Dhill

I traded in my RX 350h Premium (with a lot of Premium+ addons) on Friday 10/13/23 for an RX 450h+. I wanted this car back in December 2022 when I purchased the 350h, but it was not released with the other 2023 models with no ETA in sight. I have loved the 350h, it is a great car. I see that there are a few others that have purchased the RX 450h+ over the last couple of weeks also. Thought I would start a thread for initial impressions so far. I know it is early.

Lexus App:
I had one issue right out of the gate. The Lexus app did not show any battery information. This was a critical miss for me. I posted a query on the NX forum since the NX 450h+ has been out a couple of years now but got no responses. Long story short, after three phone calls and a written message to Lexus I was told my car did not have the "Charge Management Feature". That made no sense for a PHEV. That is why I could not see any battery or EV data in the Lexus App. In the third call I asked to have the issue escalated and was told some techs were working on it. Later that night I checked the app and the battery and EV data was included (see screen shots below). I guess someone forgot to flip a switch on my car. If you are not getting battery information on the Lexus App, call and ask them to add it to your vehicle. I am not sure what they did because they never called me back to let me know the "Feature" was added and my issue was fixed. Now to figure out why the app is not tracking my charging history. On a side note, the Horn icon is now available to me in the app. Must have been a Luxury model thing only.

Here are some other thoughts so far:

• I am using the included Level 1 charger. I am not driving that much, so the slow charge is not an issue and there is a Flo street charging station very close to me if I need a faster charge ($2 per hour). I bought the ChargePoint Home Flex charger from Amazon and will have my electrician install it and two 240v outlets in the next 2 weeks, one for me outside the garage and one inside the garage for a future EV for my wife.
• The estimated 37 EV miles is perfect for me as I do a lot of daily short trips (work from home so no commute). So far, I am saving the battery (EV mode) for city driving and Hybrid mode for freeway driving has worked well for me. Based on my driving habits, this almost feels like a full time EV car for me (almost).
• I like that Lexus has separated EV mode stats and Hybrid mode stats. The car is either in EV only mode or Hybrid mode which also uses part of the battery to improve MPG.
• At 304 horsepower, this car feels more powerful than the 350h. Also, in Hybrid mode the MPG seems to be better. I cannot quantify that yet because I have not driven enough in Hybrid mode. Also, the amount if battery that is set aside for Hybrid mode seems to be bigger than the 350h battery, which let's the car stay in EV mode longer when you select Hybrid mode.
• Like the other RX models, no trip, between refueling or between charging data. Only total miles per kWh and total MPG data.
• On first couple of charges, my EV miles was only 34. I know that as you drive this should improve. Had to figure out how that is calculated. From other posts (NX), it looks like 30% of the battery is set aside for Hybrid mode or not used. I am getting 2.8 miles per kWh. On an 18.1kWh that should get me 50.68 miles of EV range. If the car is only using 70% of the battery for EV driving (12.67kWh), then EV miles would be 35.4 (12.67kWh * 2.8 miles per kWh), which is close to the 34 miles that I am getting after charge. I am not an expert, so these are just my guesses.
• Although it never bothered me, the 450h+ does not have that groaning noise from the engine when you are accelerating that the 350h has. It is very quiet when in Hybrid mode, and of course totally quiet in EV mode.
• Moving from a Premium package to the Luxury package has added a lot more features that are new to me. I was especially missing the Panoramic View Monitor and the front view. The car also feels heavier (batteries) and the doors seem to be heavier also (more solid). The ride seems to be a little bit smoother with the heavier weight and the 21 inch tires.

I will continue to test and research and let you know if I find anything useful. Also, please let us know your experiences with the RX 450h+ so far.

