less sidewall flex, and a suspension tune that attempts to walk the line between luxury ride and sportier handling.
And, to its credit, it finds that balance pretty well. Only occasionally, when encountering the worst roads, did it feel as if there were a little too much pothole-jolting through the car – though we suspect this has more to do with the wheel and tyre combination.
At the extreme margin, the suspension can sometimes deliver the same characteristics as an overinflated air bed – taking individual hits really well, but sometimes struggling to keep its composure with the car’s weight, feeling as if the suspension were out of phase at times. But those times are few and far between, and most owners won’t ever delve far enough into the chassis dynamics to experience that sensation.
The majority of the time, the Lexus is quiet, composed and comfortable.
Being all-wheel drive, the RX has plenty of grip, aided by Michelin tyres and a computer directing power to the front or rear axle. It might not satisfy someone who’s used to driving sports cars or performance sedans, but for what is a large hybrid SUV, this thing gets around corners pretty dang well when needed.
But perhaps the most surprising thing about the RX500h is its scalded house cat reaction. Most of the time it’s a luxurious, almost laid-back SUV that is happy to thread its way through traffic in a relaxed manner. But if you find yourself in a position to demand performance off the line, the Lexus will deliver without hesitation.
Lexus claims a 0–100km/h sprint time of 5.9 seconds, and it feels every bit that quick.
The assistance of the electric motors means the RX really jumps off the line – but while it can’t quite maintain that thrust all the way to 100km/h, getting to 70 or 80km/h feels damn near instantaneous.
There is no shortage of fast and powerful SUVs on the market, but the Lexus comes across differently. While most will encourage you to drive like a dipstick – egging you on with throes of torque available at every gear change – the RX500h feels like a more mature approach.
Like your friend’s older, quiet, privately educated sibling who sits in the corner, but nobody realises can deliver a punch that will decidedly end an argument if it’s ever truly called for.
Despite its speed, the RX500h never feels like it’s grappling with Jekyll-and-Hyde personalities. No, the Lexus knows exactly who and what it is, and carries on in its own way.
Which is all a roundabout way of saying that the Lexus RX500h is a lovely car to drive and rarely wants for anything. It’s relaxed when you want it to be, quick when you need it to be, and fades into the background the rest of the time.
| Key details | 2023 Lexus RX500h |
| Engine | 2.4-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol hybrid |
| Power | 202kW @ 6000rpm petrol 64kW front electric 75.9kW rear electric 273kW combined |
| Torque | 460Nm @ 4300–4500rpm petrol 292Nm front electric 168.5Nm rear electric 551Nm combined |
| Drive type | All-wheel drive |
| Transmission | Six-speed wet-start clutch automatic |
| Power-to-weight ratio | 126kW/t |
| Weight (kerb) | 2160kg |
| Spare tyre type | Space-saver |
| Tow rating | 1500kg braked 750kg unbraked |
| Turning circle | 11.0m |
Should I buy a Lexus RX500h?
Somehow over the years, the idea that being a jack-of-all-trades seems to have brought on negative connotations – but the RX500h F Sport Performance really seems to do it all, and without much in the way of compromise.
Lexus conscientiously picks and chooses where it will take a conservative approach, and where it will be bold. The exterior design of the RX is certainly the latter, looking powerful and unapologetic and almost windswept – even when parked.
Inside, the car is proportionally just right, with an atmosphere of modern, sophisticated luxury, backed up with a suite of technology that’s both useful and easy to use.
On the road, the 500h has a wonderful demeanour, offering excellent performance that can be accessed in the real world, while also achieving very good fuel economy and emissions numbers.
There are larger SUVs out there, cheaper ones, more luxurious rivals, faster vehicles, and some that offer amazing fuel economy. But the RX500h pretty much does it all, and with a high degree of maturity and competence.
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