2027 Lexus ES 500e

Electric Sedan · Dual Electric Motors · AWD

86/100

AutoVault's overall score, weighted for what a electric sedan is actually for — performance, technology, comfort, reliability, safety and value.

Specifications

Engine	Dual Electric Motors
Horsepower	338 hp
Torque	323 lb-ft
0–60 mph	5.1 sec
Top speed	112 mph
Drivetrain	AWD
Seats	5
Combined MPG	113 mpg (119 city / 108 hwy)
Range	276 miles
MSRP	$52,005
Body style	Electric Sedan

The verdict

What's good

Quick enough to keep up with cars that make a great deal more noise about it
All-wheel drive that shuffles power fast enough to feel like a chassis feature rather than a weather feature
Genuinely quiet in a class where road noise usually fills the space the engine used to
Costs only a little more than the front-drive car for a large gain in both traction and pace

What's not

Shares its battery with the cheaper front-drive car, so the second motor is paid for out of the range rather than added on top
Charging is quick enough never to be a problem and never quick enough to be a reason to buy it
Quick in a straight line without the chassis or the steering to back it up the way a sports sedan would
A brand-new electric platform with no service record behind it, on a nameplate that built its name on exactly that record

The engine

Lexus BEV DIRECT4

Dual Permanent-Magnet Electric Motors

The front motor from the single-motor car with a second, smaller unit added at the rear, governed by a torque-split controller that can send everything forward, everything back, or anything in between as the corner demands.

The first all-wheel-drive electric ES, built on the same multi-pathway platform as its front-drive sibling and the hybrid, and using the DIRECT4 control system Lexus developed for its electrified performance cars.

The torque split moves anywhere between fully front and fully rear, and under hard acceleration it deliberately sits near the middle to stop the car pitching back.
The rear motor adds well over a hundred horsepower for a three-thousand-dollar step up in price.
Battery capacity is identical to the front-drive car, so every bit of the extra performance is paid for in range rather than in weight of cells.
Both wheel sizes were certified separately, and the difference between them here is only four miles, far less than on the front-drive model.

See the rest in AutoVault

The six sub-scores behind the 86 — performance, tech, comfort, reliability, safety and value
Market value today and year-by-year value history
All 2 trims with pricing
Studio renders of the exterior, rear and interior, every car in the same light
Side-by-side comparison with up to four cars

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