MoodyHank

Thanks for starting a 450h+ topic. I am taking delivery tomorrow, trading my X5 45e for it. We also had a Rav4 Prime in the family and my hope is that the RX PHEV is essentially an X5 (in terms of comfort, space, and features) with the Prime powertrain (peppier in EV mode, better fuel economy in hybrid mode than the X5 PHEV). I will report back here after I put in some miles on the RX…

WellsB

We purchased our RX450h+ a week ago and have a bit over 300 miles on it now. We traded a 2013 RX350 in on it, so it is a major change for us. So far, we are mostly loving it, though the sparse functionality of the app is disappointing, and getting the digital keys to work was aggravating. My partner has the primary account, and my Lexus app is even more sparse than hers, only having the lock and unlock buttons and no other information accessible. We'll have to see if we can get the extra functionality you have working on hers and maybe mine too, if that's possible.

The miles left indicator for EV still shows 34 miles when fully charged, but I made a mixed city and rural highway/backroads drive yesterday and made it 49.6 miles before the engine started. I've made a few other city drives and am averaging 3.2 miles per kw. I use the paddle shifters extensively to maximize my regenerative braking and drive very sedately. Besides the home charger, I've been using free ChargePoint charging stations and get about 6 kw per hour from them. I also used an adaptor to connect to a Tesla destination charger at a local hotel to make sure it would work, before our road trip.

We did make a 150-mile drive with all modes of traffic involved. I saved the EV mode for city and used the last of the EV miles on the freeway before getting home. The trip screen showed 55.5 mpg, which I'm pretty sure must include the EV portion too. With about 160 miles on gasoline, I'm still showing 433 miles left. It will be interesting to see how it does on our road-trip, which will be mostly freeway and HV mode.

One of my biggest disappointments is that there are basically only two all-season tire options in the original size, neither of which is has the Three-Peak Mountain Snowflake Symbol. I really liked the Michelin CrossClimate on our RX350, and Michelin only has a Summer-only and a Winter-only option in that size.

JSAM

Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences. I did an initial post with pics in a different sub (below) yesterday but will share some excerpts and updated thoughts below https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...l#post11599657

I've only had a few hours with the vehicle but love many aspects of it so far. The ride quality is everything you'd expect from a Lexus and the extra juice is nice given it's a heavy vehicle. I test drove a RAV 4 Prime and it was definitely lighter/quicker, but the wind noise was quite pronounced, so I decided to pass and go with the RX instead. Other cool things: Iridium paint is da bomb, heads-up display is cool, nice large screen and wireless charging. However, I'm going to be nitpicky and mention a few minor things that annoyed me:

• Cheap looking plastic on some parts of the dash, screen, shades/glove compartment
• Needing to change drive modes (eco/sport) through the screen vs. a ****/button. For some reason, mode reverts back to "normal" every time even if I ended the drive on sport or eco. Is this the way it works?
• Overly complicated shifter; just bring back the regular P, R, N, D shifting already
• Rear view mirror was narrower than my wife's Highlander Hybrid (I think)

Battery/EV:
- App says that charging will stop at 95%, giving me only 30 miles. Dealership also said 30 miles was about right. How are folks getting 34 miles?
- Perhaps it's because I live in a hilly area, but battery drained pretty quickly even with rather conservative driving

Dhill

It should be charging to 100%. Lexus sets aside part of the battery to preserve battery health. Other EVs and PHEVs give you access to 100% of the battery, so it is suggested that you not charge to 100%. Charging to 100% will get you a few more miles. EV miles calculation is based on your driving habits, so over time it should improve. Driving up hills will consume more battery though, and there will not be enough regenerative braking going down hill to recoup the used miles, I have only had the car for a little over 1 week and I have seen the EV miles tick up from 31/32 miles on the first day to 34 miles over the last few charges. Keep an eye on the miles per kWh. Mine started at 2.4 and is now at 2.9 as I drive more.

JSAM

Thank you for your thoughts!

WellsB

Took the RX for a 50 mile drive today, mostly at a steady 55 MPH and a few miles of city street driving. Managed 42.6 miles on EV before the engine started. I averaged 3.0 miles per kwh or about 14.2 kwh of usable capacity. I've read that it has 14.5 kwh of usable capacity and that is within the rounding error for my calculation.

I downloaded the Dr Prius app and found that the battery stops charging at 90% state of charge(this shows as 100% in the Lexus app) and ran down to 13.33% SOC before starting the engine. I believe it stays within those limits to protect the battery lifespan, to provide for hybrid-operations at those extremes, and to ensure the engine will start.(on the low end) It then charged back up to 14.5% fairly quickly and stayed around that level for the rest of the steady highway speeds. When I exited the highway, it regened up to 15.3% and was still there when I parked.

