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I believe that Lexus acknowledges that the RZ is a “city car” for a multi-car household …and it is designed for short trips around town. It is NOT a road-tripper. For that you use your hybrid or ICE vehicle, or take advantage of the free loaners Lexus currently offers with the purchase/lease of an RZ.
Yep, the RZ is definitely a really good around-town errand runner and commuter. And that is exactly why I bought mine. Road trips for me are extremely rare, and I have ICE vehicles at home that I can choose from for those. I have no intention of ever using public chargers, especially as the nearest one to me of any brand is about 60 miles away.
RZ range is just fine for me, and I use the level 2 charger in my garage when needed, paying 6 cents per KWH to charge while I sleep at night And I have not yet had any need to try out maximum acceleration.. So two of the RZ hater arguments, limited range and acceleration, don't concern me at all. I haven't found that lack of a rear windshield wiper, leather upholstery, a frunk, or a spare tire have any effect on me at all either.
172/196 is 87.8% which doesn't seem too bad for a 70mph range test. It's not common to go that fast here in SoCal on freeways with all the traffic. His efficiency of 2.6 miles/kWh would suggest a maximum range of 166.4 miles on a 64kWh (usable) battery pack, so perhaps it's actually a bit more than 64.
We have the 18" wheels, with a purported range of 220 miles. Extrapolating the above to this (220*0.878) would yield 193 miles, which should be plenty for our road trips IF we were confident we could find reliable DC fast chargers.
We are likely to have the opportunity to test this soon with my parents road tripping their RZ for Thanksgiving from Palm Desert, CA to Henderson, NV (about 300 miles). They should only have to charge once, but I'm concerned the DC fast stations will be overwhelmed for the holiday weekend.
Well, it seems I "spooked" my parents enough that they are going to rent a "fossil" gasoline vehicle for their road trip to Henderson, NV. However, I'm very curious to see how the charging stations will handle it this holiday season. Very few Tesla DCFC/SuC stations have been opened to the public in the US so far and none in these parts yet! So, BEV drivers are stuck relying on EA, EVgo, CP & Circle K, etc for now.
Next year, hopefully, things will be a little better.
Last edited by Falcon73; 11-14-23 at 10:06 AM.
Reason: Added a comment re other charging networks
Yep, the RZ is definitely a really good around-town errand runner and commuter. And that is exactly why I bought mine. Road trips for me are extremely rare, and I have ICE vehicles at home that I can choose from for those. I have no intention of ever using public chargers, especially as the nearest one to me of any brand is about 60 miles away.
RZ range is just fine for me, and I use the level 2 charger in my garage when needed, paying 6 cents per KWH to charge while I sleep at night And I have not yet had any need to try out maximum acceleration.. So two of the RZ hater arguments, limited range and acceleration, don't concern me at all. I haven't found that lack of a rear windshield wiper, leather upholstery, a frunk, or a spare tire have any effect on me at all either.
Got my RZ450e Premium with 18 inch wheels and am seeing 4.0+ miles/kWh, which is a huge improvement over my Tesla Model Y “long range” which has a lifetime average of 3.03 miles/kWh (35,000 miles on odometer). Looks like Lexus updated the software which unlocks more efficiency and range?
In one test loop starting and ending in Washington DC with detours to Vienna, Virginia, it averaged 4.3, with AC and ventilated seats turned on for parts of the trip.
I noticed that speed speed 70-75 mph are 12% less efficient than speed 60-65 mph. I did a long trip the other day and got 3.5 miles/kWh for 74 miles going about 65 mph and 3.1 miles/kWh for 76 miles. Weather was 50-60f, no wind, cruise control on and no AC or Heat on either. Total trip I averaged was 3.3 miles/kWh. I also noticed I was getting 2.9 miles/kWh on another trip when I was going 80 miles/kWh.
There are studies that state that wind resistance decreases EV range 5% for every 5 miles at higher speed.
10-18-23, 09:37 AM
Lexus RZ450e Road Trip Test Produces Interesting Results
