Lexus RZ450E vs Mercedes-Benz Evito

What's the difference?

Far from just another mid-size SUV offering, the Lexus RZ bares the burden of much of the Japanese premium brand’s future.

While Lexus has been a trailblazer in the past, offering a wide range of hybrid luxury vehicles before every other brand, it’s a little late to the party with this car; it’s first ground-up electric vehicle.

The question is, has all this extra time given Lexus the luxury of perspective, or is it too little too late for the RZ to make a meaningful impact on the mid-size luxury SUV space? Stick with us as we find out.

Numerous commercial van manufacturers are adding battery-electric vehicle (BEV) variants to their model line-ups.

Anecdotal evidence suggests these vehicles are best suited to city and suburban fleet duties, in which they cover short-loop daily driving distances that are comfortably within a manufacturer’s claimed battery range and return to depots each day to be recharged.

However, given that it’s still relatively early days for electric vans, potential buyers are faced with numerous potential deal-breakers compared to conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) equivalents.

These include higher purchase prices, limited driving ranges, longer 'refuelling' times, heavier kerb weights (due to their large batteries) and resulting smaller payload ratings. And they are usually not rated to tow.

However, they can also offer lower operating costs. And they produce zero tailpipe emissions, which according to Mercedes-Benz "creates a powerful marketing tool (for buyers) to demonstrate their commitment to operating sustainably".

We recently trialled M-B’s Vito-based contender in this pioneering LCV market segment, to see how it measures up in Australia’s highly competitive medium-sized (2.5-3.5-tonne GVM) van market.