Lexus NX300 vs Rolls-Royce Spectre (bev)

What's the difference?

The Lexus NX 300h F Sport is both a comfortable and luxurious family hauler that is held back by just a few things.

Of course, gripes like the underwhelming dynamics might not be an issue for all, but the less-than-stellar fuel economy (for a hybrid, at least), disappointing practicality and fiddly multimedia will affect all potential buyers.

However, this is balanced out by loads of equipment and premium appointments for a reasonable price, which should put the Lexus NX on your shopping list if you are keen for an inner-city premium SUV cruiser.

Personally, I was very much taken with the looks, and the feels, of the new Rolls-Royce Spectre, which delivers everything you’d expect from this brand, and seems to have lost nothing by switching to electric propulsion. The trick, it seems, in turning your brand into an EV one is to have made your cars silent in the first place.

But the real verdict comes from the people hurling their Spectre orders at the company, which has received so many of them it’s being forced to ramp up production. And 40 per cent of pre-orders are from new customers. Honestly, it’s as if they were all just waiting for an EV to drop a million on.

Lexus might have been known for drab and dowdy styling in the past, but the NX’s sharp aesthetic is head turning and attention grabbing in all the right ways.

Though the NX first hit Australian showrooms in 2014, after six years we reckon it wouldn’t look out of place strutting down a catwalk, and can easily hold its own in the design department against the likes of the Audi Q5, BMW X3 and Mercedes-Benz GLC.

From the front, you can’t miss the trademark Lexus spindle grille, which, with its trapezoidal shape, gives the illusion of a wider and more aggressive car.

The high-set, slender headlights also gives the NX a wide stance, while the sweeping daytime running lights and sharp bumper design give the impression that the NX is cutting through water.

In profile, the NX is characterised by a strong shoulder line, chiselled lower doors and narrow glasshouse, while the black plastic wheelarch cladding hints at its SUV status.

The black trim detailing on the tail-lights almost make it look like the NX has narrowing cartoon eyes from the rear, but the subtle diffuser and large bumper soften its look a little.

If you can’t tell, we dig the aesthetics of the NX, especially the subtle exterior features such as crystal-like front foglights and the unique side mirror design.

Step inside and those neat little design touches continue.

From the almost folded fabric-like design of the door trims to the soft-touch surfaces throughout, the NX’s cabin oozes luxury, class and quality.

The centre stack shape mirrors the front grille’s trapezoid shape, while all the buttons and switchgear have a nice heft and weight to them, and are laid out in an easy-to-use, ergonomic fashion.

Sure, look a bit closer and you might see some carryover items from lower-end Toyota models, such as the cruise control stalk but, be honest, if we didn’t point it out, would you have even noticed?

Making a vehicle as enormous as the Spectre look good is no mean feat, but Rolls has done a hell of a job, from most angles. The massive Pantheon Grille is something to behold in the metal, and because it doesn’t need to let air into an engine bay, it’s been designed for airflow, as has so much else. Rolls achieved a drag coefficient of 0.25, which is good for extending EV range, and they even spent more than 800 hours in a wind tunnel working on making the Spirt of Ecstasy hood ornament as aerodynamic as possible (she’s had her wings clipped, apparently).

The modern take on the classic grille combined with a chesty bonnet and very cool DRLs give the Spectre a look of classic modernity from the front, while the proportions over all give it a great side profile.

Apparently the design brief was based on some majestic cliffs, the Seven Sisters of Sussex, and the car definitely has that level of grandiosity.

The only weak point is the rear, which had to be sheer for aero reasons - and features the narrowest legally possible rear lights, which are supposed to look like “islands in a lake”, apparently. To me, driving behind one, the rear view is just a little dull.

The luscious interior is meant to be an example of “Automotive Haute Couture”, meaning hand made and stupidly expensive, and Rolls also humbly refers to it as a “cosseting art lounge”. It all sounds a bit over the top until you sit in it, and discover that it really does feel beyond special.

