2026 Lexus RX Hybrid Reviews, Pricing & Specs

Lexus aims for high style with the RX 500h F Sport Performance and perhaps overshoots the target with sometimes excessive flair.

The controversy is all in the nose, where Lexus eschews its “spindle” grille for a large, black, trapezoidal item flanked by slim headlights up top and air intakes down low. The hood bends down into the grille like a misshapen nose, and the Lexus L logo sits at the top. The whole face borders on over-stylized.

The profile doesn’t try as hard, but it's still stylish. Flat flares surround each wheel. A character line that rises from the back of the front door to the rear wheel gives a sense of motion, and the floating roofline suggests a fastback shape that resolves into a rear spoiler. The 500h sits on 21-inch wheels in black or dark grey, and the rear has a full-width taillight above lower fog lights that sit below housings to echo the front air intakes. Dark trim on the window surrounds and black mirrors adds a sporty look.

Inside, the RX 500h is offered with Dark Graphite or Rioja Red leather. The red adds a decidedly sporty element, as do the perforated leather-wrapped steering wheel and aluminum pedals. The driver sits in front of a pair of digital screens and is surrounded by soft-touch materials.

The RX 500h equals the power of some luxury crossover SUV rivals but goes about it in a different way. It doesn’t use a turbocharged V6 to crank out its 366 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque. Instead, it goes with a four-cylinder engine and a hybrid system to make decent power balanced by good but not great fuel economy.

The engine is a turbocharged 2.4-litre four-cylinder that generates 271 horsepower, and two electric motors account for the remaining 95 hp. The front motor sits between the engine and the six-speed automatic transmission, and the rear motor is part of an eAxle that gives the RX 500h all-wheel drive (AWD). This is a different system than the base RX 350h, which uses a 2.5-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine and does without a conventional geared transmission. It still has AWD, but it’s rated at just 246 hp and 233 lb-ft of torque.

Go easy from a stop and only the front and rear motors provide the acceleration. Dig deeper into the throttle and the engine joins in, and that tops out with full power from both motors. Sport mode, however, keeps the engine on at all times.

The motors, the engine, and the transmission work well together. The hand-off from electric to gas propulsion is seamless. Power steps up through the gears thanks to the traditional automatic transmission rather than arriving in the slushy way of most Toyota/Lexus hybrids (including the F Sport Performance’s RX 350h sibling), which rely on the electric motors and a planetary gearset in lieu of a conventional transmission.

It’s fairly strong, too. Lexus quotes a 5.9-second 0-96 km/h time, which feels about right based on our drive. While that’s a good number, it's almost two seconds slower than a BMW X3 M50 xDrive. Steering wheel shift paddles allow drivers to downshift to tap into more power when desired, and the transmission offers smooth shifts. The power is accompanied by a synthetic whirr, much like the sound of various electric vehicles. It’s more pronounced and deeper in Sport mode, and it can be turned off to allow the turbo-four to sing its muffled, slightly coarse tune.

Lexus gives the RX 500h Sport Performance standard adaptive dampers, rear-axle steering, and a firmer suspension than other RX models. The front brakes are also larger with 15.7-inch rotors and six-piston calipers versus 13.4 inches with two-piston calipers on other models. It’s all set on rather large 21-inch wheels.

That equipment makes the RX 500h F Sport Performance firmer but not much sportier. The steering is direct but not overly quick and lacks feel. The all-season tires don’t have much grip, but the rear-axle steering helps to keep the vehicle stable in corners. With 20.6 centimetres of ground clearance, the SUV leans in turns. The Sport setting for the dampers helps to combat that, but it comes at the cost of rendering the traditionally smooth ride overly firm. The ride gets busy on bumpy roads, and sharp ruts pound through.

Lexus provides a Custom mode that allows drivers to choose the suspension, powertrain, steering, and air conditioning settings. We recommend going with the Sport settings for the powertrain and steering but not the dampers. For a truly sporty experience, buyers will be better served by the BMW X5, Audi SQ7, or Mercedes-AMG GLE 53.

The ride may not always be comfortable, but the RX 500h interior is. Front-seat occupants get eight-way power-adjustable sport seats with standard heating and cooling. Though thickly bolstered for good support, the seats have enough room for larger frames. The steering wheel is also heated, and a panoramic sunroof comes standard.

The rear seats also have good legroom, even for larger adults, though shoehorning three adults back there will make them rather uncomfortable. The seat cushions sit high enough to make for a comfortable position on long trips.

With the second row up, the RX 500h has a useful 838 litres of cargo space. Fold those seats down via power controls in the second row or the cargo area and there are 1,308 litres of space, which is average for the class.

In Canada, the RX 500h is fitted with a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and a 14-inch touchscreen, along with a standard head-up display. The infotainment system includes wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as the Lexus Intelligent Assist, which allows drivers to use voice commands by saying “Hey Lexus.” Wireless phone charging is also standard.

The touchscreen is tilted toward the driver and reacts quickly to touch inputs. It’s a far cry from the previous Lexus system that used an awkward, mouse-like controller. However, the steering wheel’s four-way touch-sensitive pads are frustrating because they control the head-up display information and position, the cruise control settings, and the information displayed in the digital instrument cluster, and figuring out how to get to the desired function is often distracting.

Lexus also provides a useful three-year Drive Connect subscription with Google points of interest and real-time traffic information.

Lexus equips the RX 500h with its Lexus Safety System+ 3.0 suite of active safety features, which includes forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection and intersection assist, adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, high beam assist, traffic sign recognition, and emergency steering assist. Also standard are front and rear parking sensors, blind spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert. Options include automatic parking, remote automatic parking, a surround-view camera system, and traffic jam assist, which includes front cross-traffic alert and lane change assist.

The RX gets generally good crash-test ratings with one exception. It earns a perfect five-star rating from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), but it doesn’t fare so well in Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) testing. It gets top “Good” ratings in all IIHS tests except for the updated moderate front overlap test, where it scores a “Poor” rating. That keeps it from earning a Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ award.

The RX comes with the right safety features, and they all worked well during our test drive. However, as we mentioned earlier, we wish the touch-sensitive steering wheel buttons for the cruise control were easier to understand.

The RX 500h F Sport Performance starts at $85,419 including a $2,205 destination charge. That’s significantly less than competition such as the performance versions of the BMW X5 and Mercedes-Benz GLE, though it can’t match those SUVs in power or performance.

In addition to the aforementioned features, the RX 500h comes standard with LED headlights and fog lights, tri-zone automatic climate control, a power tilt/telescoping steering column, driver’s seat memory, ambient lighting, roof rails, and a 12-speaker audio system. That, along with the added power, at least helps to justify the RX 500h’s premium over the RX 350h hybrid, which starts at $65,850 with destination.

The main strength of the RX 500h’s hybrid system versus turbocharged six-cylinder rivals is fuel economy. Natural Resources Canada rates it at 8.7 litres per 100 kilometres in city driving, 8.4 on the highway, and 8.6 combined. In our experience, that requires a light throttle as we averaged 12.8 L/100 km over 200 kilometres of mixed and sometimes spirited driving.

Nonetheless, it seems like an eight-speed automatic with taller overdrive gears and smaller wheels could give the RX 500h better fuel economy. Maybe Lexus should consider expanding the RX 500h lineup to include non F Sport trims with those smaller wheels to improve both fuel economy and ride quality, without asking customers to trade down to the less-powerful RX 350h.