• All versions offer excellent fuel economy
• Plug-in hybrid system manages its battery very well
• Depreciation is proving to be heavy

What are the running costs?

Lexus says the RX 450h+ can manage more than 200mpg on the WLTP combined cycle, but that figure is entirely dependant on you keeping its battery topped up and rarely resorting to petrol power. However, the plug-in hybrid RX has a party trick. Once you run its battery flat, it starts to operate like a full hybrid, clawing back what power it can through regenerative braking and redeploying it to increase the petrol engine’s efficiency.

So far we’ve only driven the RX 450h+ far enough to make a call on how effective that is. In this situation, it acheved an excellent 44.1mpg over 800 miles with just one recharge in a week’s real-world motorway and A-road driving. Considering it’s a heavy 309hp SUV running on petrol, that’s a good result.

What’s also impressive is that it manages its battery intelligently, too. After a 70-mile drive, for instance, the battery still had a third of its charge left, meaning the powertrain had rationed out its electricity during the drive rather just blowing it all in the first leg of the trip. Longer motorway journeys also see it hold on to its charge longer than its rivals.

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Range and charging

Lexus says the 450h+ can drive for between 40 and 43 miles in EV mode, which looks a little disappointing when compared to the 60-odd miles offered by the plug-in hybrid versions of the BMW X5 and Mercedes-Benz GLE. We never managed any more than 30 miles.

We don’t think you should worry about that, though. If Lexus wanted to increase the RX’s electric range, it would need to fit it with a larger battery pack. That would make the car heavier and, as we explained above, the last thing the RX needs is more weight.

Servicing and warranty

The service intervals for the Lexus RX are every 10,000 miles or 12 months, whichever comes first. Lexus offers service plans to help manage the cost, and Essential Care Maintenance packages for cars over five years old.

What’s more, it has one of the most attractive warranty packages on the market, providing cover for up to 10 years. After the first three years this is contingent on having the vehicle maintained by Lexus, but the cover – which lasts from service to service – can be applied to used vehicles even if servicing has been missed prior to this.

Reliability

• Too new to say, but Lexus reliability record is exemplary
• Hybrid powertrain shared with bestselling Toyota RAV4
• Looks and feels well engineered and precision built

Lexus has an unmatched and well-justified reputation for building cars to the highest standards – with precise attention to detail it calls ‘Takumi Craftsmanship’. This includes such things as windows that slow down before they close to make less noise, and exhaustive testing of the way the doors shut to ensure it’s a solid-sounding noise.

In terms of mechanical components, Lexus has been building hybrids for years. There are no signs of any major issues here and we wouldn’t expect any, although it really is too new to say definitively. There have been no official recalls as yet, but we’ll update this if the situation changes.