Lexus ES Electric Review & Prices

The new Lexus ES is an all-electric saloon car, replacing the hybrid-only previous generation model. It’s absolutely huge inside (and out), very quiet and has a well-appointed cabin, but the ES can’t travel as far between top-ups as most of its alternatives and its charging speed leaves a lot to be desired.

There are plenty of alternatives to choose from, too. The Audi A6 e-tron, Volvo ES90, BMW i5 and Mercedes EQE can all travel much further on a charge, and they’re also better to drive.

They’re easier on the eye, too. While there are highlights to the ES’s styling in the sleek headlights, intricate (optional) alloy wheels and a range of funky creases in the bodywork, there’s a visual bulk to the big ‘Lex that resembles a beached whale. This is most notable in white or silver, as the brighter colours highlight the ungainly rear overhang and bulky sides. It’s just too big.

It’s a bit like a Japanese denim jacket. It’s made from high quality materials and there’s an understated class to having a Lexus badge on the bonnet, but whether it looks any good is totally dependent on the colour you choose.

Lexus ES: electric range, battery and charging data

Range: 326 - 361 miles
Efficiency: 3.8 - 3.9mi/kWh
Battery size: 77kWh
Max charge speed: 150kW
Charge time AC: 11h 30mins, 0-100% (7.4kW)
Charge time DC: 28 mins, 20-80% (150kW)
Charge port location: Left side, front
Power outputs: 221hp

A plus side to the ES’s plus-size dimensions is the spacious cabin, because this is a seriously roomy car. Not only that, but the vast majority of the interior surfaces are sleek and upholstered in a premium-feeling trim. The bamboo door trims are divisive, while the infuriating infotainment system requires too many pokes and prods for you to adjust some settings - and you can’t operate many of the functions on the move.

The front seats are wonderfully supportive and comfortable, but the SUV-tall seating position feels odd as you’re in a saloon car. Legroom in the back is fantastic, though you can’t fit your feet under the front seats if they’re dropped all the way down, and the sloping roofline does leave you feeling hemmed in if you’re approaching six feet tall.

A 512-litre boot puts the ES in good stead, with more space than a BMW i5 or Audi A6 e-tron Sportback, but the lack of underfloor storage and no front boot means the cable bag does get in the way.

In a refreshingly simple approach, all of the ES trim levels can only be had with a single battery option, offering up to 361 miles of range. We saw 4.3mi/kWh on gentle, largely urban routes for 331 real-world miles - pretty accurate to Lexus’ claim. On motorway-heavy trips that dropped down to 3.8mi/kWh.

This drops down to just 327 miles in the Takumi model with its blingy 21-inch wheels, and a lowly 150kW charging speed means a 10-80% top-up takes 28 minutes.

Back to its size for a moment, because a lack of rear-wheel steering means the ES is a cumbersome thing to drive in town. The dramatically sloping bonnet and enormous rear pillars make it hard to judge its extremities when parking.

It’s very comfortable on most road surfaces though, especially at high speeds where the ES is superbly quiet, too. It’s not fun to chuck into bends on a country lane and wallows around a bit, but it’s pretty surefooted otherwise.

Verdict

The Lexus ES has a few good attributes wrapped up in an otherwise unremarkable package. It’s comfortable enough and posh enough in some ways, but as an alternative to the highly capable BMW i5 and Audi A6 e-tron, that just isn’t enough to recommend the Lexus. Unless you’re a chauffeur, that is, on account of the generous interior space.

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The Lexus ES 350e starts at just over £59,000 in Premium trim, with heated and ventilated front seats, a heated steering wheel, heated windscreen, metallic paint, a panoramic glass roof and 19-inch wheels as standard.

Premium Plus trim adds a Mark Levinson sound system, head-up display, leather upholstery and bamboo door trims. Top-spec Takumi cars feature 21-inch wheels, a singular reclining back seat (behind the front passenger), heated and ventilated back seats, privacy rear glass and a flip-down control panel in the centre rear armrest. It may as well be called the ‘chauffeur special.’

It’s comfortable and refined, but the Lexus ES is a bit wallowy at times

In town

There’s no escaping the Lexus’s enormous size in town. At over 5.1 metres long and with an almost 2.0-metre width, the ES really does feel big on tight city streets. The (slightly over) 12.5-metre turning circle doesn’t help when parking, especially given how hard it is to judge the car’s width with its narrow rear window and dramatically-sloped front corners. A BMW i5 can about face in under 12 metres, for example.

You can’t even opt for four-wheel steering as in some alternatives, which would make it more manoeuvrable. The standard-fit 360-degree parking sensors are a bit too eager to pull an emergency stop, too.

The suspension does a largely brilliant job of absorbing speedbumps and rough road surfaces. Sharp potholes do thud through the cabin, that being said, even on the entry-level 19-inch wheels with chunky tyres. The suspension is so soft, in fact, that a stab of the sharp brakes or a prod of the throttle leaves you wobbling about for a little. Shame there isn’t one-pedal driving, either.

On the motorway

This is where the ES feels most at home, because the suspension settles down very nicely at the national speed limit and Lexus has done a brilliant job of insulating the ES’s cabin against wind and road noise. It’s unfazed by motorway dips and ruts entirely, though expansion joints do thud through the cabin.

It’s worth noting that the driver attention monitor and rear-approaching traffic bongs are very intrusive and a bit oversensitive - which are ironically very distracting alerts, which come out most often on the motorway. The lane-keeping cruise control is pretty poor, often bouncing you between the white lines and letting you drift out of them at times, too.

On a twisty road

Don’t expect much from the Lexus ES on a twisty road. Its front-wheel drive layout with a modest 221hp and 7.8-second 0-60mph time doesn't encourage enthusiastic driving, nor does the steering which is generally vague. The sharp brakes are a plus for scrubbing speed off into corners, which you’ll want to do as there’s plenty of body lean.

