2022 Lexus NX350h review: Australian first drive

It's hard to believe it's already been six years since the arrival of the Lexus NX in Australia, which quickly overcame the scorn towards its origami-like lines to become the Japanese carmaker's most popular model here.

The fact it's a medium SUV was always going to help the NX, with that segment topping the sales lists of most luxury carmakers. But there was a lot to like about the first-generation model, and its successor promises to build on its success with a bunch of Lexus firsts, including a plug-in hybrid powertrain and an all-new driver interface.

Four primary variants make up the all-new Lexus NX range, comprising the entry-level NX250 petrol, NX350 turbo-petrol, NX350h petrol hybrid and 450h+ plug-in hybrid.

In this review, we'll be looking at the NX350h, which is likely to be the volume seller of the range and is the only variant available with a choice across all three specification grades: Luxury, F Sport and Sports Luxury. It is also the only NX variant offering a choice of front- or all-wheel drive.

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Lexus NX350h Sports Luxury

Pricing and features

Lexus NX350h pricing starts at $65,800 before on-road costs for the 350h Luxury front-wheel drive, which is $5000 more than the entry-level NX250 Luxury.

Each has the same 152kW/243Nm four-cylinder petrol engine under the bonnet, with the extra five-grand bringing Lexus Hybrid Drive, which reduces the official combined fuel consumption from 6.9L/100km to 5.0L/100km.

Standard Luxury-trim features include 18-inch alloy wheels, auto-levelling LED headlights, leather-appointed upholstery with a choice of colours, eight-way power-adjustable and heated front seats, dual-zone climate control, heated electrochromatic door mirrors, and smart keyless entry/start.

There's also new E-Latch electronic door handles, powered tailgate, Tazuna cockpit driver display with 8.0-inch digital gauge cluster, 9.8-inch touchscreen, cloud-based connected satellite navigation, Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, DAB+ digital radio, 10-speaker audio and a drive mode selector offering Eco, Normal and Sport settings.

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NX Luxury trim

It also comes standard with a host of advanced driver assistance features, which we will look at in the Safety section below.

Spending another $4600 brings all-wheel-drive traction.

Upgrading to AWD also provides an opportunity to spend another $3000 on the Enhancement Pack that adds a sunroof, kick sensor for the powered tailgate, and a wireless smartphone charger.

The NX350h F Sport and Sports Luxury variants are each priced from $73,100 for the FWD variants, or $77,900 with AWD (both before on-road costs).

Both come with enhanced equipment levels including a big 14-inch touchscreen, high-grade 8.0-inch driver's display, colour head-up display, ventilated front seats, wireless phone charger and 20-inch alloy wheels.

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NX F-Sport trim

On top of all that, the F Sport delivers additional dynamic and visual athleticism including adaptive variable suspension (AVS) and performance dampers, tri-beam LED headlights, Sport S+ and Custom drive mode settings, 20-inch F-Sport wheels, F Sport grille and bumpers.

Inside are sports seats and aluminium trim plus F Sport specific pedals, scuff plates, steering wheel and gear selector.

The Sports Luxury pack forgoes all that in favour of the finer things, including pure leather-accented interior trim in a choice of colours, tri-beam LED headlights with BladeScan adaptive high-beam system and 17-speaker Mark Levinson surround audio.

A pair of enhancement packs are available for the AWD F Sport and Sport Luxury variants, including Enhancement Pack 1, which adds a panoramic sunroof for $2000.

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NX Sports Luxury trim

Opting for Enhancement Pack 2 in the F Sport will cost you $6000, for which you'll get the panoramic sunroof plus a heated steering wheel, digital rear-view mirror, the 17-speaker Mark Levinson audio upgrade and intelligent parking assist.

The Sports Luxury Enhancement Pack 2 also costs $6000 and adds the panoramic sunroof, heated steering wheel, power-folding and heating for the rear seats and intelligent parking assist.

It's worth mentioning that the $83,900 (before on-road costs) of the NX350h F Sport AWD with Enhancement Pack 2 is just $6000 less than the plug-in hybrid NX450h+ F Sport, which has superior performance an 87km all-electric range.

