The new Lexus ES is a calm, unflustered upscale EV with flashes of quirky charm

Lexus are going out on a limb with the new ES. An elegant fastback saloon, it harks back to the brand’s heyday as a purveyor new era luxury for consumers sickened by the fiscal excess required to bring lightly optioned German cars up to true luxury level.

Instead of demanding customers tick all the boxes, with a corresponding increase in price, Lexus provided practically everything as standard, making cars like the LS and GS a smart alternative. Aggressive over-engineering also helped the newcomer’s case, and the soon the combination of Japanese reliability, crafted comfort and extensive onboard technology swept the board.

Then Lexus went big on SUVs and crossovers, from small to large, helping popularise the genre at the upper end of the market and using sister company Toyota’s copious experience with hybrids to revolutionise another market sector. These days, hybrid SUVs and crossovers dominate the Lexus line-up. Saloon cars don’t get much of a look-in; in fact, saloon sales are down right across every sector.

So why the ES? Sharing underpinnings with Toyota’s Camry and Crown (two models that aren’t available in the UK), it has a similar silhouette and the same basic proportions. The original ES joined the Lexus line-up back in 1989; this is the eighth iteration and the first to be all-electric.

In the US, the Toyota Camry starts at around $29,000 (or roughly £22K). The ES comes with a much punchier £59,000 starting price. How can these differences be accounted for? Japanese craft and hospitality have always been integral to the Lexus marketing message, while the company offers an enduring case study of how to create a brand that responds to market research.

Way back in 1983, the so-called ‘Circle F’ project was initiated by Toyota, keen to break into a North American luxury market that was then dominated by European manufacturers like BMW and Mercedes-Benz.

Over the next few years, 60 designers, 2,300 technicians and 1,400 engineers blew through $1bn and made no less than 97 prototypes on their way to creating the acclaimed 1989 Lexus LS460. In the decades that followed, other Japanese and South Korean carmakers followed a similar playbook, spinning luxury divisions off from volume brands (Nissan’s Infiniti, Honda’s Acura and Hyundai’s Genesis).

This approach is now in its final evolutionary form, as the big Chinese conglomerates – Geely, SAIC, Chery and Xioami, etc. – are seeding new brands to the wind like an array of bubble machines, with some popping faster than others.

For Lexus, this new front of extremely accomplished competition has led to a doubling down on the role of craft and heritage, along with the elevation of Japanese manufacturing and craft culture as a point of culturally identifiable difference. Words like Omotenashi (the Japanese spirit of hospitality), Takumi (the work of a master craftsperson) and Kaizen (continual improvement, as per Toyota’s legendary factory-running skills) have become part of the Lexus word cloud.

There’s nothing different here to the way that a company like Rolls-Royce, Bentley or even Jaguar sell themselves as arbiters of British style, taste and values; what seems to matter most to all these manufacturers, Lexus included, is ‘brand salience’ – the ‘unaided awareness of a brand.’

One of the most important learnings from Lexus’s intensive start-up process was the importance of customer service, whether in the salesroom or dealership. It’s a value that persists to the present day, accounting for the impressive levels of loyalty the brand commands.

With all that said, the ES is still a bit of an outlier. Might it tempt buyers of the UX and RZ models out of their SUVs and back into saloons? Although the ES is relatively conservative, it’s also discretely distinguished, inside and out. Its SUV siblings might be more distinctive but, if truth be told, they were also rather awkward and ungainly looking. It didn’t take Lexus long to lose the classical simplicity of the original LS460 (its lines paid undeniable homage to Bruno Sacco-era Mercedes). Once lost, this design ethos hasn’t ever really been rediscovered.

The ES is a small glimmer of light for those of us who like their luxury to be cool, calm and collected. At 5m long it’s a big car, but it never looks overbearing. The front end features sharp-edged lighting signatures and vertical air intakes but loses the yawning maw of earlier cars; this being an EV, it doesn’t need a spindle-inspired radiator and it’s all the better for it.

A prominent side strake adds a sense of dynamism, as does the rising coachline, whilst at the rear the steeply raked rear screen terminates in a neat tail bisected by a horizontal light bar.

The test cars were offered in a sober but not unpleasant colour palette, including Sonic Copper and Sonic Titanium (shown here), and while the 21” wheels look more dramatic, pragmatists should note that opting for 19” wheels gives you 28 miles of additional range.

Inside, the specification is suitably impressive. The bamboo door trim pairs very well with the black and white leather specifications (available as both synthetic and real versions). Creating using a combination of 3D printed elements with bamboo inserts, it is different, elegant and tactile, with a backlight function that accentuates the geometric patterns.

The company has continued its long-running audio partnership with Mark Levinson, offering a 17-speaker upgrade to the standard 10-speaker set-up. An enhanced reclining rear-seat package is also in the works, with heat, ventilation and massage functions.

The dashboard combines a scattering of physical switches (some of which are invisible until illuminated) with a 14” multimedia screen and 12.3” steering wheel display. It’s not all elegant and practical; the interior lighting can be set to pulse in time with the music, for example.

All these little detail improvements add up to a cohesive whole; a redesigned HMI with fast graphics and Google Maps. There’s plenty of storage around and under the centre console, while the spacious rear seat makes the most of the car’s 5m length and the fastback rear lifts to reveal a 517-litre boot.

From a drivetrain point of view, the ES comes equipped with a mid-sized 77kWH battery, good for 361 miles of WLTP-rated range, which means at least 300 miles in regular use. Power output is equivalent to 224hp and 62mph comes up in 8 seconds – slow by EV standards. Sprint times are largely irrelevant in the real world, but mid-range acceleration is smooth and unfussed, adding to an overall sense of calm accomplishment.

Lexus design in general is on the up. Recent motor show reveals have included concepts with real flair, running the gamut from six-wheeled MPV to micromobility and supercar. Some of these might even make production. The new ES is conservative in comparison, but it might just herald the start of a new era of bold – and beautiful – Lexus design.

Lexus ES, from £59,341, Takumi Edition from £72,545, Lexus.co.uk