After 14 months and 5,100 miles, I finally moved the needle from 2.8 miles per kWh to 3.0 and estimated EV miles ticked from 47 miles to 48. I was stuck on 2.8 and 47 for the last several months. The one thing I changed was switching from ECO mode to Normal after my 1 year service. For the last 2 months I have stayed at 3.0 and 48. Don’t know if that was the difference. I gave ECO mode a year, but did not see any improvements and decided that the car would be more fun to drive in Normal mode. I was right. I have driven in both Sport and Normal mode for very short periods (just a few miles for testing) over the year, but stuck to my guns to with save economy over fun. Depending on the conditions and distance, I am getting between 42 and 45 real EV miles.

 

I noticed the same with my 350H. Premium or regular fuel does not matter. ECO/Normal mode does not seem to matter. The only time I can tell a difference is in the winter months, mileage goes down a bit.

I even turned off the ECO/CHARGE and went with a simple RPM gauge since those indicators do not mean anything and have certainly not served as any early warning to prevent dead batteries.

 

Wow Dhill, 48 EV miles, that is great. Wish I knew how you accomplished that. Our 450h+ has dropped from showing a range of 34 to 37 EV miles down to 26 to 27 EV miles recently. Just had it in for its 10K service and asked the service writer to have this looked into. First response was all is normal, no DTC's When I asked if they did any kind of test on the Hybrid battery, he told me he will ask. Next time I spoke to him he told me they load tested and replaced the battery. When I picked up the vehicle, I noticed it was the 12-volt battery that was tested, failed a load test and was replaced. Not sure if the service writer or the tech understood our concern. Not sure if this 10-mile EV range drop is an actual problem. My wife is the primary driver of the vehicle, her trip to work and back is about 26 miles or less depending on route taken. The vehicle defaults to EV mode and she does not change to HV mode on her own. She plugs into our Level 2 charger when she gets home. It shows fully charged about 2 hours later. Any ideas on how I can test the hybrid battery or prove that I have an actual problem or not?

 

EV range varies wildly depending on what your driving profile is. EV range is higher the lower the average speed is. I typically only use EV in city driving or under 55 on the highway and am currently seeing about 45 miles of EV range but have seen as much as 49 and as low as 35. I've accidentally left it in EV on the interstate and gotten a much shorter EV range than normal.

 

Thanks for the info WellsB. My wife has a lead foot and does not switch out of EV mode, only time it gets switched is when I am driving, and that is not very often. Just to check things a little further, I hooked up my Veepeak OBD Check tool and looked at the battery with the Dr. Prius App. First time I have ever used that. Could not run any of the tests at this time. The battery was charging with the included EVSE from Lexus, it still had several hours to go, and I did not want to interrupt it. Not able to get to my Level 2 ChargePoint EVSE at this time so I had to use the Lexus provided EVSE. Will run it through some tests later.
Does anyone know if there is a way to have the vehicle default to HV mode?

 

I have read in other posts that they are required to default the engine to ECO or Normal on restart by regulations.

 

I have read in other posts that they are required to default the engine to ECO or Normal on restart by regulations.

 

I would also like to change this default - to Auto EV/HV mode, instead of EV. At my recent 10 K mile service, my SA at the Dealer called their "Tech Specialist" who didn't even know that Auto EV/HV allows the full 300 HP available, which EV mode does not. Lexus dealers and their "specialists".... I don't know why the dealers waste their money hiring such clowns, which they then recover from us owners.

I asked the SA to ask some specialist technician inside about it - and he came up with nothing. The SA also tried gaslighting me about the 12 V battery issues - asking me to drive more in HV mode (which I know does absolutely nothing to the charging algorithm) - so I figured I wouldn't get anywhere with this SA.

The specific technical item I was after was whether Techstream can change this default to Auto EV/HV - as Carista surely can't.

For the EV mode, I'm getting 45 miles thus far, including the winter months - and it was trending towards 47+ miles during the summer months. I don't do any hypermiling tricks - just drive on ECO for most times.

 

While on a recent trip I found out the hard way the difference in power between EV mode and HV mode. We needed to make a stop while on a 500-mile trip, when we got on the road again, I forgot to change out of EV mode. Went to pull out and pass a semi on a two-lane highway and was shocked how much longer it took me to make the pass.

 

Yeah, that is why I feel EV/HV mode should be default if the previous mode isn't retentive. I almost got hit once when i forgot to change it.

