Lexus RZ 550e F SPORT: The Future of Electric Luxury or Just an Expensive Exercise?
Lexus has finally brought its F SPORT identity into the fully electric age. The new RZ 550e F SPORT — 408 horsepower, 0–100 km/h in 4.4 seconds, and a price starting around €52,000 — aims to prove that luxury and electricity can coexist with genuine athletic intent.
In the world of electric cars, where most sporting ambitions stop at acceleration times, Lexus wants to show that F SPORT means more than just a badge. The RZ 550e is the flagship of the RZ lineup, fitted with all the right visual cues: a rear wing, massive air intakes, and 20-inch Aero F SPORT wheels. It all looks convincing — engineered as much for aerodynamic efficiency as for image management.
Power comes from two electric motors delivering a combined 300 kW (408 hp) through all four wheels. The 0–100 km/h sprint in 4.4 seconds sounds impressive, but in this segment, performance numbers have long since lost their edge — every rival can do roughly the same. Lexus, however, adds something others don’t: Lexus Interactive Manual Drive, a feature that simulates the tactile rhythm of shifting gears even though no transmission exists. Manual nostalgia, electrified.
The car also abandons a conventional steering column in favor of a Steer-by-Wire system, tuned in F SPORT fashion for sharper precision and more direct response. In practice, this means the steering wheel communicates with a computer rather than a shaft. It’s an audacious move — technologically fascinating, but one that may unsettle purists who still believe in the mechanical bond between human and machine.
Visually, the RZ 550e F SPORT is an exercise in disciplined aesthetics. The rear spoiler, pronounced diffuser, and sculpted intakes project aggression that’s unusually restrained for a Lexus. Every surface appears to serve a purpose — or at least looks like it does. That’s Lexus in a nutshell: even when it’s theater, it’s impeccably choreographed theater.
Inside, familiar Lexus refinement meets dark F SPORT detailing. The seats are more supportive, the steering wheel and dashboard carry subtle F SPORT logos, and the atmosphere feels athletic yet calm — more Zen than Nürburgring. Despite the performance numbers, this is still a luxury car first and a sports car by suggestion.
Technically sophisticated and visually confident, the RZ 550e F SPORT represents a new chapter for Lexus. But its sportiness is something to be perceived rather than felt. Four hundred and eight horsepower and zero vibration make for seamless acceleration, not sweaty palms.
The electric F SPORT is a Japanese tea ceremony on wheels — perfect, controlled, deliberate. Sport? Only if you define it as precision rather than passion.