Measuring 4660mm long, 1870mm wide, 1645mm tall and with a 2600mm wheelbase, the NX puts it foot firmly into the mid-size SUV class.

Front occupants can easily get comfortable thanks to seats with a wide breadth of adjustment, while drivers also get a telescoping steering wheel that automatically raises when the car is turned off for easier ingress/egress.

Generous door bins up front will swallow large water bottles and any other paraphernalia, while two deep cupholders are found between the driver and front passengers.

If you want to tuck any items out of sight though, the glovebox and centre console bin will do the job, but there is also a hidden compartment where the driver’s touchpad palm rest.

Lift up the flap and your precious valuables can be hidden away, but look underneath the flap and it doubles as a handheld mirror to check you don’t have any food in your teeth before a date.

The outer two second-row seats offer ample room for six-foot-tall passengers, and – even with the front seats in our preferred position – there is plenty of legroom in the back.

Like most vehicles, the middle seat is a bit compromised, but in the NX it feels especially narrow and uncomfortable.

This isn’t helped by the middle seat’s seat belt, which comes down from the roof and intrudes well into the backrest of the neighbouring seat when not in use.

It makes loading the NX full of passengers tricky as there is a bit of shuffling around to get all the belts in place and passengers comfortable.

Our advice? Use the NX as a four-seater and just fold down the centre armrest, which also exposes two cupholders, for extra comfort.

Other rear seat amenities include air vents and storage pockets in the doors, the latter of which will accommodate water bottles or small items.

Open the boot and the NX will swallow 475 litres of volume, which can expand to 1520L with the rear seats folded down.

Boot space is down on its rivals, with all of the German models offering at least 550L of volume.

In real-world terms, this means the NX’s boot won’t close with a large- and medium-sized suitcase sat side-by-side, but has no problem with smaller cases.

Boot space might be lacking in the NX, but the hybrid system’s batteries have to go somewhere, and at least Lexus offers up two big bag books and tie-down points.

If you’re looking for the modern EV style interior, you can forget it, because Rolls says it didn’t want “any of that funky stuff” in the Spectre, so no giant screens in here. Indeed, I switched into a Rolls-Royce Ghost at one stage to be driven somewhere and the interior was almost exactly the same, although the new car gets a more modern fully digital dash. 

There’s plenty of room for water bottles and oddment storage and the sense of space for the driver and front passenger is suitably grand, but the rear seats are really for spoilt teenagers rather than Rolls owners. They’re not uncomfortable, at all, but they just feel a bit squeezed, you wouldn’t ask to be chauffeured in a Spectre, clearly it’s a Rolls you’d choose to drive yourself. 

The boot is wide, deep and long with a volume of 380 litres.

Australian pricing for the Rolls-Royce Spectre starts from $770,000 before on-road costs, and on the point of whether that represents value, well not to me, but certainly the huge number of orders Rolls claims to have been hit by suggests otherwise.

You do get a lot of car for your money, because the Spectre is vast and weighs almost three tonnes, and there’s no doubt that the interior is nicer than most people’s houses, or even the nicest hotel you’ve ever seen, and that the top-notch umbrellas hidden in each door are a nice touch.

One of the nifty and unexpected features the Spectre offers is a “Rolls-Royce Sound”, which you can toggle on and off. With the fake noise off, the car is freakishly quiet - apparently during testing they achieved a level of EV silence so incredible that people found it “disturbing” and had to engineer some sound back in - but with it on you get just the most subtle of guttural sounds. Every other company so far has gotten fake noise wrong, but Rolls has nailed it with the Spectre; it’s just loud enough, but suitably restrained as well.

You also get the wondrous Starlight Headliner, which uses optic fibre cables to paint the night sky on the roof, complete with shooting stars, and in the Spectre you can now have the stars fitted to the inside of its massive coach doors as well.

