A front three quarter shot of a blue ES EV and a white ES Hybrid parked nose toward eachother on brick in front of concrete pillars – Lexus
The beloved Toyota Camry went hybrid-only in its latest redesign, but Lexus’ version of the Camry, the ES, took things one step further by offering only hybrid or a new fully electric powertrain for its 2026 redesign. We first saw the 2026 Lexus ES about a year ago, but official pricing was just announced last week, and in a shocking (ha!) turn of events, the EV is cheaper than the hybrid. The cheapest Lexus ES you can buy in 2026 is the electric ES 350e, which starts at $48,795 including destination, while the cheapest ES 350h hybrid starts at $50,995.
Both trim levels of the hybrid, the base Premium and $55,795 Premium+, come standard with front-wheel drive but can be had with all-wheel drive for $1,400 more. The ES 350e is front-wheel-drive only and comes in Premium or $57,195 Luxury trim levels; if you want all-wheel drive on an electric ES, you’ll have to upgrade to the dual-motor ES 500e Premium, which starts at $51,795, or the range-topping ES 500e Luxury that starts at $60,195.
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The EV sits in a unique market position, with few direct competitors
A look at the dashboard of the 2026 Lexus ES with a white and black color scheme, wood on the doors, and trees and buildings out the windows – Lexus
The hybrid ES uses a 2.5-liter inline four-cylinder engine, an ECVT, and electric motors for a combned output of 243 horsepower. The press release says that both front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive models produce the same power, but adding AWD drops the 0-to-60 time from 7.4 seconds to 7.2 seconds. Lexus says full specs for the U.S.-market 2026 ES are not available just yet, and a breakdown of what features each of the trim levels get has also yet to be made public.
In the front-wheel-drive ES 350e you get a 220-horsepower electric motor that’s good for a 7.7-second 0-to-60 time, while the ES 500e gets a second motor at the rear axle for a total of 338 horsepower, lowering the 0-to-60 time to 5.4 seconds. Lexus estimates the ES 350e will have a cruising range of approximately 300 miles, and the ES 500e will do around 250 miles on a full charge. Both come standard with the Tesla-style NACS charge port and an 11-kW on-board AC charger. Lexus hasn’t said the maximum charge rate yet (it’ll likely just be 150 kW like Toyota’s other EVs), but we know it can go from 10% to 80% in an unimpressive 30 minutes when DC fast-charging.
Lexus
The ES occupies a strange niche segment. It technically competes with usual executive sedan suspects like the BMW 5 Series, Genesis G80, Audi A6, and Mercedes-Benz E-Class, but it’s the sole front-wheel-drive option in the class. In electric form, it will compete with the BMW i5 and Audi A6 E-Tron, both of which are significantly more expensive than even the ES 500e. The new Polestar 4 is 10 inches shorter than the ES, but it’s also a segment-straddling crossover, while the Mercedes-Benz CLA is similarly priced, much smaller but also a lot more efficient. Lexus hasn’t yet said when the ES will go on sale, but it should be sometime this spring or summer.
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