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All 2022 NX variants will have complimentary access to Lexus' expanded connected services technology including a smartphone app with automatic collision notification, SOS emergency call, stolen vehicle tracking and the ability to remotely operate the door and boot locks, turn the engine off and off, activate the horn, turn on the headlights and hazards and set the climate control.

The 2022 Lexus NX350h is covered by a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty. Service intervals are every 12 months or 15,000km.

Comfort and Space

This is a Lexus SUV, so it's fair to expect a decent level of comfort, and you won't be disappointed regardless of which trim level you choose.

The first thing you'll notice when you step up to the NX is how the door handles don't move when opening the door. Instead, the NX had the new e-latch door handles on the inside and out, which operate like the most newer tailgate openers.

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I quite like the action on the inside, which just requires a simple push of the latch. It might seem gimmicky, but the system offers the safety benefit of not operating if it senses you're about to open the door into the path of another vehicle or cyclist – Lexus calls this Safe Exit Assist.

Once inside, you find the usual high-standard Lexus fit and finish as well as plush front seats that provide excellent back, hip and bum support.

I quickly noticed how the downward-sloping bonnet is hidden below the windscreen line for excellent front vision. However, the side window line is quite high, which makes it difficult to rest your elbow on the ledge.

If you're familiar with the outgoing NX, you'll notice a lot less cabin clutter here, particularly on the centre console, with fewer buttons and dials and no bulky trackpad infotainment controller.

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Most functions are now controlled from the touchscreen or the steering wheel, though there are a few physical controls for driving functions near the gear shifter. The result is a much cleaner interface, with the touchscreen and HVAC controls floating in front of the dashboard within a piano-black fascia that merges with the digital gauge cluster.

It all looks very neat, and everything is laid out intuitively, but I reckon it robs the new NX's interior of that distinctively luxurious Lexus character that in other models includes flowing character lines along the stitched-leather dashboard fascia that made you feel like you were stepping into the boardroom of Nikkei blue-chip company.

Now the NX looks a tad more generic and were it not for the big L badge on the steering wheel, you wouldn't necessarily feel like you've just stepped into a Lexus – which is a bit of shame.

That subjective gripe aside, Lexus' new infotainment and driver interface technology, which debuts in the new NX, is anything but generic.

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Let's start with the Tazuna cockpit concept, whose name is derived from a Japanese term that describes the connection between a horse and rider through the reins.

As with most steering wheels on newer cars, this one has buttons to operate active cruise control and lane-keeping assist on one side, and other functions such as phone and audio on the other.

But what Lexus has done is cleverly display those functions directly in front of the driver on the digital instrument cluster or, in the Sports Luxury and F Sport grades, the head-up display (HUD) so you don't have to look down at the steering wheel.

It's a little fiddly at first but once you get used it's quite handy. The buttons respond to gentle swiping but you can set them so they have a more haptic feel.

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The Tazuna cockpit also features Lexus' new-generation multimedia system that's displayed on a 9.8-inch touchscreen in the Luxury grade, which grows to a class-leading 14 inches in the F Sport and Sports Luxury.

It didn't take me long to learn how to cycle through the menu to find the various functions such as entertainment, phone contacts, vehicle settings and navigation. This is one of the better in-built sat-nav systems and features an in-built data communication module (DCM) to provide cloud-based navigation info and other information such as live traffic updates and parking locations.

You can use your favourite navigation app via Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, but you don't get the benefit of directions being displayed in your eyeline in variants equipped with a HUD.

The touchscreen is also where you'll find most of the air-conditioning controls as well as the heated/ventilated seat settings. These buttons are always on display so you don't have to swipe into a menu to find them. Setting the fan speed on a touchscreen can be quite fiddly on the move, but I didn't have much trouble with this interface.

Pleasingly, Lexus has kept a couple of big dials for the temperature controls along with a volume knob.

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That said, you don't even need them as the NX now has an advanced voice control system called 'Hey Lexus' that works very much like its 'Hey Mercedes' counterpart to operate navigation, phone, climate control and certain vehicle functions such as opening windows.

For example, if you want to open the window you say: 'Hey Lexus, open my window.' Because the system can tell where your voice is coming from it will open the driver or passenger-side window depending on where you're sitting.

