September 28, 2026 - Lexus TZ Priced Aggressively

This is the Telemetry Transportation Daily for September 28, 2026, and I'm Sam Abuelsamid, Vice President of Market Research for Telemetry. 

Earlier this year, Lexus announced that its variant of the three-row electric crossover triumvirate that also includes the Subaru Getaway and Toyota Highlander would be called the TZ 450e. It's based on the same core underpinnings as the Toyota and Subaru, but has a more premium look and feel to it.  While Toyota has delayed the launch of the US-built Highlander and Getaway until sometime in 2027 due to unspecified supply chain issues, the TZ, which will be produced in Japan, is apparently still planned to arrive by the end of 2026. 

We now have official pricing on the TZ, and it's surprisingly aggressive, just as Toyota and Lexus have done with their other EVs in the past year. The base TZ 450e premium with a 77-kWh battery pack and 253-mile range will be starting at $64,050, including the $1,550 destination charge. That's only about $3,000 more than the base Hyundai Ioniq 9, although that vehicle has a 110-kWh battery and 335 miles of range. The TZ Premium Touring with the larger 96-kWh battery starts at $72,050, and the top Luxury trim goes for $80,550. All TZs get a dual-motor all-wheel-drive setup as standard, and the Premium Touring is projected to go 315 miles on a charge while the Luxury will go 279 miles. 

At the time of launch, Lexus told us the TZ would offer 402 horsepower, but from the factory, it will only come with 308 horsepower, which is 30 horsepower less than the AWD Highlander. A performance upgrade to 402 horsepower will be offered as a dealer-installed software update on the Luxury model, but no pricing has been announced for that. For comparison, the Cadillac Vistiq and Lucid Gravity both start around $80,000, but they also offer significantly more power, with Cadillac delivering 615 horsepower and the Lucid at 560 horsepower, with at least 300 miles of estimated range. The TZ Premium Touring will likely be the sweet spot with more than adequate performance and range, and like the rest of the current Lexus and Toyota EV lineup, which has more than doubled in sales in 2026, it will probably find a strong audience. 

Thanks for listening.