The Dr Prius app shows battery SOC as well as charge/discharge rate, pack temperatures, and the voltage level of the 12v battery. You need a wireless OBD2 dongle to connect the app to the vehicle.

Dhill

Thanks for the info. It helped to affirm what I’ve seen so far and correct some of my assumptions.

WellsB

A bit more data...

I hooked my L1 charger up to a Kill-A-Watt meter and found that it took 15.31 kwh to charge the battery from "empty." If I'm correct about the usable capacity being 14.5 kwh, then the charger is around 95% efficient, which is better than I expected.

At 39 cents a kwh, off-peak(my winter rate), or $5.94 for a charge, that puts it a bit more than what I pay for a gallon of 91 octane(currently $5.599), but I also have free chargers nearby, so I can easily reduce that cost.

If you use the Lexus numbers of 37 miles of range for EV and 35mpg combined for HV, that's basically the same cost at 16 cents per mile EV or gas. Use of free chargers quickly drops the cost of EV driving though.

JSAM

I thought nothing was free in life. How do you locate free chargers? Sorry, I'm brand new to EVs so asking basic questions.

Sad that cost of a gallon of gas is the same as cost to charge the car (I don't have solar), thought I could get some arbitrage/savings! Paying quite a premium for the extra 50 hp until the battery is drained

WellsB

I'm new to this too, lol. We've only owned it for a week... I use the Chargepoint app and the Plugshare app to find free chargers. Ironically, I discovered Chargepoint at our first stop after buying the car. We saw the chargers and investigated. They were free for an hour, then cost some amount per kwh. I got the app so I could use them and discovered a government building nearby with a bunch of free chargers. Now I check wherever I'm going for freebees... I imagine there are other apps as well.

Yeah, we didn't research the cost of charging. We don't have solar either, but it just became more attractive... I could get a better EV specific rate, but it's a time of use plan and I'm afraid it would drive our electric costs up even more. I need to look more into that.

Dhill

I do have solar and plan to charge during the day. We get a lot of sunny days in Southern Cal. I send a lot of power back to the power company, but the offset or credit has been reduced over the years, so it is no longer 1 to 1. So it is cheaper for me to charge during the day. Won’t have my 240v outlets installed for a couple of weeks though.

JSAM

Thank you for the info on chargers. I totally didn't think of time of charging but should.

First 50 mile 2-way commute to the office in San Francisco today. Mostly freeway @75-80 mph up 280 and was only able to get 2.1mi/kwh. Seems lower than what other folks are getting. Wonder if I'm doing something wrong or if I should manually switch to HV mode vs auto and save EV for city streets? Nevertheless, it was a quiet, smooth ride and I could hear my podcast well. Didn't even notice when HV came on, but was cruising at 70+mph vs accelerating.

​​Smelled burning plastic/rubber after the drive after parking in the garage. Some other folks here have mentioned that it's brake coatings (I hope!).

WellsB

That sounds about right for EV economy. A vehicle that takes 10hp at 55 will use about 16hp at 75, and ours uses about 3 m/kwh at 55 with a bit of city thrown in. On the one long trip I've made so for(150 miles) I did proactively switch to HV mode for speeds over 60 or so and prioritized EV for city.

I haven't noticed any burning smell, but I don't park in a garage. My last new car did have a burning smell for a while though, when parked in a garage. I don't remember how long that lasted though.

StefanoS

I wouldn't be overly concerned with the burning smell that you're experiencing. It is perfectly normal for new brake pads to emit an odor during the break-in process. The friction material is bonded together with a resin which will off-gas odors from the friction generated heat from braking. This process is sometimes called "coking". You will notice this more in the garage since it is an enclosed area. I owned and operated a foreign car parts business for 37 years before selling it a year ago. I had customers who would often ask this very question. The odor will dissipate over time, as the brake pads "cure". New tires will also off-gas odors in the garage, as well.