As a luxury carmaker, Lexus might have taken a while to reach India officially, but it has consistently widened its customer base in the last couple of years. This has been possible due to how its ability to stand out in the luxury car segment isn’t only due to unmatched reliability or brand appeal. Its peerless craftsmanship, unique design choices, and superlative balance in the driving and comfort department are some of the reasons why Lexus has become a pretty sought-after brand in India. We expect the ES 300h, its hybrid-powered sedan, to reflect all that. To find out whether it is a true Lexus in that regard, we put the 2024 iteration of the car to the test. Shocker: it is good!

Design

Given how well-designed Lexus cars are, it’s no surprise that you’ll most likely be enamoured with the way the ES looks. Be it through the signature spindle grille or the highly detailed LED headlight cluster, there’s a lot of character imbibed into the car’s face. The profile is brimmed with premium appeal, thanks to how elegantly the car sits, with its neatly designed glasshouse perfectly balanced with the rest of the bodywork. At the rear, the overall upmarket styling continues, in a relatively understated way, but the result is a back end which looks perfectly in sync with the rest of the car.

Top-class cabin

The Lexus ES 300h’s cabin is where things get even better. A handsome analogue timepiece is placed at the centre of the dashboard, and the more you look at it, the more you’ll believe that everything is just crafted around it. Until you see the marvellous 12.5-inch infotainment display, a nice combination of buttons, and a drive selector knob which seems to have come straight out of the Lexus LFA supercar. You then look at the seats, which don’t just look great but are impressively comfortable, both the front chairs and the rear seat. There’s no dearth of space inside, either, and with features like rear-seat recline and window blinds, it won’t take long to appreciate what a remarkable cabin the ES’s is. While doing so, you’ll also notice Lexus’s meticulous approach to make the cabin top-class. The attention to detail is complemented by the choice of materials, all encompassed in a classy package.

Powering the ES 300h is a 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine, which makes 176 bhp, and a 118-bhp electric motor. The combined output of the hybrid setup is 215 bhp, its power delivery epitomises the word ‘smooth’, and the whole experience is pleasurable, to say the least. Of course, it’s not tuned to offer outright performance, but the sport mode does its bit by adding some amount of vigour through a sharper throttle. Otherwise, the ES is peak effortless driving, which doesn’t lose out on stability or high-speed confidence. It’s quite easy to drive in the city, too. Where it shines throughout is in the ride quality department. The suspension lends the ES a remarkable ability to glide over not just road imperfections but also speed breakers, with the cabin insulated and its occupants unperturbed.

A lot of cabin comfort is also down to Lexus’s choice of powertrain for the ES 300h. The switchover between electric and hybrid propulsion is seamless, drives are nearly noise-free, and the ability to drive on electric alone (at low speeds) is a definite positive. The ES 300h is a compelling product, especially for the Indian luxury car market. It drives well, rides superbly, and has the badge value to shame many a rival without trying too hard. It’s priced at ₹64 lakh, ex-showroom.