Propelling the Lexus NX 300h F Sport is a petrol-electric mild-hybrid powertrain, combining a 114kW/210Nm 2.5-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder petrol engine with two electric motors – 105kW/270Nm unit for the front axle and a 50kW/139Nm unit for the rear wheels.

The total system output is measured at 147kW, which is sent to all four wheels in our test var via a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT).

The zero-to-100km/h acceleration takes 9.2 seconds thanks to a fairly hefty 1895kg kerb weight.

For the first time ever, this Rolls-Royce has no magnificent engine, no throbbing 12 cylinders, no, it has two separately excited synchronous motors, one on each axle for seamless all-wheel drive. The front motor makes 190kW and 365Nm while they’ve sensibly sent more grunt to the rear, which gets 360kW and 710Nm. Either motor on its own would be enough to power a normal car. The total figures are 430kW and 900Nm, which is supercar like.

The battery is made up 804 cells, weighs 700kg and has a net capacity of 102kWh, and the designers used it as a sound-deadening agent for road noise, because it’s so massive. 

The Spectre can hit 100km/h in 4.5 seconds, which feels very fast indeed when you’re piloting something that weighs 2890kg and is 5.5m long.

Official fuel consumption figures for the Lexus NX 300h is 5.7/ litres per 100km, though we managed a 7.6L/100km figure in our week with the car.

Our driving consisted exclusively of inner-city driving for groceries and just two trips down the freeway upon collecting and returning the car due to Melbourne’s lockdown rules.

The Spectre is rated at 520km on the WLTP scale, but Rolls claims it can do a lot better (like 600km). Efficiency is claimed to be 21.5kWh per 100km.

We drove 210km and had 300km of indicated range left at the end, which is pretty close to the claim.

The Spectre can be charged at up to 200kW on a DC fast charger, on which it will take 35 minutes to go from 10 to 80 per cent charge.

On an 11kWh home system it will take 10 hours and 45 minutes to go from zero to 90 per cent charge.

Though the Lexus NX might look sporty and dynamic from the outside, don’t be mistaken into thinking Lexus’ mid-size SUV is anything other than a comfy cruiser.

Steering remains light and lifeless in its default ‘Nomal’ drive mode, but even in ‘Sport S’ and ‘Sport S+’, weighting feels artificial and numb.

What this means is that the NX 300h F Sport is a joy to manoeuvre around town at low speeds, but is found lacking when the speedo climbs and the roads get a bit twisty.

Likewise, a stab of the throttle is met with a spike in revs and engine noise as the powertrain switches from its electric motor to internal combustion engine, but the expected thrust-burst never comes.

CVTs are generally tuned for better fuel economy, not a sporting drive, so it makes sense that the NX is a little more hesitant and lethargic to get up to speed, but the transmission does suffer from that ‘elastic’ feel where it can be slow to ‘shift up’ if it thinks you are wanting a sporty drive.

However, these shortcomings are especially evident when stacking it up next to the new Toyota RAV4 hybrid.

The NX is underpinned by Toyota’s MC platform, shared with the old RAV4, whereas the fifth-generation mid-size SUV that launched in 2019 is updated with a TNGA platform.

Much of our aforementioned criticisms in driving dynamics and snoozy drivetrain are fixed, or at least alleviated, in the latest Toyota RAV4, so here’s hoping the next-gen NX rumoured to break cover soon will be a welcomed step forward.

And while the current Lexus NX is certainly not the last world in SUV driving dynamics, it’s not trying to be.

As a daily runabout for the family, the NX is comfortable and predictable – just what some families might be after.

The suspension does a great job at soaking up road imperfections and little bumps you might find on your journey, helped by the comfy seats and great interior sound insulation.

What is noticeable though, is overcoming large bumps or any change in elevation at speed, where the NX 300h’s hefty weight means it takes just a touch longer to get settled again.

The cabin also feels a bit fussy from the driver’s seat, with the multimedia especially being fiddly and hard to navigate when on the move.

We reckon a rotary controller like those found on a BMW, or even better multimedia software as seen with a Benz, could go a long way in fixing Lexus’ multimedia woes.

