The tarmac on the King’s Road is doing that shimmer thing by 11am. It’s the middle of another July heatwave, the Tube feels like a proving oven, and every conversation in London currently starts with some version of “can you believe this heat.” Somewhere in the middle of it, air-con on, seats ventilated, sliding through traffic without so much as a whisper from the engine, sits the Lexus NX 450h+.
It’s not the car you’d expect to notice in a heatwave. But it turns out plug-in hybrids and scorching summers get along rather well.
Beating the heat without beating the planet
Here’s the thing about a heatwave in a city: everyone runs their air conditioning constantly, traffic crawls, and idling engines turn already-hot streets into something worse. The NX 450h+ sidesteps a chunk of that. With roughly 41–46 miles of electric-only range on a full charge, most short trips around town — the supermarket run, the school pickup, ferrying a paddling pool back from the DIY shop — happen on battery alone. No engine heat pouring into the street, no idling at the lights, just quiet, cool, electric motoring.
And because it’s still fundamentally a hybrid, you’re not gambling on finding a working rapid charger on the hottest day of the year either. Plug in overnight at home, and you start each morning with a full charge and full air conditioning that doesn’t cost you a drop of fuel until the battery’s spent.
A cabin built for this exact weather
Climb in after it’s been baking on a driveway and the NX’s cabin doesn’t punish you for it. The panoramic roof — standard on the 450h+ — has decent UV and heat rejection, and the climate system cools the cabin down fast rather than making you sit through five minutes of lukewarm air. Ventilated front seats on the higher trims are the unsung heroes of a heatwave commute: less “nice to have,” more “why doesn’t every car have this.”
The material choices help too. Lexus has largely moved away from anything that turns into a frying pan in direct sun — the leather-trimmed surfaces on F Sport and Takumi models stay wearable even after the car’s spent an afternoon parked outside a Chiswick café with no shade in sight.
How it actually drives
Away from the heat commentary, the NX 450h+ is a genuinely relaxed thing to drive. The combined output from its 2.5-litre engine and electric motors comes to around 304bhp, enough for a 0–62mph time a shade under six seconds — plenty for merging onto the North Circular without drama. The ride leans comfort over sport, soaking up potholes and speed bumps rather than crashing through them, and even in F Sport trim with its adaptive dampers, this isn’t a car chasing corner-carving thrills. It’s a car built to make London’s stop-start rhythm feel less exhausting, which, in 34-degree heat, might be the more useful skill anyway.
Where it gives a little back: run the battery flat on a longer trip and the extra weight of all that battery hardware means economy drops off more than in the simpler, self-charging NX 350h. Boot space takes a modest hit too, courtesy of the bigger battery living under the floor. And if you’re the type who wants a properly sporty steer, this was never going to be your car — Lexus builds these for comfort first, every time.
The bit that matters for your wallet
UK pricing for the NX 450h+ starts around £46,700 for Premium trim and climbs toward £65,000 for a fully specced Takumi, with CO2 emissions as low as 65g/km on the right spec — genuinely useful if you’re driving through London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone regularly, or running it as a company car where Benefit-in-Kind rates reward a low-emissions plug-in hybrid handsomely.
Even in the middle of a heatwave, with London doing its sweaty, sun-baked worst, the NX 450h+ makes a strong case for itself: quiet, cool, efficient, and entirely unbothered by the chaos outside its (tinted, heat-rejecting) windows.
FAQ
Is the Lexus NX 450h+ worth it?
For most Londoners doing short, urban trips, yes — the electric range covers a typical day’s driving, and the cabin comfort (ventilated seats, strong air-con, quiet running) is a genuine advantage in extreme weather. It makes less financial sense if you regularly run the battery flat on long motorway journeys, since the extra weight works against you once you’re back to relying on the petrol engine alone.
How much horsepower does the NX 450h+ F Sport have?
Around 304bhp combined, the same as every other 450h+ trim. F Sport adds adaptive suspension and styling changes rather than extra power.
What is the difference between the NX 450h+ and the RX 450h+?
Same basic plug-in hybrid powertrain and roughly the same 304bhp output, but different sizes. The RX is Lexus’s bigger, five-seat SUV — longer, heavier, standard all-wheel drive, and slightly less electric range (around 38 miles versus the NX’s 41–46) because of the extra weight. The NX is the easier car to park and thread through London traffic; the RX trades some of that nimbleness for a larger boot and more rear-seat space.
How many miles per gallon does the NX 450h+ get?
Up to roughly 97mpg combined on the official WLTP figures, though that’s only realistic if you’re charging regularly and doing most trips on electric power. With a flat battery, expect economy closer to the 40s, in line with a conventional hybrid.
How much does the Lexus NX 450h+ cost?
UK prices span from around £46,700 for Premium trim to around £65,000 for Takumi, with F Sport typically landing in the high £50,000s to low £60,000s depending on options.
What’s the electric-only range of the NX 450h+?
Lexus quotes between 41 and 46 miles depending on trim and wheel size — enough for most daily London driving without the petrol engine ever needing to switch on.
Explore the full 2026 Lexus NX 450h+ range at lexus.co.uk
