{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "description": "The Lexus ES has, for generations, been the answer to a specific question: what's the most comfortable thing I can buy with a Lexus badge that isn't an LS? It's been front-wheel drive, often hybrid, and gently sprung. The 2026",
  "path": "/reviews/2026-lexus-es-350e-500e-first-drive-review/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-27T11:00:00+00:00",
  "site": "at://did:plc:2s32mlusc66sjb256aenynfc/site.standard.publication/self",
  "textContent": "The Lexus ES has, for generations, been the answer to a specific question: what’s the most comfortable thing I can buy with a Lexus badge that isn’t an LS? It’s been front-wheel drive, often hybrid, and gently sprung. The 2026 ES is the eighth generation of the car, and it’s the first one available as a battery-electric vehicle. There are two BEVs — the ES 350e in front-wheel drive, and the ES 500e in Direct4 all-wheel drive — and a new ES 350h hybrid is coming later this year.\n\n\n\nI won’t bury the lede. There’s a lot to like about the new ES. The looks are sharp, the pricing for a luxury electric sedan is genuinely competitive, and Lexus is leaning into infotainment tech that’s a real step forward. It’s a confident first crack at an electric ES, and it does most of what it sets out to do well.\n\n\n\nLet me start with the part I have no complaints about: the styling. The new ES leans heavily on Lexus’s LF-ZC concept, and it’s the best the ES has ever looked. The spindle grille is now a pinched body-color surface rather than a chromed hole, which makes far more sense on an EV that doesn’t need to ingest air. L-shaped daytime running lights sit above slim LED headlights, and a wraparound LED Blade taillamp with an illuminated logo gives the back end a presence the outgoing car never had. Wavelength and Copper Crest are the two new colors, and Copper Crest in particular is worth ordering.\n\n\n\nNow to the value play, because this is where Lexus is going to get your attention. The ES 350e Premium starts at $48,895, including the $1,395 destination charge. The 500e Premium AWD is $51,895. Step up to Luxury trim, and you’re at $57,295 for the 350e or $60,295 for the 500e. The hybrid 350h, when it arrives, will slot in around BEV pricing in matching trim.\n\n\n\nComparison shopping in the luxury electric sedan space is tough. The Audi A6 e-tron, BMW i5, and Mercedes-Benz EQE all cost significantly more. The closer price comparison is probably what you can lease a Genesis Electrified G80 for, if you can still find one. For a Lexus badge with a 307-mile EPA-estimated range and a native NACS port, the ES’s entry pricing is sharp.\n\n\n\nPowertrain numbers: the ES 350e makes 221 horsepower and 198 lb-ft of torque from a single permanent-magnet synchronous motor up front, with a Lexus-quoted 7.4-second 0–60 time. The ES 500e adds a 118-horsepower rear motor for a combined 338 horsepower, and runs the sprint in 5.1 seconds. Direct4 can vary the front-to-rear torque split from 100:0 to 0:100 and bias launches to keep the car flat.\n\n\n\nThe 350e feels appropriately quick for what it is and never struggles to merge or pass. The 500e is the one I’d pick — not because the ES needs to be a scorcher (it doesn’t), but because the rear motor adds composure and traction the front-driver doesn’t have. Either way, both deliver the immediate, linear response that makes an EV the right kind of luxury powertrain. The ES doesn’t need to be the fastest thing in a Lexus showroom. It needs to be easy, and it is.\n\n\n\nOn to the ride. The new ES feels a touch firmer than longtime ES buyers might expect. There’s a clear effort here to give the car more body control, a bit more European damping, and a more deliberate feel through corners. I get the impulse. The IS and GS were the sporty Lexus sedans, and Lexus has thinned that lineup over the years. Some of that brief may have migrated to the ES.\n\n\n\nI’d just prefer a little more compliance. The 21-inch wheels on the version I drove probably aren’t doing it any favors, and the springs are working hard to manage the 4,600-plus-pound curb weight that comes with the battery pack. I’d take the 19-inch wheel if I were ordering, and I’d love to see Lexus dial in a hair more comfort over time. The ES has always been the comfort play, and that’s the seat I’d like to see it stay in.\n\n\n\nThe bright spot inside is the new infotainment. The 14-inch Lexus Interface touchscreen and the 12.3-inch digital cluster ahead of the driver are both crisp, fast, and easy to use. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, which is increasingly the answer to half my interface complaints across the industry.\n\n\n\nBut the more interesting addition is the built-in dynamic EV route planning. Plug in a destination, and the car will route you, factor in charging stops, and account for your state of charge. It’s not perfect — it didn’t always pick the smartest stops on my proposed drive — but it’s a real effort by Lexus to take EV navigation seriously rather than farm it out to a third-party app. Native dynamic routing is something more automakers should be working on, not less, and the fact that Lexus is iterating on it now means it should only get better with over-the-air updates.\n\n\n\nThe ES uses a 74.7-kWh battery and a native NACS port on the passenger-side front fender, with a power-operated door covering it. Lexus includes a CCS-to-NACS adapter, which is the right call. Onboard AC charging is 11 kW, which gets a full charge in about 7 hours at home.\n\n\n\nDC fast charging peaks at 150 kW, with a 10–80% time of about 28 minutes under ideal conditions. That’s perfectly fine for most use cases. If you do a lot of long-distance road tripping, the 800-volt cars from Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis will run a faster session at any current Ionna station, and that’s worth knowing about. Given how most luxury sedan buyers actually use a car, the ES’s charging will be plenty.\n\n\n\nOne quick note on the back seat. The Executive Package, available only on the ES 350e Luxury, adds reclining rear seats with heat, ventilation, massage, and an ottoman. On paper, it sounds like the move, and for a lot of buyers, it probably is. I sat in the back at 5’10”, and the chair didn’t quite click for me — the cushion angle and reach to the seatback felt off. It’s the kind of seat I’d recommend trying at the dealership before you sign for the package. Taller or shorter passengers may well find it a perfect fit.\n\n\n\nThe bottom line: the 2026 ES is a handsome, well-priced, technically interesting electric sedan that delivers on what an ES is supposed to be. The looks land. The price is right. The infotainment is finally where it needs to be. The powertrains are appropriate to the brief — easy, capable luxury transportation, not a track weapon.\n\n\n\nIf I had one thing on the wish list for Lexus, it’d be to lean a little further toward comfort in the suspension tuning, because that’s the seat the ES has always sat in. The rest of the package is genuinely strong, and at this price, this is one of the more interesting luxury EV plays of 2026. I’m looking forward to spending more time with one to see how it lives with longer roads and a wider variety of pavement.",
  "title": "2026 Lexus ES 350e and ES 500e first drive review: A confident step into electric",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-26T21:49:37+00:00"
}