Having said that, the system is compatible with Android Auto, and is laid out well on the widescreen, so you could easily forgo the annoying touchpad and janky software for a better experience.

The short answer to this question is that the Spectre drives just like a Rolls-Royce, but that answer is deceptively simple, because, for an electric vehicle, that’s actually a hell of an achievement.

Most EVs do not feel like cars to drive - the electric Hyundai Kona is not much like a petrol one at all - but what Rolls set out to do with its first EV was to make a vehicle that feels, handles and accelerates just like one of its famous and fabulously over-powered combustion-engined Ghosts, Phantoms or Wraiths.

This meant it had to be “Silent”, which it nails with ease - and the important thing to remember here is that even its V12 cars were always incredibly quiet, unless you really misbehaved. And it had to be “Effortless”, another brand pillar. Again, nailed it, because a Roller has never bothered with things like shift paddles, Sports modes or even the option to do anything but stick it in D for Drive and go. 

The sensation Rolls owners demand is endless, otiose acceleration, particularly off the line, and the Spectre delivers this in a typical EV fashion, but also one that’s very familiar to anyone who’s driven a Ghost, for example. It’s just a sense of overwhelming, prole-crushing progress, and it’s magnificent. 

The third and final brand pillar is “Waftability” and despite all the weight that it’s carrying (imagine how far over three tonnes this thing would have gone if they didn’t build their cars out of aluminium), the Spectre rides with a kind of hovercraft air of being just above, or barely in touch with, the ground. Bumps are no longer your concern, sir.

As mentioned, Rolls could have chosen a limousine-style vehicle as its first EV, but it has made a driver’s car instead - no CEO will sit in the back of a coupe like the Spectre. So it had to deliver when it comes to being fun, or at least a little frisky at times, when driven. 

Again, quite incredibly, despite its mass and weight, it does reward enthusiastic driving and can carve up even relatively narrow winding roads with aplomb, displaying very little body roll or pitching. The steering is almost absurdly light - because it must be “effortless” - but there’s still enough feedback to keep you interested. 

Most of the time, of course, the essentially laid back aura of being in a Rolls-Royce will seep into your body and brain and you will simply cruise along, patting yourself on the back for being so rich and clever.

And now, with an EV option finally available, you can tell yourself you’re saving the planet as well (as long as you don’t think about the 28 other cars in your garage).

The Spectre has not been crash tested for ANCAP. Its safety offerings include adaptive cruise control, lane-change assist, lane departure with active steer, a reversing assistant - "to support with parking and long reverses, eg country lanes or driveways, Spectre will reverse the previous 200m driven" - and collision warning with active braking.

Rolls tell us the Spectre has "Four airbags (does not need more)". So that's good news.

Like all new Lexus vehicles, the NX 300h F Sport comes with a four-year/100,000km warranty, along with roadside assist over the same period. A six-year anti-corrosion is also part of the aftersales assurance package.

Scheduled service intervals are every 12 months/15,000km, whichever comes first.

The first three years/45,000km of scheduled servicing is capped at $495 for each annual service, which falls under the brand’s Encore service that also entails pickup and delivery of the NX, loan car, and wash and vacuum.

Lexus ownership also means owners will be access to exclusive events, dinners and drive days, as well as promotions from partner hotels.

Although servicing costs are relatively cheap for the first three years, Lexus’ four-year/100,000km lags behind luxury brand leaders Mercedes-Benz and Genesis, who both offer five-years/unlimited kilometre assurances.

Now, I would assume you'd get a lifetime warranty at Rolls prices, but apparently you get only four years, but it is unlimited mileage.

The Spectre's battery is covered by a 10-year warranty.

An extended service and warranty package is "TBC".

Rolls also offers 24/7 roadside assistance, and if your battery goes flat the company will take your Spectre to the nearest charging station.

A "regional flying doctor" is on standby 24/7 in extreme cases if Spectre “fails to proceed”.