2026 Lexus ES 350e Luxury - POV Driving Impressions

[00:00] Today we're driving the all-new 2026 Lexus ES350. This is the E luxury so the fully electric Lexus ES. We've got some really features in this like the Mark

[00:12] Robinson sound system, the executive seating package. Total price on this is $63,770 and of course because it's the ES350E, it's front wheel driven so it has a driving range of 292 miles on a full charge from that 75 kilowatt hour battery

[00:29] pack. We only get 221 horsepower from the front electric motor but it gets around town pretty well and all of that power of course is available all at once. I'm not as powerful as the dual motor all-wheel drive car but I think there's

[00:43] still a lot of stuff worth looking at here after having driven the both the ES500E, which is the all-wheel drive premium car and the ES350H. Here's the spec sheet on

[00:55] this car. We'll include all these details in the description but just looking here so we've got a 17-speaker 1800 watt Mark Levenson surround sound system really excited to see that. The executive seating package is $3,635. We've got

[01:08] 21-inch wheels and this is painted in aridium and the next year the interior is white so we've got a nice differentiation between the Palomino interior and this

[01:20] white. The black is just everything's black but the wood grain here I think some of these accents really elevate the styling on this new Lexus ES. The interior design I think is a little bit of an improvement for Lexus. We've got some really nice

[01:34] materials. The steering wheel is kind of this weird rubberized material that doesn't feel super luxurious. It's I don't know I'm torn on it. It just feels synthetic and I feel like a leather steering wheel would be much nicer. I know

[01:47] they're trying to go with more eco-focused recycled materials. This just doesn't quite do it for me and it's the main touch point that you interact with in the car. Everything else though the amount of physical controls in this interior

[01:59] the climate buttons here that are physical they press in. You've got a quick access camera view icon right there right here on the dashboard and then the design and overall layout of this new infotainment system is a big improvement I

[02:12] think compared to some other Lexus models which have not had as modern of an infotainment treatment. Yeah this is very similar to what we've seen in the new RAV4. We've got some charge schedules settings that you can do here and then

[02:26] nice integration too with our map and route planning. So it'll actually show you if you zoom out enough this blue area and that's all the area that you can cover on

[02:40] whatever battery charge you have. If you change climate control if you drive a little bit that area will change adjusting to your charge level. You go beyond that so let's say we want to go over here all right into this let's see let's take

[02:54] us to hey Lexus take us to Modesto California. We've got a low service right now so anyway if we have service and you have the subscription to the Lexus app

[03:09] etc it'll show you charge stops on the way to go to an automatically route plan pre-condition the battery accordingly so that you can get to your destination and charge in the appropriate time. We have the NACS charge port here this will charge

[03:24] a max rate of 150 kilowatts so about 10 to 80% and about 28 30 minutes. This is what the 21-inch wheels look like. Pretty big wheels and tires I'm sure you'd save

[03:39] a little bit of range by going to the smaller 19s. The new Lexus ES is a striking design. A lot of new design language for the Lexus line up here. There is a

[03:53] ton of room in the back and I don't know what we're doing in the front seat. Let's hop back there and see what that's like. Window shades standard on all Lexus ES's and then back here we've got our seat

[04:11] controls so we can engage our lounge seating so you can see that backrest will move. I don't like how these aren't physical buttons kind of challenging to operate

[04:26] them. You've got this lounge seat right there that rolls out. That's kind of cool. There's massage levels. You've got a rear window shade and a nice little

[04:46] pass-through right here. I mean it's nothing revolutionary back here. It's still a Lexus ES. This is not the LS but overall it's a nice space. We've got some cup holders

[04:58] right here. I don't know if this is executive lounge seating is worth $35, $3600 but it is neat and I guess cool to see in the new Lexus ES. Let's see what trunk space is like.

[05:12] Every ES has a power-off rated trunk. Massive opening. It doesn't seem like we really lose any space with that executive package. Some more space under here. There is

[05:24] not a spare tire though. It looks like there is a threaded mount for once. Maybe a compact spare would fit back there. All right let's go drive this. There's no front truck so nothing to see up there. Let's get some driving impressions on the road so

[05:43] we can connect car play here. There we go. All right then we're going to go to a recent destination. 16 minutes away. Let's hit it. I like this white interior. It's super light

[05:56] airy. A wood trim is awesome. We also get a digital review of mirror. It's nice to see because the rear visibility isn't the ES's strong suit. Massive sunroof. I think

[06:18] power is decent. I think it's really all you need in a vehicle like this. Dynamically this ES drives well. It rides nicely. It's super quiet inside. Throttle and brake calibration

[06:35] feel really well done. We can see our navigation and our center gauge

[06:56] cluster view a couple of other gauge layouts. We've got a dual pod, a charge power meter. I'm just going to leave it on the map. That seems to make the most sense right now. We've

[07:12] got a few different drive modes. Normal, Eco, Sport, Range and Custom. Let's try Sport mode. That will increase steering and throttle response and give us a little bit extra noise.

