2022 Lexus NX350h video review: Australian launch

This new second-generation Lexus NX may look like a light refresh of the original from the outside, but it's a completely new car that drives better, is more spacious and luxurious, and is loaded with eye-catching – and lifesaving – technology.

This 2022 Lexus NX replaces the first-generation model which originally went on sale in Australia in 2014. This time around, it has a new platform, new engines and a completely new interior. We will go into more detail later, but for now know that all the changes make this Lexus NX an even stronger contender in the luxury mid-size SUV market.

The Medium Premium SUV segment is unique in Australia, in that no one or two models dominate. In fact, there are seven vehicles within a well-timed sneeze of the lead. Based on 2021 sales data, the BMW X3 is the current favourite, followed by the Volvo XC60, Audi Q5, Mercedes-Benz GLC and GLB wagons, Lexus NX and Porsche Macan.

The 2022 Lexus NX has crept up in price by around $3300, which Lexus argues is justified and we tend to agree. The range now kicks off with the NX250 front-drive variant at $60,800, then there's the NX350h hybrid at $65,800 (FWD) or $70,400 (AWD), the NX350 AWD at $77,900 and the range-topping NX450h+ plug-in hybrid AWD at $89,900.

The NX250 is powered by a 152kW/243Nm 2.5-litre non-turbocharged petrol engine which is new to the NX range but has been seen previously in other Lexus and Toyota models. It drives the front wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Lexus expects the NX350h to be the most popular variant, and that's a hard prediction to argue with given that 75 per cent of Toyota RAV4 sales are hybrids. The NX350h gets a detuned 2.5-litre petrol engine in combination with an electric motor and battery, which lifts power to 179kW (petrol and electric combined) and brings 239Nm of torque to the party. In typical Toyota/Lexus fashion the hybrid powertrain is paired with a continuously variable transmission (CVT) to save money on fuel but will cost you some drivetrain refinement and driver enjoyment. 

Lexus claims a combined cycle fuel economy of 5.0L/100km for the 350h.

The sportiest variant in the range is the NX350 (no h), which is the first Lexus or Toyota model to get the company's new 2.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine. This powerplant will find its way into other Lexus models over time, but for now if you want to taste its 205kW and 430Nm (from just 1700rpm), you need to spend $77,900 on an NX350.

Where available in matching specification, Lexus has made turbocharged NX350 and hybrid NX350h models the same price. Visit our price and specs article for a full rundown.

Like the 250, the NX350 gets an eight-speed automatic transmission but with a slightly taller final drive ratio to suit. It’s also all-wheel drive only. Lexus claims the NX350 will accelerate from 0-100km/h in 7 seconds flat,   

A plug-in hybrid has been added to the NX range, a first for Lexus. The NX450h+ has that same basic 2.5-litre petrol engine as the 350h, mated to an upscaled electric motor and larger battery pack. This powertrain is tuned for 227kW combined, delivering a sharper 0-100km/h time of 6.3 seconds, and offering 87km of electric motoring on a single charge.

In addition to the four mechanical variants, there are a few equipment tiers you need to know about. The NX250 is only available in entry-level Luxury spec, the 350h comes in Luxury, Sports Luxury and F Sport, and the NX350 and NX450h+ are F Sport only. 

Then there are also two options packs which Lexus calls Enhancement Pack 1 and Enhancement Pack 2, the contents of which change depending on which equipment tier and mechanical variant you’re ‘enhancing’. These packs include some or all of the following: a moonroof, wireless charger, kick sensor for the tailgate, digital rear-view mirror, heated steering wheel, intelligent park assist and a premium sound system. 

Remember horse-drawn carts? Me neither, but I’m guessing their occupant zones were pretty ordinary compared to today’s mobile lounge rooms. Okay, I’m not suggesting that the Lexus NX’s interior has gone from crude wooden benches without roofs or windows to something rivalling first-class on an Airbus A380. But I’ve got your attention, right?  

The second-generation Lexus NX’s interior will also grab your attention, too, because it is a huge step up over the previous cabin. But unless you’ve driven or ridden in the old model, you’d never know, because this new cabin is not revolutionary or mindblowingly innovative. Instead, it’s a Goldilocks cabin, because everything is ‘just right’. Finally.     

Material quality and craftsmanship have never been problems for Lexus; it was more the company’s reluctance to put the human first - when it came to controls placement and their operation.

Older Lexus models needed the human to adapt to the cabin’s systems in order to understand and use them. Dials sat in weird places and did weird things, screens were operated by overly sensitive mouse pads, and buttons were required to work in ways buttons were never meant to. 

This time around it is as though Lexus’s engineers sat in every rivals’ cabin and noted the commonalities – the consensus – in how certain systems should work. Then they took their findings back to Lexus HQ and applied them to the NX.

