Lexus ES goes EV! New luxury saloon has been super-sized and electrified to take on BMW i5 and Audi A6 e-tron

April 24, 2025April 24, 2025 John Mahoney 6025 Views ES, ev, Lexus

The eighth-generation 2026 Lexus ES has made its global debut at the Shanghai auto show and gone all-electric for the first time.

Hybrid engines will continue as well as the staple Lexus luxury car continues to battle it out with its German rivals from Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Lexus Australia is yet to announce the 2026 Lexus ES lineup or pricing. The new EV and hybrid sedan line-up is tipped to land in the first half of 2026.

Joining the Lexus UX300e and the Lexus RZ SUV in the car-maker’s expanding EV offering, the new Lexus ES remains a close cousin to the Toyota Camry and is based on the same TNGA-K platform.

Far more striking than the car it replaces, the new ES picks up where the 2023 LF-ZC concept left off, with a sleek low-drag look and sportier fastback rear styling.

If you want to tell electric from hybrid, the latter electrified combustion-powered ES features the slimmest air intake above the downsized trademark Lexus spindle grille. The EV has no opening.

Upfront, the ES also boast ultra-thin headlamps that sits above the larger, almost hidden, main lamps that features a neat tick-shaped signature.

Along its flanks is a new hockey stick graphic, that’s joined by a rising beltline. Add large alloy wheels that range from 19 or 21-inches there’s an emphasis on the ES’s sportiness.

No longer strictly a mid-size rival, the ES is massive. In fact, at 5140mm long, the ES is a sizeable 165mm longer, 55mm wider and between 110-115mm taller than before.

That makes it almost as large at a Mercedes S-Class limo.

Inside the more luxurious cabin the limo theme continues, there’s a large infotainment combined with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster.

At first glance there’s little or no buttons but look closer and there are capacitive shortcuts along the dash, while dual wireless smartphone chargers are also present.

Other luxury car features include ambient lighting, an onboard fragrance dispenser, and a large panoramic sunroof that can switch from transparent to opaque at the touch of a button.

In the rear the Lexus sedan gets a pair of massage seats that recline and have leg rests that rise and help occupants lounge about. Even the front passenger seat tilts forward to provide extra space.

A new entry-level E300h arrives with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder hybrid that’s matched with Toyota’s electronically-controlled continuously variable transmission (E-CVT) automatic. It produces 145kW in the front-drive version and 148kW with all-wheel drive.

Leapfrogging the fifth-gen hybrid tech offered in the latest Prius or Lexus LBX, the ES gets Toyota’s next-generation hybrid gubbins that packages the power control unit and electronics in a lighter more compact transaxle – dubbed ‘e-axle’ – and blends it with a bigger battery.

The old car’s 2.5-litre four-cylinder hybrid is carried over and produces a more muscular 182kW and comes with either with front- or all-wheel drive.

New for the ES is the availability of all-electric power and the new Lexus gets two options.

The first is the front-drive ES 350e that pumps out 165kW from a front-motor and is said to provide a range of up to 685km.

A second all-wheel drive dual-motor ES 500e gets 252kW and is still able to cover 610km – although both ranges are recorded on the more lenient Chinese CLTC test cycle. So expect lower values on the stricter Euro WLTP testing.

Lexus has not disclosed the battery chemistry or power density but says charging is limited to a rate of up to 150kW with a 10-80 per cent top-up taking around 30 minutes – a figure a long way behind the 18-20 minutes some rivals offer.

Said to be quieter and more refined than ever before, the new Lexus ES should give the flagship LS limo a run for its money and come with even more advanced autonomous driving aids.