Lexus RZ450E vs Jeep Avenger

What's the difference?

There are sportier EVs out there, there are more tech-savvy EVs out there, but few adhere to the luxury promise quite like the Lexus RZ, particularly at its price point.

It’s this primary characteristic which sets the RZ apart from the pack for me, and while it might not be for every first-time EV adopter, it nails the brief for the existing Lexus buyer while providing a ‘luxurious’ alternative to many of its firmer, sportier and less approachable rivals.

The Jeep Avenger is a strong move for the brand as a city-focused offering, and particularly as its first EV.

The styling and easy driving experience should be a draw, but its price in an increasingly competitive small SUV (and electric car) market could be a turn-off for some - even if it is only few thousand dollars more expensive than the slightly larger Compass.

Despite a couple of small flaws and a lacklustre safety rating overseas, the Avenger is ultimately one of the best-driving cars the brand has put out in years, and deserves a look if you’re keen on a practical but stylish EV.

I don’t think the RZ will be for everyone, but it has some very cool details and interesting angles, regardless.

It maintains the signature Lexus face, but this time has sunk the ‘spindle’ pattern deep into its plastic grille, making for a clean nose, but perhaps one which is a little too blank for some. No doubt it needs this smooth look to maintain as low a drag coefficient as possible.

Closer inspection reveals clever detailing, like the way the spindle pattern fades into the corners, and the whole look is lifted by how wide the car is. 

Sports Luxury versions are lifted further with contrast panels accentuating the width and shape.

My favourite angle of the RZ is the rear three-quarter. The coupe window line, split spoiler design, and cool strip tail-light, complete with three-dimensional Lexus branding, looks as contemporary as it gets, not to mention sportier and more intriguing than even some of its rivals.

Savvy EV buyers might know the RZ shares its platform and overall shape with the upcoming Toyota bZ4X and its Subaru Solterra spin-off, and while those two cars look near-identical from the outside, Lexus has clearly had a lot more creative licence with the design of its take on the formula.

Inside is perhaps where this car feels the most Lexus, however. The interior design is almost entirely unrecognisable when compared to the bZ4X, with Lexus going to town with its curvy, intricate design language, and plush detailing throughout.

Padded synthetic leather trims, which match the seats, adorn the doors, which are swapped out for ultrasuede in the case of the higher-grade Sports Luxury.

And Lexus has opted for a deep-set digital dash and massive touchscreen in place of the small column-mounted screen and tablet multimedia of its Toyota and Subaru relations. 

Everywhere you look, though, there’s attention to detail, with interesting material choices from the wacky carpet to the detailing on the centre console and in the door cards. It’s unmistakably Lexus, and feels premium.

One of the Avenger's biggest draws for me is its style.

Those who like the Jeep brand for its rugged off-road vibes, but don’t actually want or need to go off-road might enjoy that it still looks very Jeep.

We’re told that the decisions made in this car’s design are all for a purpose, and some of them are very clear.

For a start there’s a deliberate plastic barrier wrapped around the full 360 degrees of Avenger to protect the paintwork and body panels in low-speed collisions that can be just as likely off-road as in a carpark.

There’s also the sunken headlights, which sit far enough back that they’re less likely to be damaged in an impact, being one of the most expensive and breakable parts at the front of a car.

But there’s also a series of little hidden ‘easter eggs’ that the Avenger’s head designer Daniele Calonaci left up to us to find for ourselves.

For a start, the tail-lights feature an ‘X’ shape that’s inspired by the jerry cans used to carry spare fuel and liquids in World War 2.

The ‘X’ theme continues in other places on the Avenger,  though there are some more cutesy design features like a series of seven-slot grille motifs around the car in places like the wheels, tail-light, and even a small one under the front grille.

There’s a 3D ladybug in the roof rail up top, too. But perhaps the most ‘aww’-inspiring is the silhouette of a child looking through a telescope in the lower passenger side of the windshield, up at some stars in the upper driver’s side. The child? That’s Calonaci’s son.

The RZ benefits from its electric-from-the-ground-up 'e-TNGA' platform, which offers an almost flat floor, wide, spacious cabin (despite its coupe-look rear) and there are plenty of clever touches throughout to enhance practicality.

The doors each offer a pocket with integrated bottle holder up front, there’s a wide centre console with a set of large bottle holders, and the clever dual-hinged armrest console which appears in other Lexus products, and a large bay under the multimedia unit which houses additional storage alongside the wireless charger.

Interestingly, the RZ doesn’t have a glove box on the passenger side, as this area is reserved for the infra-red projector in the Sports Luxury grade. 

Instead, the car has a cutaway underneath the bridge-design centre console for additional storage. It’s a welcome and surprisingly large area which also houses a 12V power outlet. However it’s a little tricky to reach when seated up front.