As a result, the cabin is a more welcoming place to be, whether it is your first visit or your 400th. That painful trackpad which was hideously distracting to use, and required too much real estate thanks to its need for a chunky leather palm rest right in front of it – which somebody at Lexus decided to make detachable and put a mirror on the other side – is thankfully gone. 

The touchscreen works like a touchscreen should, making the need for a screen controller redundant. Overly complex climate control switches and sliders and buttons have all been replaced by two elegant dials, with capacitive touchpoints in between, that do everything a climate control system is expected to do.

Beyond that, all the other buttons that do things are where you’d expect to find them and they do what you’d expect them to do. 

Hallelujah!

It’s the same for the multi-driving-mode dial which switches the powertrain and adaptive suspension (on some variants) between five modes (Normal, Comfort, Sport, Sport+ and Custom).

On some Lexus models, it was tacked onto the top of the instrument cluster cowl, on others it was so far back next to the armrest you had to dislocate your wrist to reach it. On the old NX, it was where the transmission lever should have been. You know, that stick thing you use 10-12 times every time you drive…

This time around, the drive mode dial has moved up onto the base of the centre stack which in turn allows the transmission lever to be where it should. This freed up space for the cupholders to move forward, placing cups where your hand naturally falls and allowed the centre armrest to be right under where your arm should be.  

Convenience, hey? It’ll never catch on.

My point is Lexus has thought carefully about everything, and instead of asking themselves ‘how do we want to do it?’, they’ve asked ‘what would the customer expect?’, and it has paid massive dividends. Heck, even the central armrest has release buttons on both sides so driver or passenger can open it just as easily. Some things don't need to be innovative, they just need to work.   

The Goldilocks story continues with the big 9.8-inch touchscreen on the base NX250 which has the graphics to rival the Jaguar F-Pace’s best-in-class. This proves base models don’t need to be stripped down to a price. The bigger 14-inch screen on NX350h up doesn’t get better graphics because it doesn’t need to. Instead, it gets more features. 

There are still some Lexus ‘innovations’, though, some of them good and some not so good.

One example of a good innovation is the new eLatch door opening system. It basically replaces the door handle’s mechanical link to the latch with an electronic one, meaning that you don’t pull the outside door handle to open it. Your hand curls around touching a button on the inner side which releases the latch.

Inside the cabin there’s another button which unlatches the door, meaning you no longer pull in to unlatch then push out to open. It’s one single push. Clever.

One not so clever innovation is the arrangement of cruise control and radar cruise control (and its distance adjustments) in one small pad on the steering wheel’s right hand spoke. Getting it to do something simple like ‘set’ the speed to your current velocity is confusing, so much so that I did not become cruise-control fluent during an entire day of driving at the launch.

Okay, let’s move on. The electrically adjustable front seats on the NX350h are comfortable, and the electrically adjustable steering wheel can be moved up and down and also in and out – although I would have liked it a touch closer to me. 

The back seat was good but is now seriously spacious thanks to a 20mm longer wheelbase and 30mm longer body overall, with loads of underseat footroom and legroom. Headroom was fine for my 175cm frame and should be okay for anyone south of 190cm. 

There are not a lot of talking points for occupants in the back seat beyond two USB ports, two air vents, two map pockets and two cupholders in the fold-down centre armrest. But that’s okay, because they didn’t pay for the car, did they?

The boot is accessible via an electric tailgate (standard across the range) and features a rather high floor despite the complete lack of any kind of spare tyre (all NX variants have runflats).

There is quite a big and deep tub beneath the floor, for sports gear or anything wet, and the boot itself has a competitive 520L capacity with all seats in place, increasing to 1141L with the back row folded.  

The NX250 gets a 9.8-inch infotainment touchscreen which has classy graphics and works exactly like a touchscreen should. It controls the navigation, media, phone and vehicle settings. There is a small 8.0-inch TFT screen in the driver’s instrument binnacle which is strangely combined with a physical speedo/tacho bezel that limits graphical flexibility

The NX350h we drove gets the 14-inch touchscreen which really sets the tech-tone of the cabin. The instrument cluster does away with the fixed bezel, giving the 8.0-inch TFT screen flexibility to change, based on the driver’s chosen drive mode or preferences. 

When this big 14-inch screen works it works beautifully. All controls are well laid out and menus are intuitive to navigate, plus it responds quickly to touches. However, we experienced a system failure during launch which saw the whole screen freeze – including climate control settings –shortly after we took off.

The only way we could change anything was by using the in-built voice activation system: “Hey Lexus, I’m cold”, and “Hey Lexus, next song”. Lexus said the cars we drove at the launch were pre-production examples, and a few bugs were still being ironed out prior to customer deliveries commencing.  

