SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Many of the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.

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Entry-level luxury: 2020 Lexus UX 250h EX

Seamless power

Pics by Lexus@Motorpress
Posted: October 19, 2020

The numbers
Base price: R690 300
Engine: Toyota M20A-FXS, 1987 cc, DOHC 16-valve, four-cylinder naturally aspirated, Atkinson Cycle
Power: 107 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 180 Nm at 4400 rpm
Battery pack: Ni-MH 180 cells / 216 V / 24 kW
Electric motor output: 80 kW / 202 Nm
Effective combined
Power: 135 kw between 4200 and 6000 rpm
Torque: 300 Nm between 3000 and 4000 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 8.5 seconds
Maximum speed: 177 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 5.7 l/100 km
Tank: 43 litres
Luggage: 265 litres behind seats
Turning circle: 10.4 metres
Ground clearance: 160 mm
Towing capacity: Not rated
Standard tyre size: 225/50R18 run-flat
Warranty and maintenance plan: 7 years / 105 000 km, with roadside assistance
Servicing at 15 000 km / annual intervals


Lexus SA proudly holds 39-percent of the local premium hybrid- and electric car market but there’s nothing wrong with trying harder; hence the decision to introduce an entry-level version of its compact, UX-class, hybrid SUV.

Priced R65 900 lower than its SE stablemate, it means you have to forego some kit: The automatic folding, blind spot monitoring and reversing tilt features of its warmed and powered side mirrors; the pre-crash brake arming system; lane trace assist; the adaptive part of cruise control; the 13-speaker Mark Levinson sound machine; panoramic-view reversing camera; leather upholstery; front seat ventilators and memory function for the electrically adjusted driver’s chair.
 
You get to keep the plain reversing camera with guide lines; regular cruise control; the very adequate, eight-speaker, Lexus Premium sound system that now includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto; the dual zone air conditioner with extra vent at the back; satnav; warmed and powered front seats; electric steering wheel adjustment; LED head- and fog lamps with cornering function; powered rear hatch with kick activation; automatic lights and wipers; synthetic leather upholstery; disc brakes front and rear; independent suspension all ‘round and keyless entry with push-button starting. And more safety kit, including eight air bags, than you can sweep your Kendo sword at. We’re sure you’ll survive.

And forget all you thought you knew about Lexus hybrids and their CVTs. Well, not quite all. The 2.0-litre petrol engine supplying primary muscle to UX 250h models still works in Atkinson Cycle; for slightly lower specific power output but better fuel economy.

What’s different is that it doesn’t plug into household mains or recharging stations but does everything in-car. It has two electric motor-generators (MG-1 and MG-2) but neither kicks in with a wallop when more thrust is demanded.  All you experience is seamless power delivery.

MG-1 sets the vehicle in motion and, once that’s done, generates power for the NiMH hybrid-power battery. MG-2 integrates seamlessly with the petrol engine as demand dictates and switches to charge mode during idle periods. Regenerative charging, during overrun and braking, supplies further top-up energy.

What this means is that the system is in a state of constant flux with petrol engine and MG-2 swapping and sharing tasks, every few milliseconds, as demand fluctuates. You could, theoretically, run in purely electric mode at speeds up to 58 km/h but, because of constant power shifting, you're doing most of your driving in semi-electric anyway. The battery seldom has enough free charge to let you play with it.

The CVT has changed too. Called e-CVT, the traditional steel band running between pulleys makes way for planetary gears (cogs within cogs) to provide stepless response without flaring or slipping. As revs climb, the car just moves faster, even on “kickdown”. It’s almost scary.
 
It’s nowhere near as simple as that, of course. Technical boffins call it a “two motor-generator hybrid transmission with planetary power-split device.” Yeah. Sure. These explanations (Prius, but same system) might help:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_xCssR8qQI
(Animation by Niels Blaauw)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmHpSyTsfm0
(By Weber State University. More technical, but boring)

Driving is fun. Although not a wild beast, its combined 135 kilowatts and 300 Nm gets delivered smoothly and efficiently, pushing the 1.6-ton car to 100 km/h in a respectable 8.5 seconds and quite fast enough to get you into all kinds of trouble. The word “perky” describes it well.

Manual override via stick shift gives you six (actual? virtual?) gears with which to indulge your inner wild child should you want to. Not that you would make a habit of that, because it’s also rather entertaining to keep an eye on the Charge-Eco-Power version of the speedometer and on the Energy Monitor, to see how frugally you can drive without lapsing into Grandma mode.

Cargo: The loading sill is higher than most and luggage volume is tight because the battery takes up seven litres of under-floor space. Neat touches include two lights, fold-away bag hooks, lashing rings, 40:60-split seatbacks that fold with a slight downward step and extra space under the baseboard where a spare wheel ought to be. There isn’t one; it has run-flats good for 80 km at up to 160 km/h.

Back seat: Headroom is good but knee space is tight. There’s the usual kit; three head restraints, full belts, fold-down armrest with cup holders, one map pocket, two USB recharging ports, top tethers for the ISOFix anchors and a central courtesy light.

We enjoyed it even though it doesn’t have every bell and whistle. And, they say, once you've been enraptured by hybrid, you can't return to ordinary.Trying harder pays off.

Test unit from Lexus SA press fleet

We drove the more luxurious ES version in 2019

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.

Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads or goat tracks as well. As a result, my test cars do occasionally get dirty. It's all part of the reviewing process.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material.

If ever I place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with a very similar vehicle already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. There are no advertisers and no “editorial policy” rules. I add bylines to acknowledge sponsored launch functions and the manufacturers or dealerships that provide the test vehicles.  And, as quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so you can see I do actually exist.

Comments or questions?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you completely disagree with what I say? If you want advice or have a genuine concern, I will be happy to hear from you. All I ask is that you write something in the subject line so I know which vehicle you're talking about.