Lexus ES priced from $63K

Lexus has announced Australia pricing and specifications for its reprised ES sedan, which was previewed in Sydney this morning before becoming available in November.

Based on parent company Toyota’s front-wheel drive Avalon platform, the new ES will be available in two equipment grades – Luxury and Sports Luxury – and with the choice of hybrid and petrol drivetrains.

Unlike ever before in Lexus models with such a choice – and indeed unlike the same vehicle in overseas markets – the hybrid model is the cheaper of the two.

Starting at $63,000 plus on-road costs, the ES300h Luxury will come with the lengthy standard equipment list the marque has long used to assert its value proposition against European competitors.

Along with the predictable electric everything, the base Luxury spec offers keyless entry and start, a leather-trimmed interior with moonroof, a premium eight-cone audio package with DAB+ digital radio, sat-nav, reversing camera, parking beepers all round and blind spot monitoring.

All ES variants get drive mode select, allowing drivers to shift priorities between performance and economy. The central operations screen uses the company’s now familiar Lexus Remote Touch console-mounted mousing lever, while the dual-zone climate-control system incorporates its Nanoe air cleaning and negative-ionisation system.

Lexus Australia CEO Sean Hanley attributed the local arm’s decision to lead ES pricing with hybrid to a combination of rising demand and the ongoing commercialisation of hybrid technology.

“More than 30 per cent of Lexus customers locally choose hybrid as their preferred drivetrain and we believe ES will grow that proportion as we edge ever closer to our goal of 50 per cent,” he said.

No NCAP safety ratings has been revealed, but the ES’ safety credentials look good, with 10 airbags on top of the normal sophisticated chassis electronics. The only extra-cost option across the line-up is a $3000 Enhancement Pack option adding adaptive cruise and a pre-collision safety system getting extra leverage out of the cruise’s radar sensors. The rest of the line-up gets this standard.

The ES300h Sports Luxury ($72K) adds a separate rear climate zone, HID headlights, a 15-speaker Mark Levinson audio upgrade, power bootlid, manual side sun shades, and a semi-aniline leather accented interior (semi-aniline denotes a super-thin dye coating, preserving the natural leather feel) with heated and ventilated front seats.

The four-cylinder Lexus Hybrid Drive powertrain marries a 2.5-litre Atkinson cycle petrol engine with an electric motor. All up it’s good for 151kW; while the company hasn’t release an official torque figure, insider estimates vary from 260 to 300Nm.

The petrol-only ES350 will start at $65K for the Luxury trim, extending to $74K for Sports Luxury. The ES350 deploys the 3.5-litre V6 from RX models. Detuned from the higher-tech 233kW interpretation in IS and GS models, it’s rated officially at 204kW. Official local torque figures are yet to go public, but in the RX350 it’s good for 346Nm.

The announcement heralds a return to RHD markets for the ES after an eight-year absence. Now in its sixth generation, it recently hit the 1.5 million units produced milestone since its introduction in the US market in 1989.

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