Adjustability feels good for the driver with decent leg and headroom, alongside a tilt and telescopic steering column.

There are dials for the climate controls and a centre dial for the volume adjustment, although there are still many functions - from drive mode to essential safety toggles - that are buried more than one menu deep in the touchscreen, and therefore a little clumsy to jab at while you’re driving.

The back seat offers excellent space for someone my size. At 182cm tall I had leagues of knee room and decent headroom, and of course all the soft trims continue. 

Bottle holders appear in the doors and drop-down centre armrest, and rear passengers score dual adjustable air vents and two USB-C power outlets. 

There are map pockets on the back of the front seats, and the higher-end Sports Luxury grade offers dual heated seats and a separate fixed sunroof panel for the enjoyment of rear passengers.

One interesting piece, however, is the high floor. Designed to facilitate the batteries, the high floor means you feel tilted back in the rear seats, like your knees are far off the ground.

The boot, meanwhile, is also surprisingly spacious given the raked rear window. At 522 litres it outranks most mid-size SUVs, and while it seems deeper than it is tall, it should be more than sufficient for the airport run or trips to the local Golf course.

An underfloor storage area is convenient for the stowage of your charging cables.

The outside of the Avenger is plenty of fun, but the inside is a fairly sensible place.

That’s not to say it’s boring, but the use of space for a car of this size is impressive, and there are plenty of places to store things.

There’s a well thought out phone charging pad in a relatively deep storage compartment in the centre of the Avenger, as well as the cupholders in front of the centre armrest and another storage bin underneath, plus a ‘shelf’ along the dash.

The amount of storage is impressive given the Avenger’s interior is a nice, tidy design that still manages to incorporate some useful elements some cars forgo - buttons for the climate controls, for example, are something that are increasingly (and frustratingly) rare.

Anyone who has used a Uconnect system in a Jeep or Fiat in the past might like to know that this one (accessible via a 10.25-inch touchscreen) is a step-up from predecessors.

It’s not perfect, some elements of the menu and feature placement seem a little random at first, but it doesn’t lag, is easy to connect to wirelessly, and has a fairly helpful voice control system.

Functionality is most of the way there generally, but a few missing things like dual-zone climate control or electric adjustment for the passenger seat feel like let-downs, plus the heating on the front seats seemed to be quite weak for a long time before eventually warming.

Behind those seats, the second row is lacking just about any amenities besides a USB port, but it’s not too cramped for a light SUV. Adults might find it suitable for relatively short trips, but kids should be fine for a while.

The sunroof (when featured) doesn’t extend very far back, so the second row also feels a little dark.

Behind that, an impressive 355 litres of boot space expands to 1250 litres when the seats are folded down, plus a plastic lining on the boot lip means you don’t scratch the car when loading or unloading.

Before the Avenger had even landed, Jeep announced a $3000 reduction to the original pricing. While it might seem like this move stems from an increasingly competitive small-SUV market, Jeep says production costs dropped after the pricing was initially set, and the decision was made to pass it along to customers.

In any case, the Avenger now starts from $49,990 before on-road costs for the entry-level Longitude, with a mid-spec Limited costing $54,990 and the appropriately named Summit set at $60,990.

This puts the Avenger among the most expensive offerings in the 'Light SUV' category along with the electric Mini Aceman (from $55,990) and hybrid Lexus LBX (from $47,550), but around the same price as the slightly larger Hyundai Kona Electric (from $54,000) and Renault Megane E-Tech (from $54,990).

It also looks like brilliant value compared to the much smaller and lower-ranged Fiat 500e (from $52,500). Style comes at a cost.

For the Avenger, there’s a bunch of kit that’s standard across the range, plus only one cost-option - premium paint at $990.

Each Avenger gets dual 10.25-inch screens inside, one for the driver instrument display and the other a touchscreen for the multimedia controls, centred on the dash so it can be reached by both front occupants.

Satellite navigation, keyless start, adaptive cruise control and Jeep’s Selec-terrain drive mode system are all also standard features.

The Limited adds partial synthetic leather trim to the seats, keyless entry, more safety features like blind-spot assist and parking sensors, plus a height-adjustable boot floor and more powerful AC charger, with an 11kW version replacing the 7kW of the Longitude. The Limited also has optional two-tone roof paint in black for $495.

Climbing to the Summit means you get the two-tone roof as standard, plus LED projector headlights and LED tail-lights, 18-inch alloys, leather accented heated seats with power adjustment and lumbar massage for the driver, plus it also gets a sunroof over the front occupants.

The RZ is only available with one powertrain choice, a dual-motor all-wheel drive set-up dubbed the 450e.