Even though this new multimedia system makes its debut in the NX, Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are not currently available. Both systems are said to work wired, although the wired Android Auto was not happy with our just-launched Google Pixel 6 Pro. Lexus says an over-the-air (OTA) update will be a complimentary upgrade for all owners when it arrives later this year.

There are two USB points up front (A and C), plus a wireless charging mat that doubles as a retractable lid for a small storage compartment.  Back seat passengers get two USB-C charging ports so only the smallest kid in the middle misses out. 

Sports Luxury and F Sport variants also get a driver's head-up display which can be cycled through four levels of detail.

The NX has not been crash tested yet, but we’ve every reason to expect a five-star rating once ANCAP does its thing. The previous generation scored five stars in 2017, and while ANCAP’s testing protocols got much tougher in 2018, we expect this latest Lexus to score five as well. If you’re reading this review later in 2022 or beyond, check ANCAP.com.au for the latest results. 

As for airbags and active safety, everything is standard across the entire NX250 range. And for that Lexus should be applauded. Safety should never be reserved for the rich.

All NX variants come with 10 airbags covering occupants in both rows. 

Standard active safety includes radar cruise control, front and rear parking sensors, reversing camera, autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection, blind-spot monitor with rear cross-traffic alert, lane tracing assist, emergency steering assist and intersection assist. The new eLatch door opening system combines with safe exit assist to reduce the chances of opening doors into oncoming cars or bicyclists.    

This is a good suite of active safety systems, but it’s not market-leading. Some cars, such as the new Kia Sportage go further, offering blind-spot avoidance assist which will reduce the chance of a collision.

All Lexus models come with a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty that includes 12 month/15,000km servicing intervals. 

Capped price servicing is available to buy at the time of vehicle purchase, limiting the cost of each of the first three services to $495. 

The Lexus Warranty Experience and Encore Benefits plan is included with every NX variant. It provides discounts on fuel, brand ambassador events, and special hotel offers during the first three years of ownership.

Lexus claims the NX350h uses just 5.0 litres per 100 kilometres on the combined cycle. During our mostly country drive loop the car’s trip computer reported a 6.0L/100km average. 

All Lexus NX variants require more expensive 95-octane premium unleaded fuel. 

This new-generation Lexus NX is not just a big step up in terms of styling and practicality, it’s also significantly better to drive. Lexus says it went to great lengths to ensure the NX prioritised the driver.

That started with throwing out the old underbody platform and building the new NX on the same GA-K platform as the proven Toyota RAV4 and Toyota Kluger. This not only yielded slightly bigger dimensions and a longer wheelbase, it gave the NX a very competent base from which to hone its dynamics. 

Lexus adapted the platform for the NX, adding reinforcement in areas where it would benefit driving dynamics, and adjusting the suspension tune to suit the application. As a result, the new NX sits far more confidently on the road, gliding over smooth surfaces, and handles the rougher roads more effectively without transmitting every shock to the occupants. 

You notice this most of all with the way the NX better absorbs the sharper initial impact, even on optional 20-inch tyres, which not only reduces the force transmitted to occupants but also allows the car to stay more composed and ready for the next event.

It’s not a floating on the clouds ride; the driver still feels the road’s surface. That is partly due to Lexus’s desire to make this a better driver’s car, and also down to the standard fitment of stiffer-walled runflat tyres which can be noisy on coarser roads.

The 350h’s hybrid drivetrain is not the most inspiring engine option – that’s the new turbocharged 2.4-litre in the 350 – but it’s eminently capable of delivering on the refined driving promise inherent in a Lexus. It handles powertrain transitions from electric-only at low speed to petrol and hybrid operation at higher speeds smoothly and consistently.

The CVT works well to maximise performance or efficiency as the driver requires, too. It’s just a shame CVTs have to sound so uninspiring and drony - albeit in a muted way as befits this Lexus application.  

The NX’s steering is really nicely weighted at open road speeds and lightens up appreciably to make car park manoeuvres easy. 

In short, we experienced nothing that would give us concern during our extensive test drive. The Lexus NX350h is a refined and efficient SUV that also happens to be enjoyable to drive.

Well done Lexus, the second-generation NX series is a huge improvement over the original. That’s not to say the original was bad, but it did have its bad points. The new NX is very impressive. It has made major improvements where they were needed and refined things where they weren’t. 

The NX350h is the value sweet spot, priced from $65,800 before on-road costs. But for those who want their Medium Premium SUVs with more spunk, the $77,900 NX350 F Sport is well worth putting on your shopping list. 

Is the new NX better than the best-selling BMW X3? It could be, but we’ll need a head to head comparison to find out for sure.