Fifth Gear Recharged

[ALAW]

Anyone see the latest Fifth gear recharged programme. They had  a run off test on the track between an Audi Q4 etron and the 300e. When the 300e was run they seemed to like the quietness and handling but when put under accelaration it lost power. So they put it in the so called pits took it out again and it failed again loss of power when asking for more accelaration. Wouldnt reccomend they said. Wonder if any of you saw this. I watched it again tonight think it was on Dmax channel earlier in week i thought it was on quest.

[Roger Bill]

6 hours ago, ALAW said:

Anyone see the latest Fifth gear recharged programme. They had  a run off test on the track between an Audi Q4 etron and the 300e. When the 300e was run they seemed to like the quietness and handling but when put under accelaration it lost power. So they put it in the so called pits took it out again and it failed again loss of power when asking for more accelaration. Wouldnt reccomend they said. Wonder if any of you saw this. I watched it again tonight think it was on Dmax channel earlier in week i thought it was on quest.

I saw the programme on Quest 8pm Thursday 13th. To have a serious problem like that shown on TV surely deserves a response from Lexus. You would think they'd want to provide an explanation in order to protect their enviable reputation for reliability. I wonder if anyone from Lexus monitors posts on this forum. 

[Mr Vlad]

Re the UXe. This programme did a comparison test between the UXe and the Audi A4 electric. Weird comparison because the Audi is so much bigger. Anyway taking g both cars around a race track the Audi did a reasonable time. The Lexus? OMG it couldn't complete a lap. Half way round it went into half power. Into the puts Mr Plato goes. The techies couldn't find a fault code and suggested the batteries over heated. Let them cool down and try again. Ok. Cooled down and OMG couldn't do a lap. 

Now don't get me wrong as I totally love the UX but I'm gobsmacked why the electric one failed to complete a lap at a race speed.

Thing is if I had an electric UX I'd drive it as I drove the loan UX250h. Like I stole it lol. Range wouldn't bother me simply because if you 'race' a petrol or diesel car your fuel economy and range take a nose dive.

Have any of you UXe owners had issues with your cars and a sudden drop in power for no apparent reason?

[Roger Bill]

I would guess there was a problem with the car on the day the programme was made as I'm sure during development Lexus would have done high speed testing over much longer distances and in higher temperature environments. 

[Mr Vlad]

Weird happenings. I seem to have started this thread yet their are two posts apparently posted before I started this thread.

Would the forum organisers care to comment. 

Is the same happening here as is happening on the Lexus website for service history?

[ALAW]

15 hours ago, Roger Bill said:

I saw the programme on Quest 8pm Thursday 13th. To have a serious problem like that shown on TV surely deserves a response from Lexus. You would think they'd want to provide an explanation in order to protect their enviable reputation for reliability. I wonder if anyone from Lexus monitors posts on this forum. 

I dont think there was a problem with reliability Roger the car didnt fail. It just wouldnt give more power when asked. Surely this must be an engine management thing Lexus have incorpurated into the 300e. Maybe one of our members will come on and confirm something to the likes ?

[ALAW]

9 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

Re the UXe. This programme did a comparison test between the UXe and the Audi A4 electric. Weird comparison because the Audi is so much bigger. Anyway taking g both cars around a race track the Audi did a reasonable time. The Lexus? OMG it couldn't complete a lap. Half way round it went into half power. Into the puts Mr Plato goes. The techies couldn't find a fault code and suggested the batteries over heated. Let them cool down and try again. Ok. Cooled down and OMG couldn't do a lap. 

Now don't get me wrong as I totally love the UX but I'm gobsmacked why the electric one failed to complete a lap at a race speed.

Thing is if I had an electric UX I'd drive it as I drove the loan UX250h. Like I stole it lol. Range wouldn't bother me simply because if you 'race' a petrol or diesel car your fuel economy and range take a nose dive.

Have any of you UXe owners had issues with your cars and a sudden drop in power for no apparent reason?

Hi Vlad yeah i thought a strange comparison very strange. I dont think the 300e will be designed for race speed like i said to Roger i reckon the engine management was incorpurated to be like this. Thus giving more miles ? so maybe not designed for fast race track driving ? be interesting like you say if any other members with the 300e comment.

[Roger Bill]

Quote

8 hours ago, ALAW said:

I dont think there was a problem with reliability Roger the car didnt fail. It just wouldnt give more power when asked. Surely this must be an engine management thing Lexus have incorpurated into the 300e. Maybe one of our members will come on and confirm something to the likes ?

Hi @ALAW Good point. I believe some engine management systems are programmed to react to a partial failure by switching to a limp home mode which is designed to protect components from further damage. In the footage which was broadcast on TV no mention was made of any warning messages or lights shown in the instrument panel. This sounds potentially dangerous, for example, if a sudden loss in power occured part way through an overtake. The impression I got from the TV footage was that the car had only travelled maybe 2 or 3 times round the test track which would be only around a mile long. I can't imagine the engine management system would need to be programmed to substantially reduce power after only 5 miles or so of high speed running. Wouldn't be good on unrestricted German autobahns 😊 I'm just guessing based on limited knowledge and information shown on TV. It's interesting to ponder and theorise but I do think it's something which deserves some explanation from Lexus.

