This Is What The Lexus ES Hybrid Premium Sedan Feels Like On Urban Roads

The ES is my first pandemic-induced post-lockdown test drive. Confined to my immediate neighborhood – what effectively became a “15-minute city” reality – I have been eager to get back in a car other than my own and explore beyond our lockdown borders. As it turns out, the week the Lexus premium mid-size sedan arrives, construction work commences on our home and the great city escape is abandoned.

Instead I experience the ES in every conceivable London scenario running errands for our builders. This means navigating roads chocked with traffic – post lockdown traffic apparently compensating for lost street-time – and re-learning routes furtively altered during lockdown. It requires keeping a constant eye on roads now reserved for electric vehicles, as well as staying hyper-alert to what appears to be a tripling of amateur cyclists and electric scooters. It also involves my very first drive-in theatre experience.

The ES is a critical product for Lexus. Alongside the flagship LS, it globally launched Toyota’s premium brand in 1989. Today the car is the marque’s most popular sedan, having collected over 2.3 million cumulative global sales. This model is the seventh generation ES. When the new design was initially revealed three years ago, it forged an ambitious path for the marque with an all-new chassis that allows for more dynamic styling and improved driving performance. The car I have on test is the latest ES 300h F-Sport – on sale since 2019 and benefiting from the company’s advanced self-charging hybrid powertrain.

The new family of Lexus cars are a far cry from the previous product line, which altogether felt a little too conservative. The ES parked outside my home, cloaked in a bright Azure Blue shade, is anything but shy. The design continues the marque’s bold and brave “L-finesse” narrative with its focus on this distinctive spindle grille design and edgy body language. The ES chief designer, Yasuo Kajino, describes its looks as “provocative elegance”. He says: “We have added daring design elements that challenge buyers’ traditional expectations.”

The distinctive silhouette with its strong downward slant and fast aero roofline has been possible due to the new GA-K Lexus platform. The grille styling alters according to model grade, so my F-Sport features a black cross hatch pattern of interlocking ‘L’ shapes that correspond with cut-out sections at the car’s front corners. Lastly, sharp LED lamps wrap around the rear quarter panels, while F Sport models come replete with a boot-lid spoiler.

The ES’s sporty designs are complemented by a lively drive. And although I am technically unable to test the car’s dynamics – London is now mostly restricted to 20mph speed range – I can sense the power that is available to me if I could take the car on open roads. On this hybrid, a 2.5-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine is paired with a 29.1kW battery and an electric hybrid motor driving the front wheels, while a second hybrid motor and regenerative braking system help charge the battery. There is 215-horsepower and 153lb-ft of torque available and zero to 62mph can be achieved in a reasonable 8.9 seconds.

The ES 300h F-Sport benefits from the latest in-car technology. Apple CarPlay connects the car to my phone, while Waze helps with much-needed real-time traffic information. There is HD Radio and SiriusXM; the audio system has 10 speakers and the infotainment system is accessed on the 8-inch color display. Furthermore, the ES incorporates the latest Lexus Safety System+ which offers pretty comprehensive active and passive safety measures. The ES is also the first Lexus in Europe to come with digital side-view monitors in place of conventional door mirrors.

We take our ES to the movies on our final test day. Drive-in theatres offer a safe and distanced night out experience and appear to be reviving during the pandemic. We cruise up to our designated spot at the pop-up cinema on the vast grounds of Syon Park in West London to catch the multi-award-winning La La Land. As the sun sets on Syon, we put on the headsets, recline in the soft leather ES seats, forget all about the pandemic chaos and the noise and dust at home and escape to the Technicolor world of Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling singing and dancing to the lost romance of the Hollywood musical.

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