2022 Lexus ES 300h review: First drive

The official Lexus line that its mid-sized stock, such as this newly facelifted ES, underpins the brand might sound like lip service.

But some 2.65 million sales across seven generations of ES sedan – a quarter of all Lexus sales to 2020 – bring much weight to the claim, regardless of whatever prevailing buyer shift there is, regionally or globally, away from medium-sized sedans.

The Lexus ES continues to carve its own indelible space, one nudging five metres in length, ‘medium’ in marketing palatability if somewhat ‘large’ by the tape measure.

The perception, of course, is that you get a lot of luxury indulgence for your investment, the now expanded eight-strong range kicking off at $61,620 before on-road costs for a base Luxury in new petrol 250 guise that joins what was previously a hybrid-only line-up of 300h versions.

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That’s right: growth and expansion. Because whatever sedan doomsayers charge, ES popularity among Aussie buyers has been on the constant up – 203 per cent in the past 12 months – since the seventh-generation model arrived in 2018.

Here on review is the familiar 300h, sampled here in flagship Sport Luxury form (the five ES guises available across three variant nameplates consist of Luxury, F Sport and Sport Luxury).

It remains the anchor point of the local line-up, with Lexus Australia predicting hybrid power will account for 85 per cent of buyer uptake, be it privately or as the no-brainer powertrain format for commercial use in limousine hire circles.

Pricing and Features

The MY22 ES 300h Sport Luxury tops the range tree at $78,180 before on-roads, marginally up on its pre-facelift forebear.

All other variants sat below this top dog wear Luxury or F Sport designation, either with or without a cost-optional Enhancement Pack, in a choice of the two available powertrains. Sport Luxury, though, is available as a hybrid only.

In terms of European alternative, you’re well deep into Audi’s A4, with the 45 TFSI S-line undercutting Lexus at $70,800, while BMW’s 330i sits at $79,900 and Mercedes-Benz C300 wants for $75,300 as competition in the fiscal ballpark. None, however, are hybrids or flagships. In the Korean corner, the high-spec Genesis G70 3.3T Sport clocks in at a somewhat similar $75,876.

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In the broader strokes, the ES facelift brings squint-and-you-miss-it headlight and grille remodelling, a conspicuous new 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment format range-wide and a host of variant-specific changes such as junction AEB, bamboo trim inlays and rear suspension enhancement. In typical Lexus style, the mid-life spec and equipment polishing and honing are both widespread and detailed.

As the richest end of Lexus’ characteristically value-hedged luxury pitch, the Sport Luxury brings everything plus two kitchen sinks in what is an exhaustingly long features list.

Exclusive variant highlights include BladeScan LED headlights (ala Audi’s Matrix trickery), semi-aniline leather-accented trim, power-adjustable reclining rear seats, three-zone humidified climate control, Mark Levinson 17-speaker sound, a heated steering wheel and expansive row-two control over everything from seat heating through audio volume to the powered rear sunshade.

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There’s also a choice of four interior colour schemes with three different wood ornamentation styles.

Non-exclusive features include 18-inch wheels, powered 14-way driver/10-way passenger adjustment of the heated and cooled front seats, full-LED exterior lighting, a moon roof, an 8.0-inch semi-digital driver’s display, a head-up display, wireless phone charging, four USB-C ports, rear privacy glass, auto comfort access, a surround-view camera system, rear manual blinds and a hands-free powered boot lid.

The new 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment integrates proprietary sat-nav, DAB+ digital radio, Apple and Android smartphone mirroring and Lexus Connected Services.

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Absent from the Sport Luxury fit-out, though, is the adaptively damped suspension offered on the 300h F Sport, instead adopting a single-setting passive design that is a bit of a headscratcher given the flagship positioning.

Safety-wise, the facelift brings the aforementioned Intersection Turn Assist and BladeScan trickery as well as new emergency steering assist for collision avoidance and tweaks to the adaptive cruise and lane-keeping/following smarts. Active assistance includes lane-departure and blind-spot warning, road sign assist, rear cross-traffic alert, and parking support brake with vehicle and object detection.

This five-star ANCAP proposition, tested in 2018, features a ten-airbag suite that includes knee airbags for front occupants as well as chest and head coverage across its two seating rows.

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Comfort and Space

Despite the relative youth of this ES generation, the interior is minted in an old-school luxury ethos that’s either pleasingly familiar or unappealingly passe, depending on taste.

Either way, it’s clearly the centrepiece to the Lexus experience, its biggest drawcard or deterrent (to taste), and unsurprisingly the Sport Luxury grabs the marque’s penchant for grandiose richness and fussiness then runs with it in a full sprint.

Hugely appealing is the sheer variety of the materials used, the elaborate manner in which they’re blended together, and the sumptuous tactility of the surface chosen. There’s nary a hint of cheapness or cost-cutting anywhere, your attention assaulted by the assortment of finishes and nooks of the detailing.

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The front seats are excellent, not merely in the tactility of the trim work but in support and comfort. There’s also an organic sportiness thanks to the low seating, the console height and wheel positioning, though the presentation is pleasingly bereft of racy F Sport-style accoutrements that might otherwise conflict with the flagship’s unabashed luxury limo vibe. That’s the good bit…

Far less fetching is its outdated approach to user interfaces. The first row is an ocean of dedicated buttons and switches for the ES’s myriad features, lacking intuitive placement and with an ad-hoc approach to appearance and labelling. It is, in short, a jumbled mess of a design, one that seems to have left well behind compared with contemporary European trends towards cleanly streamlining. It’s a point of difference, just not a very convincing one by current standards.

