2022 Lexus ES Hybrid Reviews, Pricing & Specs

Some of us at CarGurus have a deep appreciation for the Lexus ES. For starters, it demonstrates the potential of the company’s design language, wearing the dramatic styling better than some Lexus models. It’s also a bargain, priced like a compact luxury car but sized like a full-size sedan. And there are three distinctly different versions from which to choose.

But mainly, when it comes to your daily driver, there is something to be said for a quiet, comfortable, and reliable car to soothe and simplify your life. That’s the Lexus ES in a nutshell.

For this review, we’re focused on the 2022 Lexus ES 300h hybrid. It comes in Base, Luxury, Ultra Luxury, and new-for-2022 F Sport trim. As this is written, pricing is unavailable, but the 2022 ES Hybrid should see only modest increases over last year’s car.

Our test vehicle had F Sport trim and a white NuLuxe simulated leather interior. Except for the minor changes for the 2022 model year, it looked exactly like last year’s Lexus ES 350 Black Line Special Edition test car, right down to its gloss-black wheel design and Ultrasonic Blue paint job. Those black 19-inch wheels are new for all ES F Sport models in 2022, and they lack character. You can barely see the dang things.

Inside, the high-contrast white-over-black interior looks terrific, with new black seat bolsters and center stripes giving the F Sport a racier look. Minor dashboard design changes accommodate the new touchscreen infotainment system.

The perforated NuLuxe upholstery looks and feels like leather, and the ES 300h F Sport comes with heated and ventilated front cushions to help ensure optimum comfort. Though some inexpensive plastic bits and pieces are evident, Lexus composes the ES’s cabin with quality materials. Unfortunately, the doors sound tinny when closed, imparting a lack of substance.

Overall, the 2022 Lexus ES 300h F Sport looks good, inside and out. It would be even more attractive wearing last year’s wheel design.

The whole point of the Lexus ES 300h is its hybrid powertrain, which uses a 2.5-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine in combination with an electric drive assist motor and a lithium-ion battery pack to produce a total of 215 horsepower.

That doesn’t sound like much, but the ES 300h is more powerful than the base ES 250, and its electric motor supplies instant torque the moment you step on the accelerator. An electronic continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT) manages the front-wheel-drive (FWD) sedan (all-wheel drive (AWD) is available on non-hybrid ES models), and it makes the best use of the power, with only occasional droning to irritate your eardrums.

While it certainly won’t light anyone’s passion for driving on fire, the Lexus ES 300h offers plenty of zip for most people. That’s especially true if you put the car in Sport mode.

But the best thing about the ES 300h is that it effortlessly returns fantastic fuel economy. We averaged 37 mpg on our testing route, the car in its Normal driving mode the majority of the time. While that’s substantially less than the EPA’s official 44 mpg rating in combined driving, achieving econobox gas mileage in a big luxury sedan, and without trying, is remarkable.

We’ve always thought an ES 300h F Sport would be a great idea. Take the decent performance and impressive fuel economy, combine it with a sporty look and a sport-tuned suspension, and you’d have an efficient, flingable car with plenty of room for five people.

Unfortunately, though the ES 300h F Sport now exists, it doesn’t have a sport-tuned suspension. In fact, no ES F Sport models get it. Instead, Lexus has reworked the standard suspension to improve the ride and handling for all models, which in turn renders the F Sport trim as nothing more than an appearance package. If you want genuine athleticism, you must get the thirstier V6-powered ES 350 F Sport and pay extra for the new Dynamic Handling Package, which adds an adaptive variable suspension to the car along with a Sport+ driving mode.

This shift in F Sport philosophy means, aside from the larger 19-inch wheels and tires, it drives just like almost every other Lexus ES. This isn’t a bad thing, because the ES exhibits what we’d call “composed compliance.” In other words, it soaks up the road without any unnecessary body motions. But the F Sport doesn’t add a firmer connectedness to the pavement that you might expect based on its trim name and snazzy styling.

On a positive note, Lexus has added a new electronically controlled braking system to the 2022 ES. The change results in better brake pedal feel and modulation while eliminating the clunking noise when the driver takes his or her foot off of it.

Another big benefit of the Lexus ES 300h is the interior room. The ES might be priced like many compact luxury sedans, but because it shares an underlying platform with the Toyota Avalon, it’s comparatively huge inside.

Not only is it spacious, but the seats are also delightfully comfortable and the air conditioning is effective enough to seemingly freeze meat, even when outside temperatures are above 90 degrees. It takes a few minutes for the cabin to cool down, but once that happens you might wish you’d worn a sweatshirt or jacket.

With 14-way power adjustment, heating and ventilation, and sport bolstering, the ES 300h F Sport’s white NuLuxe front seats proved comfortable even after hours behind the steering wheel. The center console padding feels plush under your arm, and the rather low-slung driving position lends the car a sporty feel.

Storage space is good but could be better if Lexus would just get rid of the fussy infotainment control touchpad on the center console. Under the covered forward bin, a smartphone slot serves as a useful place to keep your device. Drivers can also switch the closest cupholder to be deep or shallow, depending on preferences.

Rear-seat room is outstanding, and passengers enjoy air conditioning vents, charging ports, and a rear window sunshade. The seat cushion offers excellent thigh support, and the seatback is reclined just a bit without introducing a slouched feeling. A large, padded center armrest folds down to reveal two cupholders.

