Lexus RZ450e reinvents the steering wheel and it works

Recently announced Lexus RZ450e is being put through its paces before officially reaching the first customers, first lucky members of press are taking test drives and Tom Moloughney from Motor1 was invited to Spain to spend few hours driving the RZ450e around the Circuit Parcmotor Castelloli near Barcelona.

The vehicles presented to press were early pre-production prototypes and the focus went onto trying out the Lexus’s new steering solution - the yoke. Lexus goes as far as not even naming it the yoke but calling it OMG (at least in Europe) and they are absolutely serious about it - One Motion Grip or OMG for short. The Internet is going to have a field day with this one…

Unlike the yoke in latest Tesla Plaid models this apparently is a completely different animal. The RZ450e uses a drive-by-wire system so there’s no physical connection between the steering wheel - or the OMG - and the wheels of the car, meaning variable steering ratio is possible making the OMG actually a useful device. Tesla drivers who shared their views of the new yoke steering had one complaint - trying to turn the car around or manoeuvring in tight spaces can be challenging. Lexus fixes that with progressive system which means never having to cross hands however tight the turn is - simple and effective.

RZ450e constantly monitors the speed of the vehicle and inputs from the driver and adjusts the angle of wheels accordingly - less at high speeds on motorways and more when turning into a parking space. It will take some time getting used to it but it sounds like a system that will actually make the driver's life a bit easier. For those who are not interested in jumping straight into the future, Lexus will offer a traditional steering wheel with rack and pinion - good old-school trusted solution that we all know so well.

Lexus is expecting the RZ450e to cover 225 miles on full charge but only when driving on standard 18” wheels, that range at the moment is not confirmed by EPA but we can look up figures for Toyota bZ4X since the two are practically twins. It turns out that the 225 miles range is a compromise Lexus engineers settled on, providing the best balance between weight of the car, efficiency and the cost of it. 308hp is not what we would call a bad compromise, 225 miles (362km) is not ideal but it isn’t a deal breaker either. The interesting bit is the different types of batteries used by Toyota and Lexus - Lexus is using a 71.4kWh battery made by PPES (Toyota and Panasonic JV) and it is the same battery pack used by the front wheel drive bZ4X. The all-wheel-drive Toyota, which the Lexus is based on, uses a Chinese battery pack produced by CATL. It would be interesting to find out the reasoning behind that move.

Lexus RZ450e will charge to 80 percent in about 30 minutes with a DC charger at 150kW rate and if we are to believe the reports from first users of Toyota bZ4X - it will be difficult to achieve. It would mean the battery pack accepting as much as 62kWh in 30 minutes which is a very aggressive curve - we will wait for first charging reports to voice our opinion. Another interesting solution is the braking system on the latest Lexus - unlike on the majority of electric cars this system is not blended. It means the mechanical brakes are not used together with regenerative braking of the electric motors, it means when you press the brake pedal you are actually braking using brakes and the motors do not help. One pedal driving in the Lexus is not going to happen.

Lexus is planning to ship 400 units of the car every month to the US and hopes to have 4,900 cars delivered in 2023 - that’s about as many as Tesla Model Y delivered every week. There is no chance you’ll be seeing RZ450e at every turn, it will remain a low volume, exclusive EV with yoke - sorry, with OMG that works.

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