2022 Lexus NX 450h+ Review: In With the New

Auto123 reviews the 2022 Lexus NX 450h+, all fresh and new.

Ever since it debuted for the 2015 model year, the Lexus NX has had a pretty challenged existence. Not because of the segment in which it competes, necessarily – the compact luxury crossover segment is always looking for more models – but rather because it has struggled to escape the shadow of its bigger brother.

Yes, the NX exists alongside the Lexus RX, one of the pioneers of the luxury-SUV segment and a huge seller for Lexus. The NX wasn’t that much smaller when it debuted and didn’t look that different, and while it did cost about $10,000 less at base than an RX, the latter was and is so good that you knew people would find a way to afford one if they could. And they did, about 3,000 times more in Canada for 2021 than they did for the NX.

But, there’s a new NX here now, and it comes to us as the RX is getting long in the tooth.

For 2022, the NX has been given new fascia both front and rear, a vastly re-designed interior and specifically for the purposes of this review, a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) model to go along with the hybrid seen previously. That’s why there’s a “+” in my tester’s model name, the “+” referring to the owner’s ability to plug in and charge the vehicle for full EV driving over a claimed 61 km. There is no “non +” 450h, though, so argue amongst yourselves if the “+” sign is redundant or no.

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