Lexus EV conspiracy theories

Yes, that's the only sort of model that I can think would justify the UX300e.

Even then, as you say, I think there's a limit to the data Lexus could gain, beyond "80% of respondents said a satnav with mapping to available chargers would have been nice, and 80% said that more range would be good. The other 20% didn't make it to the focus group meeting because they got lost or ran out of electricity."

Lexus doesn't manufacture in the UK. But all the rivals I mentioned - the Q4 E-tron, EQA/EQB, Enyaq, Ioniq 5, EV6, Mach E, Model 3 etc - would be imported too, so the price comparison is a direct one.

As far as EVs made in Britain are concerned, I think there's only the Jaguar i-Pace and Nissan Leaf. Oh, and I think some London Taxi EVs are made in Britain too. Nissan will make Ariyas in Britain too.

It starts from RMB362,000 (US$56,000).

For comparison, a Model 3 starts at RMB235,900, and a VW ID.4 starts at RMB239,900. A Polestar 2 starts at RMB252,800. The obvious rivals - the Q4 e-tron and EQA - don't seem to be out in China yet, but I'd be surprised if they come it at much more than RMB320,000.

So the UX300e is disastrously expensive in China too.

 

Gosh, where to start?

Well, as Trollbait helpfully points out, this Japanese car is perhaps surprisingly, not only being sold in England.

But even in little old England, this range is inadequate.

In winter, in England, the real-world range for this car is going to be around 120 miles. England, end-to-end, is 550 miles.

We're in lockdown in my part of Australia at the moment, so I've been doing a lot of primary-school home learning with my daughter, including long division, which I hate. So I know that with a range of 120 miles, you'd need to do three 0-100% charges and a 0-58% charge. (This is assuming the chargers are in just the right place, that CHAdeMO is available and that YOU CAN FIND THEM WITH NO EV-SPECIFIC SATNAV.) Or, if you're starting from full, five 10-80% charges. At its fastest charging speed of 75 minutes for a 10-80% charge, that means you're looking at 6 hours and 15 minutes of charging on what would otherwise be a 9 hour 25 minute drive.

To do the same journey in an Ioniq 5 (cheaper than the UX, and bigger), you'd need to recharge twice, for 18 minutes each time if you can find the 350kW chargers. That's 36 minutes. At worst, you'd need to spend about 75 minutes in total for charging. In most VW Group or Ford EVs, you'd be looking at about two hours in total for charging.

That's a huge difference for the Lexus: it's adding more than four hours to a typical EV's trip on the same route. Like I said in my first post, this sort of range works for a city EV like a Fiat 500 or a Honda E, but not for a luxury SUV.

Oh, and Scotland hasn't achieved independence yet. So until about 2025, it's actually 837 miles from one end of the country to the other.

I know!

That was my point!

Why didn't they use some decent-sized batteries in their own car?

Hard to believe, I know, but other countries have rules too.

Mmm.

 

Sorry, just going back to the primary-school maths thing again....

This 300-mile WLTP range that's fine.... Is that more or less than the UX's 197-mile WLTP range which you seem to be suggesting is just as good?

We do metric here, so maybe I'm confused and miles are like negative or something.

 

Yes, but that's really not the issue. We're not talking about BEVs vs PHEVs. I'm asking why Lexus would release a BEV that is so inferior to all of its rival BEVs in so many ways - price, range, charging speed, space, equipment and so on.

If they want to stick with PHEVs, fine. But why release a BEV that cannot compete with rival BEVs?

 

I can see the argument for a strong following. I can even understand the idea of someone buying something slightly inferior just because they like it: lots of people have iPhones, after all.

I'd even do that myself: I'm looking at getting an EV early next year - most good EV models are not available in Australia now, but will be by early next year - and I'm seriously considering an EQB even though I know that range, space and charging speeds are not up to Korean standards, just because I really like the interior and because I've had good experiences with Mercs in the past.

But those inferiorities are marginal. In the case of the UX300e, the difference between it and its rivals on every metric is enormous. It'd take a hell of a lot of brand loyalty for people to choose it over its competitors, and I think the risk of long-term damage to the brand is greater than the benefits that might come from any test.

 

At the risk of taking this into politics, I have a parallel to draw. To try to keep it out of politics, I shall avoid naming the countries, and just call them A and C

In the course of my job, I sometimes have to explain A domestic and international politics to senior people in the C government.

Over the past two years, A foreign policy in our region has been increasingly bizarre, and C officials have struggled to understand what the A Prime Minister is doing. Each move he makes seems to damage A's economic and geopolitical interests, and there doesn't seem to be any benefit to A in the short, medium or long term. Several C officials have speculated that he is playing some sort of complex three-dimensional chess, and that this is all part of a brilliant long-term plan that is just too clever for them to understand. They think that this might be because they don't understand the more complex points of democracy, or how different democracies interact with each other.

I have had to explain to them that the A Prime Minister is a failed marketing manager who was fired from his last job and fell into politics, and who became Prime Minister by accident in what the people of A call a Steven Bradbury Moment. He doesn't understand geopolitics, doesn't understand foreign politics, and doesn't understand foreign culture. In particular, he doesn't understand Asia, and doesn't understand one-Party states or the politics or culture of C. I also have to explain to them that, while it takes a degree of intelligence and cunning to reach senior positions in the C government, this is not the case in the A government.

When the A Prime Minister makes moves that seem bizarre and stupid, this is not because he is a genius with a master plan. It is because the moves are bizarre and stupid, because he does not know what he is doing.

Looking at the UX300e, I think we might be in a similar position. It might look like some clever move as part of an ingenious plan to wrong-foot the opposition, but there is every chance that it's just stupid.

Sometimes there isn't a bigger picture to watch. Sometimes the disappointing small picture is all there is.

Yes, but they're selling it in Europe. And in China. And in both places, they're doing it with only one battery chemistry.

Again, it seems that there is no bigger picture here. Unless it's the one I mentioned people speculating about in my original post.

 

Consumers.

Range.
Charging speed.
Equipment.
Space.
Price.
Reliability.
Longevity.

The UX300e is likely to do well on the last two metrics, but only on them. Whether it beats Korean, European, Chinese and American EV rivals on those two metrics remains to be seen.

But the most obvious way to compensate for loss of range is with high charging speeds. The UX300e offers a combination of an exceptionally short range and exceptionally slow charging.

....but it is not offering that in this car.

 

Here's a head-to-head test of the UX300e against the electric version of the Volvo XC40.

I can't say either of them appeal to me particularly, but it's interesting to see how they compare.

New Lexus UX 300e vs new Volvo XC40 Recharge Pure Electric | What Car?

It does seem that the UX offers more miles per kWh than the XC40.