[rayaans]

Never had any issues with power delivery. 

The car was recently tested on Autogefuhl at full speed on the autobahn. I don't think there's any inherent problem with the car.

I think Fifth Gear need to be more transparent with what they actually did to the car before they started filming

[steve2006]

12 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

Weird happenings. I seem to have started this thread yet their are two posts apparently posted before I started this thread.

Would the forum organisers care to comment. 

Is the same happening here as is happening on the Lexus website for service history?

Vladimir, having taken a look it would appear both Brent and yourself started a new topic with the same title “Fifth Gear Recharged” around the same time.

I’m not sure if these merged automatically or a mod has done it manually (not me) but this would appear to be the case and hence why your opening topic now appears as a reply.

[Mr Vlad]

Thanks Steve. Pure coincidental timing eh? That must have been a rarity. 

[Chris UXe]

Hi All, I've never had any issues with power delivery either and also saw the Autogefuhl test where it performed well on the autobahn. I've looked through the uxe online owners manual to see if there's anything re: repeated 'full' acceleration without success. I agree with Rayaan about the programme providing further details. 

[ALAW]

15 hours ago, Roger Bill said:

Hi @ALAW Good point. I believe some engine management systems are programmed to react to a partial failure by switching to a limp home mode which is designed to protect components from further damage. In the footage which was broadcast on TV no mention was made of any warning messages or lights shown in the instrument panel. This sounds potentially dangerous, for example, if a sudden loss in power occured part way through an overtake. The impression I got from the TV footage was that the car had only travelled maybe 2 or 3 times round the test track which would be only around a mile long. I can't imagine the engine management system would need to be programmed to substantially reduce power after only 5 miles or so of high speed running. Wouldn't be good on unrestricted German autobahns 😊 I'm just guessing based on limited knowledge and information shown on TV. It's interesting to ponder and theorise but I do think it's something which deserves some explanation from Lexus.

Roger i never even thought of that , Yeah what if you were in an overtake move could be catastrophic. I think only 2 laps had been done by looks of it about to start third. 

[ALAW]

12 hours ago, rayaans said:

Never had any issues with power delivery. 

The car was recently tested on Autogefuhl at full speed on the autobahn. I don't think there's any inherent problem with the car.

I think Fifth Gear need to be more transparent with what they actually did to the car before they started filming

Rayaan thats what i thought also a very strange comparision with the Audi. By the way Autogefuhl do excellent reviews with thorough testing. Wouldnt suprise me if Lexus get wind of this they will contact the programme. 

[ALAW]

On 1/15/2022 at 12:12 PM, Mr Vlad said:

Re the UXe. This programme did a comparison test between the UXe and the Audi A4 electric. Weird comparison because the Audi is so much bigger. Anyway taking g both cars around a race track the Audi did a reasonable time. The Lexus? OMG it couldn't complete a lap. Half way round it went into half power. Into the puts Mr Plato goes. The techies couldn't find a fault code and suggested the batteries over heated. Let them cool down and try again. Ok. Cooled down and OMG couldn't do a lap. 

Now don't get me wrong as I totally love the UX but I'm gobsmacked why the electric one failed to complete a lap at a race speed.

Thing is if I had an electric UX I'd drive it as I drove the loan UX250h. Like I stole it lol. Range wouldn't bother me simply because if you 'race' a petrol or diesel car your fuel economy and range take a nose dive.

Have any of you UXe owners had issues with your cars and a sudden drop in power for no apparent reason?

Yes Vlad a strange comparison exactly what i thought.

[EvilRacer329]

I watched this episode a few days ago with my partner; my guess would be that either the drive motor or the Battery reached a temperature threshold and the car automatically throttled power output to prevent damage. According to the handbook my UX250h has a similar feature, though I've never seen it deployed.

I would be interested to know how the top speed of the UX300e is limited. Is it the limit of motor power versus friction/wind resistance? In that case, an autobahn run would certainly test the car's ability to deliver maximum power at a continuous rate, and suggest that he cooling system was therefore up to the task. If it's electronically limited to instead maintain consistent output at a level the cooling system can handle, then it's quite likely that the car is capable, short-term, of making power power in bursts than that. You get more power for overtakes, on the assumption that any heat generated can then be dissipated over time.

Another factor to consider is braking. You brake hard in track driving, to the point where you can quickly overheat the brakes. Braking in an electric car also runs the drive motors as generators, and requires the Battery to soak up the output energy. That means that, unlike an ICE vehicle, the drivetrain is working flat out during braking AND acceleration - literally no rest for the wicked. It's also known that charging a Battery generates more heat than discharging, so I wouldn't be surprised if its this aspect of track driving that cooked the UX300e rather than the power output.

All conjecture, of course, and I agree that Lexus should comment officially on this one.

Nick