Unlike some systems, this dual-motor arrangement is far from symmetrical, with by far the majority of power sent to the front wheels.

Total system output is rated at 230kW/435Nm, consisting of 150kW/266Nm from the front, and just 80kW/169Nm from the rear.

Interestingly, this is significantly more punch than the Toyota bZ4X, further setting this Lexus apart.

The RZ uses a clever torque-vectoring system to make the most of this set-up when cornering, and debuts some interesting new tech like computer-balanced brakes to keep the car level under heavy deceleration as well as new adaptive pistons in the suspension to help the car adjust to different surfaces.

The Avenger has one drivetrain for now, a front-wheel drive electric motor, though it sounds like we shouldn’t rule out the possibility of other petrol hybrid drivetrains in the future.

The EV Avenger we’ve got is built on a 400-volt electric architecture, with a single motor delivering 115kW of power and 260Nm of torque.

It’s got a a mode that increases the regenerative braking, though isn’t quite a one-pedal driving experience.

Jeep says it’ll hit 100km/h in 9.0-seconds, but apparently tops out at 150km/h.

Quoted range for the RZ is 470km, however this is to the more lenient NEDC testing cycle, as accepted by the Australian Design Rules. 

However, its real-world range is more like 400km, which is as it is more accurately measured to the WLTP standard.

The 71.4kWh battery pack is supported by a 150kW max DC charging speed, allowing a 10-80 per cent top-up in 30 minutes.

On a slower public AC charger, the RZ can pull a maximum speed of 11kW for charging in around six and a half hours, while single-phase charging, as you might get from a home wallbox system, at a rate of 7.0kW allows a charge time in around 10 hours.

Lexus throws in a public Type 2 charging cable, home wallbox installation, and a three-year Chargefox subscription (covering free fast charging) as part of an RZ purchase. Clever.

Officially the RZ consumes 18.7kWh/100km on the combined cycle according to the WLTP standard and I was surprised to find our car consumed 18.6kWh/100km during the test drive loop. 

For context, anything under 20kWh/100km is reasonably impressive in the premium EV space.

The Avenger has a reasonably sized 54kWh lithium-ion battery for a light SUV, which it says allows for a driving range of up to 396km, or 390km in the top-of-the-range Summit, due to the specification.

Under WLTP testing, Jeep says the Avenger is rated at 15.4kWh/100km (15.8kWh/100km for the Summit) for efficiency, and it comes with a Type 2 CCS combo charging socket for either DC fast charging up to 100kW, or AC charging up to 7kW in base Longitude and 11kW in higher variants.

On DC charging at its max 100kW rate, the Avenger should take about 24 minutes to charge from 20 to 80 per cent, while slower AC charging at 11kW takes five hours and 34 minutes.

On the launch drive route, we were seeing between 14.8 and 16.4kWh/100km on the trip computer, so Jeep’s claims seem accurate.

Usually EVs, even premium ones, have a particular formula to the way they drive. 

Hefty, firm, and usually break-neck fast is the default position, with seemingly every manufacturer trying to remind buyers they too can be as fast as a Tesla.

However, the RZ breaks with the premium pack, offering a car which leans more into the luxury promise than maybe any other right now.

It’s a relatively serene space in the cabin, with notably limited wind or tyre noise, and a gentle steering tune which makes the car effortless to pivot into corners. 

This combines with the clever torque vectoring system, and lenient suspension to have the RZ simply wafting through corners.

The ride is interesting in that it is so far from the norm for the EV space. It is the opposite of firm and aggressive, with the car gently leaning into bends and barely feeling the texture of the road.

Small, rough bumps and high-frequency corrugations are dispatched with ease, the car simply floating over them, even when loaded up in corners, although, on the flip-side, longer undulations have it bouncing up and down a bit after-the-fact, perhaps a consequence of the doughy ride having to deal with the well-hidden weight of its batteries.

Despite efforts to deal with body-roll, there’s a notable amount, a consequence of the forgiving ride.

While these characteristics make the RZ a far more luxurious proposition on the road than many of its rivals, it is notable in how much it lacks a feel for the road. 

The steering is so electrically augmented it feels almost simulated, no matter which drive mode you select, and little of the road surface is communicated well to the driver. 

Even the brake pedal feels lifeless and distant, as it combines regenerative braking with the actual discs in a purely digitised progression.

The steering, acceleration and regenerative braking are all heavily altered by drive mode, with the car lacking a single-pedal drive setting, instead being fairly hands-off with the system. 

Some, looking for a particular EV drive experience, may be happy with this, others will appreciate how ‘normal’ the RZ feels in this department.