 

Good to know, thanks for sharing. Cheers

 

Our first year has just passed with 5500+, 3 incidents of an unexplained dead 12v battery, one 12v battery changed under warranty, one side swipe brushing incident not our fault that cost over $5,000 to repair.
We live the SF Bay Area in a bedroom/commute area. The car is garaged and this town's ambient temps drop to low to mid 30's winter time to 115 in the summer.

The car is driven by my SO as a local runabout town to work office and then taxi for the granddaughters from high school. At one point, she would have to hang in the school parking lot for upwards of an hour cuz the two girls were on different schedules. Compounding the wait is a horrid design in getting into and out of the school which adds to the time spent picking the granddaughters up. So the car has a lot of "ready" time without going anywhere. The traffic here is relatively fast paced as opposed to serious stop n go in some parts of the Bay Area.

The miles per kilowatt hours stands at 2.5 as my SO is the main driver. As much as I love her, she can be given a vehicle that gets an outstanding EPA mileage and she will get the worst mileage possible without even trying...lol. The first "full" hybrid battery charge netted a 31 mile dash range. Over the year and 5500 miles, the dash range has peaked to 48(as of today). I do not know the actual range due to the amount of "ready" but no movement time the car goes through daily.

As far as the 12v battery issue goes, Lexus replaced the 330 CCA battery with one of a 600+ CCA rating. We had a 4 day period of non use and the car allowed me to get inside but would not start the hybrid system. I found the 12v down to 9.5 volts. I was able to charge 12v back up to full voltage. I have found that the short runs that my SO did when the granddaughters were out of school, can prevent the 12v from recharging in those short runs. I am now using battery tender overnight(on occasion) or when there is a period of non-use.

The only significant trip taken so far, was a 900 mile round trip to mid-Oregon and back(20 hours) where I was pushing it 75-80 mph up and back on I-5 that day(it also rained really hard and hour). It's a comfortable and quiet car with good handling and better than good acceleration. The fuel/gas mileage was 32 mpg.

Things that I'd like to change:
1) improvement in the 12v battery draw while car is not in use.
2) the 12v battery should be automatically maintained while the hybrid battery is charging.
3) THE RX SHOULD HAVE A MANUAL RELEASE FOR THE REAR HATCH, LEXUS!!!!
4) a way to change the default settings from EV to HV if a driver so desires.
5) rear seats that fold flat.

 

Just recently purchased a 2025 RX 450h+ and today we took our first long trip with a fully charged battery. The trip was approximately 41 miles each way (based on Google Maps) and it was a mix of 40% local and 60% highway. We drove with the AC on at the coldest setting and low fan speed(yes we’re still using AC here in Houston in January).

Started with a fully charged battery and the display indicated 30 mile EV range. When we arrived and parked at our destination, it still showed 2 miles of EV range remaining. In theory we got 41 miles out of the EV battery on this 1st trip which I am very happy about.

On the return it was HV mode for sure and I couldn’t figure out an easy way to calculate fuel consumption for that portion of the trip - if anyone knows how, please let me know.

 

I’m going to add to this thread with some info that’s related I think, it’s about charging and what the Lexus App reports. These comments are from our short experience with a 2025 RX450H+ in mid to upper 30’s F temps, using a level 2 (240V, 25 amp) charger. I searched around some for this sort of info, but didn’t find it.
During charging the app will report the charging progress, etc. Referencing the pic #1 below; it seems like a long time, an hour, to get that last 3% completed. So I started poking around.


Ref photo #1

After some time, the app read 100% charged, but it still reads 30 minutes to go. Hmm, why would that be?
I dug into the manual, reading thru the charging section. There’s a small section saying basically when the indicator light at the vehicles plug in point goes out, and/or the “Charging Complete” message on the dash is displayed - then charging is done. The app also sends a similar message about charging complete.


Ref photo #2

So I went out to the RX and the indicator light was green, meaning the RX was still in its charging cycle. I then looked at the readout on the level 2 charger, and it was showing it was pulling 3.7 A at 239V. Clearly the RX is using power for something, even though the traction battery is at 100%.
So I presume there is some sort of battery maintenance going on; cooling, conditioning, balancing etc. Maybe some of you guys know.
Anyway, I let the process continue until the app messaged it was done, checked the indicator (it wasn’t illuminated) at the charge door, and noted the charger display read 0 amps.


Ref photo #3

So for “complete” charging, it seems best to wait for the app/indicator light/dash message.
I just found this interesting and wanted to share, regards.

 

Yes, for the battery's health, one can't allow the max. charging current until 100 % battery capacity is reached, the BMS need to ramp down when near max.

When charging in public chargers like Chargepoint (which shows the charging current), I actually stop the charging right before the ramp down, because that's how I get the minimum $/kWh charge (as the $ cost is per unit time)