This SUV will stay with us for a long time. The Lexus RZ 450e will be “the car with the weird steering” – that much is certain. Because it’s not just the shape of the “yoke” steering wheel that makes you smile. Above all, the sloping handling is amused at first.
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Where oblique is relative – because in principle the driver should be able to drive even tight radii with little angle. “One motion grip steer-by-wire system” is the name of this technology. Long name, short translation: behind it is a particularly direct transmission steering system that does not require a mechanical connection between the rim and the gearbox. Instead, the power cable and electronics handle the correspondence between the driver’s wishes and the direction of travel.
Stately: The Lexus RZ 450e measures 4.80 meters, stands on 20 inches – and can be finely directed despite its almost two tons.
There are soft reserves in the chassis of the RZ
Lexus will not be selling the car until autumn 2022 (for around 65,000 euros), but is already showing us the system. On a circuit we can approach the peculiar “rudder”. Does it all work? First of all, the general condition of the RZ: Unusual are the self-darkening panoramic glass roof, the special “radiant heaters” for the knees, the automatic operation with a round button and the haptically finely made rotary controls for light and windscreen wipers in the steering wheel spokes.
The 20-inch wheels mounted on the test car roll crisply and angularly, the suspension has soft reserves – as far as one can judge on a race track. At the same time, the RZ is pleasantly close to the road, despite a length of 4.80 meters and a vehicle weight of almost two tons, the SUV coupé can be finely directed and predictably moved.
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Synchronous electric motor front (150 kW) and rear (80 kW)
At this point back to the steering. In fact, turning the steering wheel just a few degrees (a maximum of only 150 degrees is possible) is enough to force the car to change course significantly at walking speed. When maneuvering, the technology translates 1:1, at higher speeds the ratio is 1:15 – this is roughly the same as the transmission of a conventional compact car. Especially the slower tempos are an experience.
No joke: The steering wheel is called Yoke, not even one turn is enough when driving slowly from lock to lock.
The steering makes the RZ unequaledly manoeuvrable
The car reacts quickly, prances very jaggedly through a pylon alley, feels unrivaled in its agility and life. The driving experience is also right in faster corners. With artificially generated feedback via a 12-volt motor in the steering wheel base, the driver finds a clean line even without getting used to it, course corrections are consistent. However: In the area of beginning understeer, the system is only able to report back very synthetically, and the ring then vibrates minimally.
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Lexus still wants to work on the vote
In very tight corners, the “release” of the fully turned steering is also very jerky and unclean, you can’t dose as sensitively as the system notches in the radius. And with a quick change of direction or an abrupt evasion, the steering even hardens and can hardly be parried in this wobbly state. That should disappear in the production car, Lexus promises – we will check it.
