Lexus UX300e EV on sale in Australia

Lexus has confirmed pricing for the UX 300e fully electric SUV in Australia, where it is available in two trim levels – Luxury and Sport Luxury – priced at AUD$74,000 (RM225,293) and AUD$81,000 (RM246,739), respectively. This comes a year after the battery-electric Lexus made its ASEAN debut in Indonesia, priced at 1.245 billion rupiah (RM358,767).

Included for the Australian market in the prices are a five-year, unlimited mileage warranty as well as a 10-year, unlimited mileage assurance period for the high-voltage battery with a required, complimentary battery-electric vehicle system health check yearly after the fifth year, which is according to Lexus specifications, the company said.

The HV battery is covered for 10 years or 160,000 km if capacity drops below 70% in that time, and each car purchased will be supplied with a complimentary 7 kW AC home charger with professional installation, from which the UX 300e can be fully charged in 6.5 hours.

Australian owners will also get the option of an upgraded home charger with a touch display, Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity, smartphone app connectivity and dynamic load management that measures a home’s live electricity usage and automatically adjust the charging of the UX 300e to suit the load on the local electricity grid, to prevent blackouts and unexpected billing.

In addition to the aforementioned AC home charger, Lexus is offering UX buyers in Australia complimentary access to the country’s Chargefox high-speed DC charging network with over 1,400 outlets from 770 locations in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.

As standard, the UX300e features a single, front-mounted electric motor producing 204 PS and 300 Nm of torque, supplied by a 54.3 kWh lithium-ion battery for a total range of 360 km as tested on the NEDC protocol. Acceleration from 0-100 km/h takes 7.5 seconds, and top speed is 160 km/h.

Rolling stock for the UX 300e Luxury trim is a set of 17-inch alloys in 215/60 tyres, while the Sport Luxury trim gets 18-inch alloys in 225/50 tyres. Exterior kit on the Luxury variant includes LED headlamps and keyless entry.

Inside, the Luxury trim variant starts with a 10.3-inch widescreen display with the Lexus remote touch interface (RTI), with the driver getting a seven-inch colour display including a regenerative recharge display. On the Sport Luxury trim, these are joined by a colour head-up display. The drive mode selector on the instrument binnacle offers access to Eco, Normal and Sport drive modes.

Audio comes courtesy of a 13-speaker Mark Levinson setup as standard on both trim levels, joined by Apple CarPlay and Android Auto phone compatibility with wireless smartphone charging. DAB+ digital radio and satellite navigation with voice control are also standard.

Safety kit on the Australian-market UX 300e includes eight airbags in addition to the Lexus Safety System+ (LSS+) driver assistance systems suite. This includes the pre-collision system (PCS) with millimetre wave radar sensor and monocular camera sensor, dynamic radar cruise control, road sign assist, lane tracing alert, and automatic high beam (the Sport Luxury gets an adaptive high-beam system).

For parking, assistance systems include rear cross-traffic alert (RCTA), parking support alert and parking support brake, essentially AEB for speeds up to 15 km/h in forward or reverse. Other safety systems include reversing camera with dynamic guide lines, panoramic view monitor, blind-spot monitor and drive start control.