Lexus 1 million km battery backing

The Toyota-owned Japanese luxury brand Lexus has announced a landmark 10-year/one million kilometre battery warranty for its first pure electric vehicle, the UX 300e compact SUV.

The protection offered for the UX 300e’s 54.3kWh lithium-ion battery pack tops electric vehicle star Tesla by two years and many hundreds of thousands of kilometres.

It’s also more than double the four-year warranty Lexus offers on the rest of the car.

Curiously, the new Lexus battery pack is air-cooled rather than water-cooled. Lexus says that makes it lighter, safer and able to provide stable output at high speed and through repeated charge cycles.

Some rivals will be scratching their heads about Lexus’ claim as the transition from air- to water-cooling has been regarded as one of the key aids in achieving more stable performance from EV battery packs and most brands have adopted that technology.

Lexus claims a range of 300km between recharges based on the WLTP testing regime and a maximum charging rate of 50kW.

Under consideration but yet to be confirmed for Australia, the Lexus UX 300e looks pretty much like its petrol and hybrid siblings.

But a 150kW/300Nm electric motor/generator borrowed from the Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell EV sits under the bonnet and drives the front wheels. Lexus claims it can accelerate the 300e from 0-100km/h in 7.5 seconds.

The UX 300e is currently on-sale in China and is headed for Europe. It is the first in a series of EV models from Lexus, which like Toyota, has promised an electrified member of each of its model ranges by 2025.

Lexus Australia Chief Executive Scott Thompson told media late last year about the prospects for the UX300 e coming down under: “I’d love to take it, but the conversation will still be around timing, infrastructure, regulation, global demand for the car.”