Entering 2022, luxury brands can't wait to enter the era of pure electricity, the BBA luxury three giants have their new models built entirely for pure electric, and the BMW i7 released last week has triggered a round of heated discussion.
But at the same time, another luxury brand that was also very successful also released a new pure electric car, and this new car did not gain much presence.
That's Lexus' pure electric compact SUV, the RZ.
In fact, Lexus has begun to warm up this new car as early as a few months ago, and has released a series of trailers, which gives us some preliminary understanding of RZ very early.
This led to a feeling of less surprise when it was officially released. But for Lexus, the RZ remains a key milestone.
Why? Because it represents Lexus officially entering the era of pure electricity.
Lexus is a luxury brand that has been focusing on the electrification process since more than a decade ago, and can even be said to be the earliest of the traditional luxury brands to truly "fully electrocute" on the mass production car.
As early as the 1990s, Toyota has begun to try to add motors to the fuel power system, so that the motors provide auxiliary power for the vehicle, so as to achieve the effect of reducing fuel consumption and emissions.
The success of this attempt was the Prius, Toyota's first mass-produced hybrid model.
Hybrid technology has been a huge success with Prius, celebrities rushing to buy it, excellent market performance and excellent technical stability have allowed consumers to see the potential of hybrid technology.
As a result, Toyota's luxury brand Lexus also began to envision adding hybrid systems to its luxury models.
Between 2005 and 2006, RX, GS, LS and other models successively acquired hybrid systems, providing a different choice for the luxury market. Although Toyota's hybrid technology at that time was only a short time old, for consumers of that era, this environmental protection technology with smooth driving, low fuel consumption and low emissions was very fashionable and advanced.
In particular, the first hybrid model of the LS series, the LS600h, a 5.0L large V8 engine with a large body of luxury cars, can even make a comprehensive working condition fuel consumption of less than 10L with the help of the motor, even for those who have a million budget to buy a car, this is also very tempting.
After all, everyone's money is not falling from the sky, can save a little is a little, not to mention environmental protection is a trend, more should be supported.
When the first decade of the 21st century passed, Toyota's THS oil-electric hybrid system has developed to the second generation, and Lexus has officially entered the era of "full hybridization".
Since 2011, Lexus has not only been continuously updating its various ranges of products, but also adding hybrid technology to new cars while upgrading them.
In addition to the more rigid luxury off-road vehicles GX and LX, all lexus cars from IS to LS, as well as NX and RX series SUVs, have all obtained hybrid versions with "h" tail standards.
Lexus even launched the first hatchback model, the CT200h, which only offered a hybrid configuration, which is enough to show how much Lexus attaches importance to electrification.
It was also from this upgrade that the hybrid model became the flagship product of almost all Lexus car series.
Because the hybrid system used by Lexus is often slightly upgraded than the version of Toyota's models, especially the use of higher power motors, they not only perform more smoothly during the driving process, but also have a better power experience than the Toyota hybrid models of the same period.
Later, it was the familiar TNGA era.
The arrival of the new architecture not only gives Lexus models a better driving experience, allows some models to get rid of the Buddhist impression of the past soft lying down, but also makes the fuel efficiency higher through the new generation of THS hybrid system.
But most importantly, through the modular design, lexus's individual models first tasted the taste of new energy.
Lexus first added an electric version to the UX series that succeeded the CT200h as the entry-level model of the entire series as a test work, and also applied plug-in hybrid technology to the new NX series compact SUV.
New rein concepts, pure electronic door handles, new touch-sensitive car systems and other projects have finally allowed Lexus' original conservative design ideas to add some technological elements that can keep up with the times.
Today, the emergence of RZ is another milestone.
The styling of the new car has not brought much novelty, and the through-the-taillights and sculpted surface design have already enjoyed a wave of surprises when the new generation of NX is released, and now the RZ release is not so stunning.
The new rein design concept and the unconventional irregular steering wheel in the carriage are very avant-garde, but these elements we have also seen in the bZ4X concept car and the new NX series respectively, so the freshness is also discounted.
But as someone who has actually experienced Lexus' new interior design, the professor must say that the interior of the thunder car under the rein concept is really easy to use.
However, don't look at the RZ does not seem to have much of a breakthrough in design, for Lexus, this is its first serious, completely pure electric model.
The previously launched UX pure electric version, only on the basis of the existing fuel / hybrid model to develop pure electric models, although the modular platform can achieve oil and electricity sharing, but this is not designed for pure electricity architecture, the chassis will still have the phenomenon of obvious bulging of the battery pack, greatly reducing the ground clearance, for practicality has an impact.