Jumping in the back seats, the second-generation NX benefits from a 2690mm wheelbase that's 30mm longer than its predecessor's and affords good legroom for a mid-sized SUV. The seats are comfortable but headroom is compromised a little by the swept-back roofline – particularly when the panoramic sunroof is installed.

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Rear-seat passengers benefit from air-con vents and controls, a couple of fast-charging USB-C ports, a 12-volt socket and a fold-down armrest with cup holders.

The boot holds 520 litres of stuff, which is 45 litres more than the previous model. This is partly due to the absence of a spare wheel, with all NX variants now rolling on run-flat tyres. If you lift the boot floor you'll find a baby-bath-sized tub that provides additional storage space for things like tools or picnic gear.

I would prefer to see a spare wheel under the boot floor. A space-saver wouldn't compromise boot space too much and while run-flats are convenient when you get a puncture, they just delay the inconvenience of changing it and will cost you a lot more to do so.

Folding the second-row seats down extends cargo carrying capacity up to 1141 litres.

If you need to carry more, the NX350h has a 1500kg braked towing capacity that is 500kg more than the other variants.

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On the Road

The NX350h is powered by the Lexus Hybrid Drive system that comprises a permanent magnet synchronous electric motor (two motors for AWD versions), a compact lithium-ion battery and a 140kW/239Nm 2.5-litre petrol engine, which produces a combined power output of 179kW.

According to Lexus, it's the most powerful four-pot hybrid sold in Australia and is 20 per cent more powerful than the outgoing Lexus NX300h.

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It's reasonably punchy, with a zero to 100km/h time of 8.7 seconds for FWD versions and just 7.7 seconds with AWD, but I can't say it feels particularly lively when you have to put the foot down.

Although the engine can sound a little gruff under acceleration, the powertrain otherwise feels smooth through the electronically controlled continuously variable transmission (eCVT), which is rarely caught napping.

The NX offers a nice blend of ride comfort and handling particularly with the AWD underpinnings.

Ride quality can be a little busy at slower speeds, most likely due to the run-flat tyres, which have hard sidewalls that also produce considerable tyre rumble.

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Things improve at higher speeds where the standard double wishbone suspension does well to absorb bigger road imperfections.

Ride quality is taken to the next level in the F Sport, which comes with adaptive variable suspension (AVS) and performance dampers that iron out most surfaces. It has Comfort and Sport settings; while the latter stiffens a little for improved handling dynamics it's still smoother than the standard suspension in the Luxury and Sports Luxury variants.

One thing that can let the handling down is the steering, which has a nice weight to it but lacks communication through the front wheels to the road, which saps confidence on sharper bends, particularly on gravel.

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Safety

The 2022 Lexus NX brims with advanced driver assistance technology across all specification grades. Some of these, such as e-latch, safe exit assist, intersection turn assist (which operates the brakes to avoid a collision while turning) and emergency steering assist, are making their Lexus debut on this car.

Other safety features include Lexus Connected Services with SOS call, automatic collision notification and stolen vehicle tracking, autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and daytime cyclist detection, auto high beam, parking support braking, blind-spot monitor, adaptive cruise control with traffic jam assist, lane-keep assist, road sign assist and tyre-pressure monitoring system.

The NX is also equipped with eight airbags including driver/passenger front, side, head and knee, front centre, and rear passenger head.

At the time of writing, the 2022 Lexus NX range had yet to receive an ANCAP safety rating.

The Verdict

The second-generation NX has taken Lexus' most popular model to a whole new level and, with its tamer exterior design and scrolling standard features list, is likely to attract new customers to the brand who have previously gone the German route.

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Most are expected to choose the 350h and I can see why. It offers a relatively affordable way into luxury SUV ownership with the added benefit of hybrid fuel economy.

The issue is which variant to choose. The hybrid is the only NX variant available across the three spec grades and with a choice of FWD or AWD.

If there is a sweet spot of the six options it's probably the Luxury AWD, but if your budget can stretch further I reckon the F Sport AWD is worth a look for the adaptive suspension, which unfortunately isn't available as an option with the Luxury and Sports Luxury grades.

That said there are no wrong choices in this line up. Despite the crisp new-look interior losing some of that unique Lexus flair, the overall package exudes everything there is to like about the brand, not least the comfortable and calming driving experience.

Lexus NX 350h specifications