The window-dressing, too, seems only half committed. The semi-digital instrumentation, while fundamentally pleasing to the eye, is quite incohesive in displaying information.

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And the new 12.3-inch infotainment system, a real opportunity for Lexus to drag itself into the present, is only a partially improved Band-Aid fix for the chronic ills that remain with the system’s universally panned user interface.

It still, confoundingly, locks out basic feature adjustment while the vehicle is moving, with a saving grace that, when using smartphone mirroring, it finds a way to mimic modern multimedia usability.

The ES’s medium-plus sizing and vast 2870mm wheelbase afford a palatial spaciousness that befits the luxury ambience. Particularly in row two.

You’ll have a tough time finding this amount of legroom short of venturing in rival Euro marques’ A6s, 5 Series or E-Classes.

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And as a dedicated four-seater, with the armrest down and business-class control array at hand, the second row is easily the most comfortable and convenient place to spend time during a long haul, save for the slightly low ceiling caused by the coupe-like roofline.

Similarly, the boot is long in length and short in height, bringing a generous 473 litres that’s sufficient for a couple of large travel cases.

Worth noting here, too, is just how quiet the ES is on the move, mostly down to the amount of physical sound deadening applied to the sedan’s structure, but also via the active noise cancelling smarts facilitated by the sound system.

On the Road

Engineers have thrown a spanner or three at the GA-K platform that debuted in the seventh-generation ES, which managed to massage a semblance of dynamic alacrity in a five-metre-long front-driver encumbered with lugging around hybridisation’s hefty technical excesses.

Given the highlight reel of changes centres mostly around stiffening the rear suspension structure and not much else, it’s fair to expect that the mid-sized Lexus hasn’t suddenly transformed into a 3 Series hunter.

In a general sense, the ES’s ride and handling balance fits the brief, if less so for the former and more for the latter. Suspension tuning is essentially carryover and it seems that in the pursuit of dialling in a moderate degree of natural connection between driver and steed, the secondary ride has been compromised.

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Across small bumps and general road acne, the ES is conspicuously fizzy and there’s not enough pliancy to prevent movement rippling through the cabin. Primary ride, however, is excellent and the suspension supremely supportive, with cushioning bump control and quick, neat settling on rebound.

But again, the headscratcher is that the flagship Sport Luxury lacks the adaptive damper smarts – even a simplified, soft-or-softer two-mode option – as found on the more-affordable 300h F Sport…

The trade, it seems, is for crisper control at the helm than you might otherwise expect. The ES is no dynamic pulse-raiser, but there’s a handling competency blending direct steering, neutral balance and commanding road-holding that makes the ES predictable, surefooted and safe when getting its hustle on across a back road. Less in the service of fun, more in bringing a sense of relaxed and confident pace when you feel the need or desire.

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Its hybrid powertrain is mostly innocuous and generally quite polished, if not quite to the point of seamlessness. That the Atkinson Cycle petrol four, with its paltry 221Nm, seems lacking for certifiable shove is only really apparent under hard acceleration on evidence of its hard-working soundtrack chiming in, such is the low-end torque-filling nature of the electric side.

Together, the hybrid’s separate power units generally work as a handy team, with an on-tap thrust seemingly a little healthier by the seat of the pants than its 8.9-second 0-100km/h officialdom suggests.

Drive is passed around, in series or parallel, fairly cleanly and to a reasonably satisfying net effect across driving situations, though it can get caught out with nips and nudges through the driveline as the petrol engine clocks on and off duty.

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On that, the petrol’s stop-start function on the open road is properly impressive, as is the fuel consumption’s resilience to fluctuation depending on driving style. Be it stuck in heavy, slow-moving traffic or stretching its legs on light-throttle cruise control, the onboard readout remained faithfully around the 4.7L/100km mark, a tenth fairer than its advertised combined consumption claim.

The 300h powertrain is almost wholly characterless, but it does fit the large-luxury cruiser format supremely well primarily due to its almost soothing politeness while packing enough energy on command to never really feel caught out or short-changing the driving experience.

Its real-world frugality makes this hybrid system a no-brainer choice for the ES package, even if the new petrol alternative might bring a little more charisma to proceedings.

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Ownership

Lexus offers a four-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty for the ES, which is more enticing than the slim three-year pickings from Audi or BMW if short of the five-year surety offered by Mercedes-Benz and Genesis.

Servicing intervals are a typical 12 months or 15,000kms, whichever comes first, capped at $495 for the first three services for Lexus’ basic Encore program.

VERDICT

“A level of unparalleled opulence not available in rivals costing under $80,000,” is how Lexus pegs the ultimate ES. And it’s a quote that typifies the brand’s particular value-for-money skew that underpins its luxury pitch, both in features count and how lavishly it’s packaged and presented.

It’s certainly an ethos many premium luxury car buyers are drawn to and on which the ES 300h Sport Luxury does deliver handsomely.

Those same buyers might not be bothered that, in many ways, the ES lacks some resolution, a properly logical user interface or streamlined and contemporary smarts. Nor does that mean the mid-sized sedan should avoid such criticism.

No, this facelift doesn’t bring much difference to the breed, but it does present the ES’s particular luxury spin in a generally more compelling, slightly shinier, evermore fruitier guise for those who very much like the cut of its jib.

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2022 Lexus ES 300h specifications