Otherwise, loads of grip from the big tyres means it feels agile enough for such a large car, but the wallowy suspension does churn your stomach if you hit a bumpy stretch of road with any verve.

There’s plenty of space inside the ES’s cabin, but the small storage spaces are annoying

Interior space and practicality is a mixed bag in the ES. The former is brilliant, with supportive and highly adjustable seats making it easy to get comfortable, but the latter is lacklustre.

The door bins are too narrow to take big bottles, the cupholders, glovebox and storage space beneath the centre console are too small and the armrest cubby is set quite far back. At least there’s a pair of wireless phone chargers beneath the dashboard, and you can slide a cover over the cupholders should you use the space to hide small items instead.

Space in the back seats

The ES’s back seats are palatial, quite frankly. The legroom is of particular note, with ample space for even the most long-limbed of adults to get comfortable - though it’s a shame you can’t slide your feet under the front seats if they’re low-set. Headroom is good if not great, but you’ll have to be well into the six-foot range to feel your hair ruffling the roof.

There’s a small hump in the middle of the ES’s floor, though it’s hardly intrusive. Oddly for a car with such a focus on back-seat luxury, only the top-spec Takumi models get reclining rear seats…or seat, that is, as only one of them adjusts. Expect games of rock-paper-scissors for who gets the fancy chair, then.

Wide opening rear doors and the raised ride height make it simple to load child seats into the back, but the ISOFIX point covers are fiddly pop-out items which are all too easy to lose. Premium plus models come with manual side window blinds, but the door pockets are small and the cupholders in the flip-down armrest are very unsupportive.

Boot space

The ES impresses here, with a large 512-litre boot putting it ahead of the BMW i5 (490 litres), Mercedes EQE (430 litres) and Audi A6 e-tron Sportback (502 litres). Even without a hatchback tailgate the ES has a large load aperture, but minimal underfloor storage and no front boot means the charging cables get in the way. At least they come in a nifty bag.

Four sturdy tie-down points, a pair of useless shopping hooks and a 12V charger port complete the ES’s amenities. There are two jarring things to note, though, starting with the back seats which don’t fold down. The other is the release switch on the tailgate, which is oversensitive and far too easy to ‘double press’, leaving the boot unlatched but stuck almost closed.

A largely sleek and premium design is spoiled by irritating infotainment and some questionable surfaces

In classic Lexus fashion, the ES feels rock solid and very well-built inside. The dashboard is a fairly simple design, with a straightforward lower section and an upper panel canted away from you, separated by a highlight strip that runs from door to door. All of the dash is soft and squidgy or padded in leatherette, which feels supple and smooth. In white or tan it looks posh, but it’s a bit dour in all-black trim. There are a few scratchy plastics low down in the cabin, which is a shame given Lexus’s reputation for steadfast quality.

It’s the doors which are more questionable, because the bamboo trim in Premium Plus and Takumi models looks great in photos, but in person invoked reactions such as ‘it looks like cardboard’ and ‘is that laminate in the doors?’

They’re worse at night, too, as the entire panels light up aggressively - with some really naff colour-changing settings available, too. You’re better off choosing a muted option and turning the brightness down, for the good of your eyeballs.

The 14.0-inch infotainment is the real sticking point inside the ES, because not only does it insist on beeping every time you touch the display, but there are far too many menus to navigate to adjust fairly important settings. The infuriating driver attention monitor, for example, which is hidden in a separate menu to the driver assistance systems, just to test your patience a little more.

What’s great, however, are the clicky heater control buttons which are ‘hidden’ behind the dashboard upholstery and a joy to use. The steering wheel features tactile buttons on the spokes and the hexagonal stalks are very plush indeed. Shame Lexus has abandoned its steering wheel logo for a generic script instead.

Lexus claims the ES can manage 361 miles in entry-level Premium trim, dropping down to 326 miles in range-topping Takumi guise on account of its heavier, less aero-efficient 21-inch wheels. Premium Plus trim splits the difference at 357 miles to a charge.

During our testing of a Premium Plus model we managed a very impressive 4.3mi/kWh during mixed driving - meaning 331 miles of real world range or a staggering 93% of the claim. That dropped down to 3.8mi/kWh over motorway-heavy use, or 293 miles.

While the accuracy is commendable, an Audi A6 e-tron can go as far as 468 miles on a charge, which blows the Lexus away.

All ES models feature a 77kWh battery with 150kW DC charging, some way down on the Audi A6 e-tron (270kW) and Volvo ES90 (350kW).

As a pure EV the Lexus ES falls into the lowest band of road tax, but its hefty starting price means all trim levels are subject to the luxury EV supplement from years two-to-six. It also sits in the lowest band of Benefit-in-Kind rate, which is handy for company car drivers.

The Lexus ES has yet to be tested by crash experts Euro NCAP, but seeing as all of Lexus’ current model range have full-star marks, it’s fair to assume the ES will be as safe as houses.

It comes as standard with loads of safety kit such as the (irritating) driver attention monitor, (distracting) rear-traffic alert, (oversensitive) automatic emergency braking system, (intrusive) lane-keep assist and (dim-witted) lane-keeping cruise control.

The door card panels lighting up red with approaching traffic on exit is a nice touch, though.

*the basic XXX-year warranty is extended by a year with each approved service

Lexus is one of the best in the game in terms of aftercare, with the standard three-year, 60,000-mile warranty extending up to ten years and 100,000 miles if you keep up annual servicing at a dealer-approved garage.

That puts it well ahead of its European alternatives which only offer three years of cover. Lexus also came fourth in the 2026 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey for reliability, which is a fantastic result out of the 30 brands in the charts.