Cargo space measures 13.9 cubic feet, the same as in the ES 250 and ES 350. Last year, Lexus gave the ES 300h a smaller lithium-ion battery pack that lives under the car’s back seat, and that freed up extra trunk space in the ES Hybrid. But the trunk is still on the small side given how big the sedan’s interior is.

It seems like a minor change, but the 2022 Lexus ES’s new touchscreen infotainment display makes a significant and positive impact on driving satisfaction.

First, a little history is in order. Until recently, Lexus had decided that its Remote Touch Interface (RTI) infotainment control system was the right approach. In theory, adding what amounts to a laptop computer trackpad to the center console makes sense. By now, everyone is familiar with using them. What Lexus forgot is that when people use a computer trackpad, they’re focused on visually coordinating their fingertip movements with the on-screen cursor to find, select, and execute actions.

When you’re driving a car (it should go without saying) this is dangerously distracting.

By using the RTI approach, Lexus could tuck the infotainment screen far back on the dashboard near the base of the windshield. Since the screen wasn’t touch-sensitive and was out of reach anyway, it didn’t collect the smudges and fingerprints common with touchscreens. And, again, in theory, the system’s audible and haptic feedback signals combined with owner-set sensitivity levels should have made it less distracting to use.

But, in our experience, this was not the case. And apparently, we were not alone in this opinion.

Now, Lexus is installing touchscreen infotainment systems in its cars and SUVs, and the 2022 Lexus ES is the latest beneficiary. This means that unless you want to call up the main menu or quickly access the navigation system’s map display, you can totally ignore the RTI. In turn, as a driver, you’ll suffer less frustration and less distraction.

Granted, in the ES, driver interaction with the RTI was typically minimal. Between the separate climate control buttons, stereo volume and tuning knobs, and steering-wheel controls, you could avoid using the trackpad. But when you needed to, ugh.

In addition to the new touchscreen display, which is mounted 4.3 inches closer to the driver and front passenger for ease of use, the infotainment system includes Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility as well as Amazon Alexa integration. The voice recognition technology impresses with its speed and accuracy of response.

Lexus also offers several connected services plans with complimentary trial periods. Highlights include remote access via smartphone app including remote engine starting, a Wi-Fi hotspot, several important safety features, and more. A 17-speaker Mark Levinson premium surround-sound audio system is available, but since our test car did not have this upgrade, we cannot comment on its performance or sound quality.

Lexus makes another big technological change to the 2022 ES. The car gets upgraded cameras and sensors to power an expanded array of advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) in the new Lexus Safety System+ 2.5 (LSS+ 2.5), which is standard equipment.

LSS+ 2.5 equips the ES with a Level 2 hands-on driving assistance system in the form of adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go capability paired with lane-centering assistance. Naturally, LSS+ 2.5 also includes forward-collision warning, pedestrian detection, cyclist detection, automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assistance, and automatic high-beam headlights. Blind-spot warning with rear cross-traffic warning is also standard for the 2022 ES models.

What's new? Now, the list of safety features include more responsive adaptive cruise control acceleration when the driver changes lanes to pass slower vehicles, an evasive steering assistance system, and Intersection Turning Assist, which prevents a driver from making an unsafe turn in front of approaching traffic.

Additionally, LSS+ 2.5 equips the ES with Curve Speed Reduction, which automatically reduces vehicle speed in curves. It offers High, Low, and Off settings, and we prefer it turned off.

Here’s the problem, based on our experience. If you set the adaptive cruise control to 60 mph, and you’re driving on a winding highway or you’re taking a freeway transition ramp, Curve Speed Reduction is reactive instead of proactive. In other words, it waits until you turn into the curve to slow the vehicle down. That’s the impression it leaves in its Low sensitivity setting, anyway.

Beyond this, the car’s lane-centering assistance technology (Lane Tracing Assist) is too obvious about what it’s doing when the road ahead is anything but arrow straight. It can seem uncertain of itself, which makes the technology hard to trust and causes a driver to try to override the system’s inputs. We preferred driving the ES with both Lane Tracing Assist and Curve Speed Reduction turned off.

Should LSS+ 2.5 fail to prevent a collision, rest assured this car is engineered to keep you and your passengers safe. The 2021 ES earned a “Top Safety Pick+” rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), while the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) says the 2022 ES provides five-star crash protection.

The 2022 Lexus ES offers significant value, even if its relationship to the Toyota Avalon is sometimes evident.

With MSRPs starting at just over $40,000 and topping out with every option at well under $60,000, the ES sedan supplies style, luxury, and plenty of spacious comfort for the money. Furthermore, with the car’s new infotainment and safety tech, the ES is easier to use, more pleasurable to drive, and safer than ever.

However, the change in F Sport philosophy is disappointing, especially now that Lexus is finally offering the trim on the ES 300h. We hoped for a stiffer, more athletic, and more engaging version of the ES Hybrid. What we got was a styling package with black wheels, a spoiler, and subtle design modifications inside and out.

Oh well. There’s always the Lexus IS to consider, which swaps roomy interior space for superior driving dynamics. And it also now comes with a touchscreen infotainment system.