Lexus’ First EV
Toyota, and by extension Lexus, didn’t hop on the EV race until later. Of course, we all know the company’s stance on EVs, but it’s still a vital part of the business nonetheless. Toyota revealed the bZ4X (now just called bZ) in 2022, and the luxury Lexus version followed soon after, simply dubbed the RZ.
It wasn’t exactly the smoothest of starts, as both were rather lacking in range. That has since been (somewhat) rectified with a 2025 update. It improved battery efficiency and capacity, along with a higher power output.
Lexus
What About the Early Adopters?
Those who bought the initial batch probably feel a little shortchanged after all the updates. Perhaps not all of them, but some might have liked more power and range. Thus is the pace of EV development, where today’s headline figures will be yesterday’s news in a matter of hours – metaphorically speaking, of course.
But if there’s a good thing about EVs, it’s that these are surprisingly easy to upgrade in a couple of aspects. Obviously, there are over-the-air updates, but combustion-powered cars can do that too. Instead, you can add power and features by adding a new package.
Lexus
The Performance Upgrade “Boost” + Interactive Manual Drive
The words you see above are the official name of the new package for early RZ owners. Admittedly, it doesn’t roll off the tongue, but it gives owners of pre-2026 model-year cars a taste of the upgrades from the newer ones.
For starters, you get an extra 40 hp, bumping power from 335 hp to 375 hp. The older RZs weren’t slow in the first place, but extra horses are always welcome. That said, it doesn’t increase range, as that requires new hardware, but Lexus claims the additional power doesn’t come at the cost of range.
Then there’s the Interactive Manual Drive. This does require a couple of physical changes to the car, namely adding a button to activate it. In essence, it adds simulated gears like Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 N, plus it’ll even pipe in sounds and throw in a shift indicator to, rather ironically, make it behave like a gas-powered car. We do have to point out that this will only be for RZ 500e models produced from 2023 onwards.
Lexus
And it’s Yours For…
If there are RZ owners reading this, what we’ll put here is the package price for the Japanese market. That’s ¥220,000, including Japan’s consumption tax (¥20,000). Convert that to dollars, and that’s just a little over $1,400. We’ve seen more expensive options that do far less to improve a car.
It’s undetermined if this will be offered outside the home market. If so, it’s safe to say it might not be as ‘affordable’ an add-on as it is in Japan. Still, this shows there is a lot of tuning potential in EVs too, and it is still on the pretty mild side.