RZ does not need to worry about this problem, it is based on the new e-TNGA architecture, although it belongs to the same family, but at the beginning of the design around the needs of pure electric power system to carry out targeted research and development of the chassis space structure, so that the "skirt bottom" of RZ no longer has a huge "hyperplasia".
The new dual-motor four-wheel drive system can output a total of 313Ps maximum power, as well as 435N·m of comprehensive torque, 0-100km/h speed up in only 5.3 seconds, and finally let the users of the thunder car can also enjoy the rapid power experience brought by new energy.
However, the battery capacity of the new car 71.4kWh is not high, although the domestic version of the model has not announced the endurance data, but according to the European version of the 470km endurance, the domestic version is estimated to be similar.
However, such endurance seems to have no advantage in the face of many pure electric compact SUVs with a range of 500 to 600 kilometers; but it needs to be considered that this data is based on the WLTP standard for testing, which is quite different from the current mainstream CLTC standard in China. If you look at it according to the standard of WLTP conditions, the endurance of RZ is still remarkable.
Of course, the new car is not yet officially available, and perhaps it will have some slightly weaker but longer battery life versions to choose from?
However, in any case, this is always the first official pure electric model under Lexus, which will drive Lexus to accelerate the layout of the pure electric market.
However, this milestone model has come to the current domestic new energy luxury market, does it have any advantages?
As one of the mainstream luxury brands in the domestic market, Lexus RZ first has to face the same level of products from the BBA Big Three.
For example, Mercedes-Benz has launched several EQ series pure electric models, of which the RZ is also in the compact level of EQA and EQB.
The two models are aimed at the young fashion style and the home practical style, the former has a more dynamic body shape, most similar to the RZ, while the latter is equipped with three rows of seats and a box body, which has better space performance.
But these two models use the design of the fuel-to-pure electric sharing platform mentioned above, and the fuel vehicle genes are more aggressive, resulting in them also like Lexus's UX, pure electrocution is not done thoroughly enough, with less "advanced" visual experiences such as battery pack bulges.
However, although it is based on the development of mature fuel models, Mercedes-Benz has made great efforts in creating these two EQ models.
In the case of the EQA, although its maximum horsepower is only 228Ps, the WLTP has a cruising range of up to 426km (EQA 300 4MATIC); the heavier EQB can also make a 412km endurance (EQB 350 4MATIC).
If you compare the endurance of the European version of the model, in fact, the gap is not so large, it can be seen that Mercedes-Benz is not lazy when creating the two models of EQA and EQB.
In addition, as Mercedes-Benz models, EQA and EQB are not sloppy at all in creating a luxurious atmosphere inside the carriage. There must be leather where the skin should be used, and the atmosphere light must not fall.
In contrast, lexus RZ, in order to highlight the concept of environmental protection, a large area of the carriage is covered with environmentally friendly materials, without any wood grain trim, and the seats are also wrapped in fabric.
For people who love the Japanese elegant style, they may feel that these flannel seats are really fragrant, but I believe that for most of the domestic consumers who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy luxury cars, it is a bit unspeakable to not give a little leather, and it is really unsatisfactory in terms of luxury atmosphere.
As for the remaining two giants, they do not currently have corresponding pure electric products on sale, BMW's X1 new energy only provides plug-in hybrid options, while the pure electric iX1 is still in the stage of camouflage testing, and will not be released in a short period of time, let alone listed.
However, Audi's Q4 e-tron will be available in about the second half of the year, and this new car will be based on the latest MEB platform, which is also a serious pure electric new car.
The new exterior design concept, the new asymmetrical central control shape, the 204Ps dual motor power system after the first 109Ps, and the expected cruising range of up to 550km make this upcoming new car form a strong pressure on the Lexus RZ.
In the case of Mercedes-Benz and Audi occupying the first-mover advantage to lay out the pure electric market in advance, although Lexus RZ has a certain advantage in design concept, it is difficult to pose a huge threat to them; and with the arrival of the new generation of pure electric models of BBA, the technical concept advantage of RZ may shrink or even disappear.
Fortunately, Lexus always has a stable customer base; many consumers who drive a minecar will give priority to the car when changing cars; and the consistency of Lexus new and old products at the core experience level has greatly improved user stickiness.
Therefore, although pure electric is a completely new market, Lexus' experience in this market is almost blank, but user stickiness can still bring some "bottom confidence" to RZ. As long as the experience is not pulled, it will always not be grainy.
But in order to jump out of the circle of "Thunder Car User Group", Lexus needs to do better.
Anyway, the new car has just been released, and the professor believes that after touching the new car, maybe Lexus will bring us some new surprises? Let's wait and see