2014 RX450h EV Indicator

jevestobs · December 19, 2019

My GS300H and previous IS300H display the little green EV indicator on the dash whenever the engine turns off, as well as when the EV Mode button is pressed.

On our 2014 RX450H the EV indicator only displays when the EV Mode button is pressed. Otherwise, you have no indication of when the car is using the electric drive except that shown on the Energy Monitor.

Is this normal behaviour on the 3rd gen RX?

olliesgrandad · December 19, 2019

32 minutes ago, jevestobs said:

My GS300H and previous IS300H display the little green EV indicator on the dash whenever the engine turns off, as well as when the EV Mode button is pressed.

On our 2014 RX450H the EV indicator only displays when the EV Mode button is pressed. Otherwise, you have no indication of when the car is using the electric drive except that shown on the Energy Monitor.

Is this normal behaviour on the 3rd gen RX?

Sadly that is most definitely the case.

Having owned like you the IS300h and GS300h I was surprised like you that the eV indicator only comes on in forced eV mode.

This situation has been rectified on the series 4.

Herbie · December 20, 2019

Yep, what Les said up there ^^^^

Gliderpilot · December 20, 2019

The only way to tell if the engine is not running is to have the power flow diagram on in the small LCD display in the centre of the instrument cluster or on the main screen. It is a bit annoying as you can't hear the engine unless it's working hard.

jevestobs · December 20, 2019

Yes, seems odd that Lexus didn't think to do that. No worries - cheers for the replies folks. 🙂

DanD · December 20, 2019

I may be wrong, as it is a while now since I have moved on from the RX, but I thought there was a setting to toggle this function on an off in the settings of the screen between speedo and energy counter... worth checking

C Mclean · December 21, 2019

I have the Rev counter showing all the time, but there is an EV light that comes on when running purely on electric.

olliesgrandad · December 21, 2019

8 minutes ago, C Mclean said:

I have the Rev counter showing all the time, but there is an EV light that comes on when running purely on electric.

Yes but you have a 4th generation car. The third generation didn't even warrant a rev counter 😭

Spottedlaurel · December 21, 2019

Having never driven another Lexus hybrid other than gen 3 RXs, I was surprised to see the EV light come on and off when I had an NX courtesy car recently. And a rev counter in sport mode!

I usually have mine set to MPG after refueling in the small dashboard display and the car info bar graph on the main screen - if the bar on the right is up to the top then it's in EV mode. I find the energy monitor in either display a bit distracting.

Barry14UK · December 21, 2019

I usually keep mine in EV mode with the fuel consumption showing in the small window. When I enable cruise control the MPG still shows in this widow but when I set the lever by pulling down, the panel goes blank. The MPG only shows up again when I brake or unset the cruise control. Is this normal or a fault does anyone know?

Spottedlaurel · December 22, 2019

10 hours ago, Barry14UK said:

I usually keep mine in EV mode with the fuel consumption showing in the small window. When I enable cruise control the MPG still shows in this widow but when I set the lever by pulling down, the panel goes blank. The MPG only shows up again when I brake or unset the cruise control. Is this normal or a fault does anyone know?

I don't use cruise very often, but I had to pop out in the RX just now so I gave it a try.

The centre of dash display did go blank (I think it just said "set"), and to get the MPG back I pressed the up/down arrow button on the steering wheel.

So, sounds like it's normal but you have to wonder why......

Herbie · December 22, 2019

Yep, mine does it too so definitely normal but again, wondering why?

Illogan · December 22, 2019

2 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

I don't use cruise very often, but I had to pop out in the RX just now so I gave it a try.

The centre of dash display did go blank (I think it just said "set"), and to get the MPG back I pressed the up/down arrow button on the steering wheel.

So, sounds like it's normal but you have to wonder why......

It's the same on my 3rd Gen RX - - I assume it's simply poor programming on Lexus' part

olliesgrandad · December 22, 2019

11 hours ago, Illogan said:

It's the same on my 3rd Gen RX - - I assume it's simply poor programming on Lexus' part

The 3rd generation cars miss a lot of the 'bells and whistles' fitted on other Lexus models of the same age. My 2015 RX had an inferior navigation / sound system compared to my 2014 IS300h f sport and 2015 GS300h luxury.

One could argue that the gen 3 was an older design, but lack of rev counter and a less sophisticated ML sound system seems strange together with non ventilated seats (standard on the GS). Oh and lack of rear cross traffic and blind spot monitoring.

Oh the other strange thing is that the IS and GS can both be unlocked and locked from the rear doors unlike the RX.

Barry14UK · December 23, 2019

Thank you for confirming 'it's just the way it is' on the 3rd Gen. You tend to notice little things and sometimes think,'Can that be right?".

rayaans · December 25, 2019

Worth remembering that the design is actually from 2009. The facelift was just that. Lexus do very little to the actual vehicle apart from quick nip and tucks