[07:25] This looks like our navigation has given up too. Get here some of that augmented, easy driving noise right there. There's a head up display

[07:57] in this ES. We'll give this bus some room. He's got his turn signal on. Don't exactly know

[08:10] how to adjust that head up display quickly. If it's in the settings, it probably is. Displays. Display. We do get gauge cluster illumination here, which is nice.

[08:50] Yeah, give up on being able to see that head up display. You guys can try it.

[09:20] We'll see it pretty well with where the camera angle is. It's showing us our next turn coming up, our speed and the road. There we go. Pretty good visibility all around in the ES.

[09:48] Not a lot of grip on these 21-inch wheels and tires. A lot of noise going around that corner to experience that on the 19s. Ride seems nice though. Today driving a few variants, it seems

[10:05] like the EVs ride a little bit softer than the hybrid cars, maybe just that extra weight.

[10:22] If paddle shifters behind the steering wheel to adjust region, all levels, except for level two and lower, engage the brake lights. Let's listen to this Mark Levinson sound system.

[10:34] This is what I'm most curious about in this luxury trim. Bring it back to the beginning of

[10:47] the track. Because the base premium audio was quite good in this ES 350H that we listened to earlier. That's a separate video.

[11:27] I can tell that this Mark Levinson is a lot more powerful. It has a bit more depth in the

[11:55] light. That gives you guys an idea. With that, you have

[12:24] your native navigation looks like Google Maps based live route planning, all that stuff. It shows you information on how many chargers are available, the charge station rating, what's in use, etc.

[12:45] Charged speeds here, they could be faster, battery pack size could be bigger, ultimately though.

[13:04] Toyota Lexus always gives you what you need and nothing less. This ES feels very much like a traditional mainstream luxury sedan. It just happens to be electric. It's not trying

[13:21] to be something it's not. It's very nice to drive. It's very comfortable. It's very quiet. It's very luxurious. I think Lexus has done a nice job calibrating this powertrain. It's very interesting

[13:33] that it's available as both the hybrid and an EV in essentially the same package. We've been driving around San Diego all of today. I haven't really had a chance to push the limits. It really

[13:45] get it up to higher highway speeds, but once we get a chance back home on our usual test route, we'll get a better idea of what this thing drives like on our rougher pothole Michigan roads. Still though,

[13:59] until then, this has been a very pleasant driving experience in just about every ES that we've tested. This will be our last and final video on the new ES from this launch.

[14:35] All right. Here's a properly bumpy road. This feels just like home. So it can everything up beautifully on these 21s. I think ultimately I would stick with the 19s just for that extra sidewall ride quality

[14:54] rolling efficiency. Though they do just come with arrow wheel covers, which are those just the modern interpretations of hubcaps. I guess they kind of are. You see them on a ton of EVs these days.

[15:34] All right. We'll pull on to here and wrap up our video. I think that sums up my thoughts on

[15:52] the 2026 Lexus ES. Overall, a perfectly fine automobile in 2026. It's interesting to see Toyota and Lexus coming out with so many EVs. This year, I suppose that just makes sense for them to

[16:05] bring a bunch of them out if they can just repurpose that busy powertrain and technology. We've got a busy parking lot here. So we'll see if we can do our best to find a spot with a bit more space.

[16:22] The biggest challenge with this event this week is just being able to find a place to park this car and do a walk around. So I think we found something. All right guys, that's going to be a wrap for now. Thank you so much for watching. It's nice having a 360 cam in your Lexus ES.

[16:37] I wish it were available on lower trims, but here we are. All right. That's all I've got to say. Thank you so much for watching. Go check out the previous uploads on the Lexus ES on this channel and on the Winner Road magazine channel if you don't want to listen to me. Yeah, I've been along.

[16:51] That's all. See you guys later. Take care.