Went to a local Electrify Expo, hoping to look at some electric dirt bikes for my son (didn't have much unfortunately), and instead wondered upon Lexus showcase of a few prototype electric vehicles including the just announced new ES in ES500e trim:

Tl;DR : Very Tesla like at first, but the more you look, the more you see the Lexus luxury all around!

Good : Interior was very nice and inviting with real bamboo all around and exquisite and very comfortable (p)leather; rear was roomy and felt great. Exterior was fresh throughout but had a RZ feel to it...

Bad : the minimalist front gauge and (small) center console was very unLexus like....took too much que from Tesla to make it feel cheap detracting from the rest of the beautiful interior

Ugly : the infotainment system was very glitchy; booted up once then proceeded to just black screen itself

 

Never really realized how small that gauge screen is…

 

epic fail. shroud around tiny main gauge cluster looks awful combined with tombstone screen and ‘trying too hard’ tesla style.
giant long and tall front overhang… does it have a large frunk in there?
will impress the fake boy racer crowd.

 

the steering wheel is so ugly. The shape of the airbag cover and the Lexus font doesn't work.

 

At least it’s round. The new square wheel trend is awful IMO

 

Is this the Lexus design language going forward?

 

I am driving my last ES. To quote Charles Barkley, that thing is “turrible”.

 

Warming up to it a bit, but still nothing overly impressive. I do love that color though. Reminds me of my old Glacier Frost Mica IS from 2008.

 

It seems to me that since the Tesla intro with, IMHO, an interior that examples no thought or design, all other EV offerings seem to adopt the same ugly interior with some minor tweaks. Slapping an iPad center console and saying we’re done here, is why when you see a car that has both interior and exterior style, thought and just maybe user friendly, it’s a rare siting these days. Just my 2 cents. YMMV

 

It's just the norm for the Chinese market now. Every car there has to have this exact setup or else it's DOA. Here's Mazda putting the same thing in their upcoming CX-5 after railing against touchscreens for a decade.

 

I will say the one benefit to the “tacked on” screen is that it lets them lower the overall dash height which improves visibility.

 

good looking….great colour

 

Forgot to mention ..spoke to the Lexus corporate marketing folks there who was actively soliciting feedback. My comments to them were:

- focus on luxury like a true Lexus and don't try to "out Tesla" Tesla with minimalist style and cheap interior

- glad they are focusing on real EVs and what owners expect, instead of the half assed attempt last year with the RZ

- told them sweet spot should be around $50K, and I would consider it against a Model 3 Performanc e (they don't have MSRP yet)

 

how is the RZ half assed and the ES full assed?

 

On a very basic level, the range was half assed