Nice
May 27, 2026
Rory CarrollWhat could be more interesting to drive in 2026 than a nice, sensible sedan?
The Lexus ES is a nice car, which is a type of car that is no longer widely available. It’s not sporty, it’s not flashy, though the styling is somewhat avant-garde. It’s not meant to be good at race track stuff, it’s not good at off-roading or towing. It’s just very good at transporting people in comfort without wasting a bunch of energy in the process. It’s a sensible luxury sedan, which here in crossover world makes it kind of exciting, kind of a statement.
Now in its eigth generation, it can be had as a hybrid or in one of two different fully electric versions. With the cancellation of the flagship LS for 2027, the ES becomes the premium option in the two-car Lexus sedan lineup. Though down substantially from their peak in 2013, ES sales have been very strong relative to competitive cars, hovering right around 40,000 a year in the US. The 2026 models are a big leap visually from their predecessors, but they’re clearly intended to maintain the basic formula that’s kept the ES viable throughout the industry-wide shift to SUVs and crossovers.
In real life, the styling is less extreme but it’s very distinctive. This is important. The world of the last decade, or half-decade, feels very different from the world that preceded it, at least to me. A lot of design objects and aesthetic sensibilities that feel moored to that pre-2020 universe have really started to feel not just dated, but unpleasant. The ES is about as much of a clean break from that as you’re likely to get in terms of automotive styling. I wouldn’t say that it left me with the same “instant classic” impression that the GX 550 did, but it struck me as a very successful design.
The wild surfacing on the doors and the very tidy rear work especially well, hiding a lot of height. And again, it just looks like a car from a different world than the one we’re leaving behind. I tend to imagine that the average ES buyer is somewhat more conservative than me, and it’s possible that they don’t share the overall sense that the world I’m living in today is somehow cut-off from the pre-2020ish world. Maybe they’d welcome a more evolutionary approach. We’ll see.
Interior styling is an exercise in minimalism, but it makes good use of novel materials and the overall impression is that it’s spacious and tasteful rather than sparse and bleak like a Tesla. There’s a cool bamboo trim on EVs with the Luxury package that allows some ambient light to pass through it and a nice, extra soft, rubberized material on the dash. The executive package is fun–heated, massaging and power reclining rear seats with an ottoman, special headrests and climate controls, etc. It’s only available on the 350e Luxury version, which is probably the most likely ES to be used for chauffeur-driven transport.
I chose the only drive partner who was taller than me (hello Seyth) and we spent several hours in a few different ESs. Both the front and back seats offered plenty of room for two abnormally large men and/or Michael Shaffer, who is normal.
Every ES has a 14-inch touch screen on the dash and a 12.3-inch screen in the gauge cluster area. The operating system is new. My notes say that you can turn the big screen off and that you can leave the car unlocked in your driveway without it auto-locking. (Both of these are huge for me personally.) Lexus also said that features were made easier to find in response to customer feedback, and individual widgets are now moveable via a drag and drop feature. The EVs also get new mapping and charging features including a range visualizer that overlays the outer edge of your theoretical range on the map.
German, and German-influenced cars, tend to feel heavy. Not necessarily in the way they drive, but “in the hand.” The doors close heavily, there’s some steering effort required, there’s a weight that we’re supposed to associate with quality. The doors on the ES are easy to shut and now do the thing where the last little bit of shutting happens automatically. The steering is light. When I asked chief engineer Kohei Chiashi about it, he said Lexus customers prefer lighter steering, especially on the freeway. He pantomimed driving with one hand on the wheel. This is the right approach here. There may be F versions of ES coming, but this is a car designed for comfort and ease of use.
ES 350h models have a total system output of 244 hp. The front-wheel-drive cars have two electric motors in addition to the gas engine and the all-wheel drive models get a third 54 hp electric motor for the rear wheels. But regardless of where the power is coming from and what motors are producing what proportion of it at any given moment, max output will add up to 244 hp. The EPA estimates that the front wheel drive ES will deliver 46 MPG combined and AWD versions will be 1-2 MPG down from that depending on the situation. With a hand on the wheel of the ES 350h hybrid, I could occasionally sense a tiny engine vibration. This is present in almost all cars with a gas engine, but it’s notable here because it provides a contrast between the hybrid and electric versions of the ES.
Visually, no version of the ES is substantially distinct from another. There are differences in available wheels and the hybrid has a small intake on its nose, but that’s really about it. Both hybrids are a tenth or two quicker than the front-wheel-drive, electric ES 350e which is capable of hitting 60 in 7.4 seconds. The ES 350e and the ES 500e use the same 74.7 kWh battery and the same front motor which makes 221 hp, but the ES 500e will go 0-60 in 5.1 seconds thanks to a 118 hp rear motor, for a total system output of 338 hp. That extra power and weight comes with a range penalty. The ES 350e will do 307 miles on a charge on the standard 19-inch wheel or 292 miles on the optional 21-inch wheel. The ES 500e will do 276 miles on the 19s and 272 on the 21s.
If it fits your lifestyle, you should really choose one of the BEV models. Regardless of the specs, when you’re driving, the EVs just feel much more refined. It’s not that the hybrids are coarse; Lexus took pains to reduce noise and unpleasant vibrations in the cabin. There are just some things electric motors do better. The Lexus ES isn’t here to deliver raw driving feel, it’s here to be pleasant to drive, comfortable and efficient. At one point, while merging onto the freeway, I told Seyth that the ES 500e felt like a car that would be in a different price class from the hybrid car. I think that if you drive them both back to back, you’ll agree.
In actual fact, there’s not a huge difference in price between any two ES models. The least expensive electric ES, the ES 350e Premium, carries an MSRP of $48,895 plus a $1,394 delivery fee. The most expensive, the ES 500e Luxury AWD is priced at $60,295 with the same delivery fee. The hybrids range from $51,095 to $57,295, plus delivery. You’re not paying a premium to go electric, and as long as you’re doing most of your driving in an area with decent charging infrastructure those are the cars that deliver the better experience.
The ES is not a car that was designed to appeal to me, really. It’s not an enthusiast car, the things it does really well are not generally things that would motivate me to want to own one. Maybe this is due to my “a man should drive a car” kick, but it did cross my mind that it would be a car I’d be very satisfied to own. The styling is different, the driving experience is pleasant. The interior is well-considered and comfortable. A car is fundamentally less boring than a crossover. Again, it almost feels like a sensible sedan is kind of the “statement car” right now. We spent the last decade sliding toward the generic crossover, maybe it’s time to try something new. Regardless, the Lexus ES is a very nice car.
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