Sunday Drive–2020 Lexus ES 300h
An exterior view of the 2020 Lexus ES 300h hybrid.
A look at the engine compartment of the 2020 Lexus ES 300h hybrid.
With the 2019 model year Lexus took the opportunity to completely redesign their entry level luxury sedan and after thirty years the new ES is the 7th generation to come from the auto maker. Since its inception the ES has become a staple in the Lexus pantry with more being sold every year.
Five years ago, Toyota of course decided to add a hybrid to the line having vast amounts of experience in this area starting with the first Prius model. We would have expected nothing less from the car company and at the time were thrilled to try out the new hybrid for a week and see just what kind of magic they had included to get such great mpg.
At the time we averaged just over 40 mpg for a week so we knew having another week should prove to be a challenge to get a higher reading, along with basking in all the luxury that comes with any Lexus product.
Before the Lexus arrived we made some plans to put the new hybrid through as many different conditions and roads as we could during the week along with staying right around 500 or so miles. So on Saturday we took the opportunity to go out and see the Utah Valley Parade of Homes, starting with a home in Pleasant Grove and continuing up through Utah County until we ended our day up on the Suncrest Ridge in Draper, Utah.
This turned out to be a very interesting day amidst the Covid outbreak as we social distanced through 9 different homes, although it felt very good to get out and do something more towards the normal side. It also gave us the chance to get on many different types of roads.
Figuring that one day with the new ES would not be enough we took some time on Sunday and headed up to Midway, Utah and then up over Guardsman Pass to Brighton Ski Resort where we were able to get in some great hiking in temperatures that were almost 20 degrees less than those in the valley.
We returned home to Springville by heading down Big Cottonwood canyon to the freeway and back to Utah County. These couple of long day trips along with our regular driving to and from work during the week added up to 569 miles. In the end the new hybrid version of the ES continued to amaze us this time averaging 45.8 mpg.
This was an incredible number surpassing the last time we had a hybrid ES and even better than the last time we drove a hybrid Toyota Avalon. Our hats are definitely off to the engineers that have put this great entry level luxury hybrid sedan together.
The hybrid ES produces a combined 220 horsepower which we found to be more than adequate to propel the large sedan around. The petrol version of the ES comes with 302 horsepower but only attains 26 mpg combined gas mileage. After our week with the new ES we would definitely look very hard at the hybrid version considering the huge gas savings over the life of the vehicle.
As the cost difference to drive a hybrid vehicle of the same class continues to get closer it tends to make the argument even better to cross the divide and go green. The difference between the gas version of the ES and the hybrid is now only $2,260, where years ago it could get as high as to be over $10,000.
It would not take long getting almost 20 more miles per gallon to get that back the initial investment.
Good news with the newly redesigned ES is that it is all Lexus from the exterior, the only indication that it is anything different than an aggressive executive sedan would the small letter ‘h’ following the name. Form the questions we got over the week no one knew it was a hybrid unless we told them so, and after mentioning the phenomenal mileage we were attaining, most thought that would be the perfect way to go.
LED lights all around continue to add to the ambience created by the designers at Lexus, with triple beam headlights adding and extra little magic to the package.
Inside of course the ES was all Lexus as they strive to make all their vehicle very driver centric. Sitting in the driver seat it now more resembles the LS series from Lexus that is more appointed as a luxury track sedan.
A huge 12.3 inch color display took up the entire center of the dashboard, making it very easy to read and understand for both the driver and passenger. This however is still all controlled by the mouse like device between the seats and we still found it hard to control
There is now Apple CarPlay and Android Auto Available on the ES which we kept active all the time as it was much easier to use through Siri voice control. We did love the larger screen that we would split up into different sections displaying a multitude of different tidbits of information.
The seats were of course heated and cooled as we would have expected nothing less from Lexus and our test ride came with the addition of a heated steering wheel, a must have during the cold months here in Utah.
On the safety side all Lexus vehicles now come with Lexus Safety Systems 2.0, that include, Pedestrian Detection, High Speed Collision waring and mitigation, Radar Cruise control, Lane Tracing Assist, Lane Departure Warning, Automatic High Bean Headlights and Road Sign Assist.
These are all great systems and we commend Lexus for make them part of the basic package including them at every price point. The addition of Blind Spot Monitoring, with Cross Traffic Alert and Intuitive Parking assist pretty much rounded out all the safety that Lexus has to offer with just a $1,065 addition to the price.
The new ES 300 hybrid is all that it is cracked up to be and comes at a great way to get into a Executive Luxury Sedan without breaking the bank, and with the way it sips gas would be a great addition to anyone looking for that little extra pinacous in the neighborhood.
Base Price: $41,760
Price as Driven: $52,785