While the car feels disconnected in a sense, there’s no doubt the brakes work, the steering is effective, and it is deceptively quick. 

Its soft character might have you assuming it's slow, but a hot-hatch baiting 5.3 second 0-100km/h sprint time seems alarmingly achievable in the Sport mode.

One thing is for sure - everything described here is deliberate. Lexus has made a choice to go against the grain and do something different when it comes to the way this mid-size EV feels. 

To many existing Lexus loyalists, there will be a lot which is familiar, while providing a slice of the future, yet it might be far from the most engaging EV to drive. It certainly provides a gentler and more luxurious - if a little lifeless - alternative to the sporty status quo.

The mix of a fun exterior and practical interior for the Jeep seem to blend into the Avenger’s driving experience. It doesn’t feel too much like an EV, but it is still playful and capable on the road.

Jeep wanted the Avenger to come across like a normal car that just happens to be electric, and the relatively calm take-off (rather than the usual immediate torque push electric cars are capable of) seems to prove that.

Though 115kW doesn’t sound like much on paper, it feels brisk enough for what the little Jeep is built for, and its delivery means even on a wet day like what we copped during the launch drive, wheelspin and torque steer were minimal.

Once up to speed, the Avenger feels pretty light for an EV, and it’s playful enough in corners without feeling like it’s becoming unstuck or hard to handle.

The suspension and steering are clearly aiming for comfortable driving more than sporty performance, and so while both feel well-sorted, neither are particularly communicative. But the steering is accurate and feels nice and light, making the Avenger easy to point into a corner and you can trust it to hold on.

Perhaps the biggest downside is the brake pedal, which is soft and doesn’t grab as quickly or progressively as you’d expect. It takes a few presses to work out how much pressure you need to stop the car.

But a drive mode that adds a bit of regenerative braking helps out there, even if it’s not proper single-pedal driving.

At higher speeds, the Avenger settles well over big bumps and undulations, feels comfy on most surfaces, and despite a bit of road noise and a small rattle in the dash on one of our test cars, it feels pretty easy and confidence-inspiring.

Jeep says the Avenger is built to handle some light off-road driving but I imagine its front-wheel-drive setup would be limiting in some circumstances, especially in the rainy, muddy weather we faced. Despite that, some unsealed mud and gravel driving proved the Avenger capable of gentle inclines at low speeds without risk of sliding.

For reference, ground clearance is 200mm, while the approach and departure angles are 20 and 32 degrees, respectively.

The Jeep Avenger hasn’t been tested by ANCAP, but comes with a disappointing three-star score from Euro NCAP.

Jeep Australia says it’s currently working with ANCAP regarding a potential local score, but wouldn’t detail what that could mean. A small SUV’s score dropping below four stars might concern some young family-type buyers, though most of its poor scoring comes in the categories of Vulnerable Road Users (pedestrians and cyclists) and Safety Assist (active tech).

In terms of what the Avenger offers as standard, there’s auto emergency braking (AEB), lane-keep assist, traffic sign recognition, driver monitoring, a reversing camera and six airbags (no front-centre bag, though).

It’s notably missing rear-cross traffic alert, and the base Longitude makes do with regular adaptive cruise control and parking sensors at the rear only, while higher variants get blind-spot assist, surround parking sensors, and intelligent cruise control.

One of the key Lexus selling points is its ‘Encore’ ownership promise, which is at its best on its EV models.

For the RZ this includes a complementary 7.0kW home wallbox charger installation for those with garages, the inclusion of a wall socket and public Type 2 charging cables, a three-year Chargefox subscription keeping even your high-speed charging free for the duration.

The warranty is five years, unlimited kilometres, with roadside assist included.

Capped price servicing is available over five years, weighing in at $395 per 12 month or 15,000km interval, whichever comes first.

Lexus will also organise to pick up and drop off a loan vehicle at service time, while the high-voltage battery is covered by up to 10 years of warranty if the logbook is adhered to at an authorised Lexus workshop.

The brand also offers extra benefits through its ownership program, like deals at hotels and restaurants, as well as invites to events like track or golf days.

This is an impressive above-and-beyond suite of offerings befitting a premium brand, although it should be pointed out some premium EV rivals offer service intervals which are twice as long, and even free servicing for the entire warranty period.

Jeep offers a five-year/100,000km warranty, which is starting to be overtaken by other brands increasingly offering seven-year/unlimited kilometre warranties or longer.

The high-voltage battery system of the Avenger is, however, covered for eight years or 160,000km, whichever comes first.

Jeep also offers capped-price servicing for the five-year warranty, with scheduled visits costing just $250 and spaced out at 12,500km or 12-month intervals.

There’s also the brand’s lifetime roadside assist, but only when you service your car with Jeep.