- Lexus’s flagship SUV now gets hybrid power
- It’s rated at 457 hp, more than the similar Toyota twin-turbos
- Adaptive suspension, crawl control, and all-terrain drive modes included
- Prices start with the $115,350 LX 700h Overtrail—our pick of the lineup
On a hilltop near Napa, somewhere out among the vines, I tap a switch to ensure I’m locked and loaded. With an electronic signal that OKs my forward progress, I’ve given the 2025 Lexus LX 700h Overtrail its marching—or crawling—orders. With one of its three locking differentials engaged, I trundle onward and upward to a short course laid out among the grapes, one with obstacles that should pose no problem: railroad ties, chalky rocks, and deep swales that pock its rutted route.
I tap another button and the seat cooler spins into action. If this SUV isn’t going to break a sweat, neither will I.
For 2025, the Lexus LX has gone gas-electric with a new hybrid powertrain. Brand leaders now call it the flagship vehicle, and at $141,350 the LX 700h Ultra Luxury edition more than earns that merit badge.
But it’s the $115,350 Overtrail edition you want, really. It showcases the LX’s roots as a cousin of the more capable Land Cruiser sold around the world—but not here, as ours is a turbo-4 hybrid cut from a different cloth. And in Overtrail spec, it’s a most capable machine—while it’s stronger and more serene as a hybrid, too.
2025 Lexus LX 700 Overtrail
Lexus LX 700h Overtrail: Hybrid graft, taken
When it launched in 2022, the latest Lexus LX swapped its V-8 for a twin-turbo 3.4-liter V-6. Rated at 409 hp, and coupled to a 10-speed automatic with full-time four-wheel drive and a dedicated low range, it provided exceptional ability that came with a handful of foibles. (Lexus also recalled thousands of vehicles with the engine for serious defects that ended in a replacement campaign.)
Now for the first time the LX gets electrified power, the same system that’s found in Toyota’s Tundra pickup and Sequoia SUV models—both of which are closely related to the LX, with the same GA-F body-on-frame platform. In the LX, Lexus pairs the twin-turbo 3.4-liter V-6 with an electric motor wedged between the engine and transmission. In other uses the powertrain’s capped at 437 hp, but here Lexus rates it at 457 hp and 583 lb-ft. The system’s a standout in the Lexus lineup for another reason: the LX 700h unit gets a traditional starter and alternator, rather than relying on the hybrid electric motor. That’s in case the hybrid system tanks off-road, and the vehicle needs to be able to drag itself home from the hinterlands.
These aren’t hinterlands where I drive it, not with this great cell reception and hillside mansions littered with underground wine cellars. It’s still a comfort to know if I get the LX Overtrail into trouble that it can extract itself, by and large.
The Overtrail arrives new to the LX family this year, too. It shares a name with a trim level of the smaller Lexus GX. Here too, Overtrail means front and rear differential locks, and 18-inch wheels with 33-inch all-terrain tires, as well as some gloss black trim—not to mention a suitably earthy brown paint called Earth offset by a Stone brown leather interior.
2025 Lexus LX 700 Overtrail
It’s decked out with all the essentials, and it barely requires a spin of the 4H/4L knob to get it in the right frame of mind. As I pick my way through the rubble that’s been strewn around for my pleasure, I’m placid and so is the big brute SUV. The hybrid drivetrain makes perfect sense here. Its electric motor smooths over transitions in low range, where Lexus deploys precise power control that works in concert with downhill and terrain-control modes to dictate where and when and how much wheelspin’s allowed.
Another round of engineering has beefed up the LX’s essentials, all to protect that hybrid gear or to enhance its utility. A waterproof case keeps the battery dry so the LX can slog its way through 27.5 inches of water—and in case it fails, a moisture sensor alerts the driver. Stronger engine mounts and a new crossmember limit some body flex.
That battery requires the spare tire to move to a spot underneath the rear end. It doesn’t cut into ground clearance, Lexus says, but the angle of departure dips from 22 degrees to 21 degrees. Towing capacity remains the same, at 8,000 pounds.
All LX 700h trims come with a hydraulic adaptive suspension, too, that can lift the vehicle by a couple of inches from its usual 8.3 inches of ground clearance when it’s put into low range. Air suspensions can adapt on the fly to road conditions where this one can’t, but the simpler use of hydraulics to raise or lower the vehicle and keep it there keeps it true to the idea that it should be capable under any conditions, even if it’s rarely taken out here, amid the vines.
Nothing runs out of spec in this mild environment. The 6,000-pounds-or-so LX crawls over railroad ties wedded by mud, then spin-dries its tires to claw its way through a rocky embankment. It slides through a low creek crossing and yumps its way down a lumpy run back to the gravel that leads back to paved roads. All the while, its multiple systems relieve the need to pay attention to just about anything save its steering. Lexus even fits a front-end camera so I can stay engrossed with the action playing out ahead of me, like an iPad baby tucked in for a nap.
There’s just little here to challenge the LX 700h, even without its front and rear differentials locked. With a careful limo-driver foot on the gas, I nudge and needle it without losing traction often at all. I ask if Lexus will sell any steel plates or winches for it. The answer is no, but it can be dressed for more rugged duty by scouring the web for pieces sold in markets where they would not need to be crash-tested.
2025 Lexus LX 700 F Sport
2025 Lexus LX 700 F Sport
2025 Lexus LX 700 F Sport
2025 Lexus LX 700 F Sport
Lexus LX 700h Ultra Luxury lives up to the semi-aniline hype
At a base camp I change outfits, first into an LX 700h Ultra Luxury, then into an F Sport for a slip through afternoon traffic back to somewhere with espresso. The Ultra Luxury swaddles me in its lurid list of standard equipment: not just any leather, but semi-aniline leather, as well as a 12.3-inch touchscreen, wireless Apple CarPlay, a huge sunroof, a cooled box for drinks, a power-folding third-row seat, and a hands-free power tailgate.
It’s as plush as any $141,350 vehicle should be—and needs to be, since the traffic in the Napa region has grown thicker since my last trip here, pre-Covid.
The LX doesn’t concern itself with others, and as a hybrid it has a little more spring in its step: it cuts a 0-60 mph time of 6.4 seconds, down a half-second from the non-hybrid LX 600. It doesn’t always land on the correct gear on the first try when it downshifts, leading to some judder. And with its big 22-inch wheels and slimmer treads, it doesn’t settle in as easily over rippled pavement as the small-tire Overtrail. For a vehicle in the Tahoe size class it steers with poise, though, and doesn’t have as much head toss when it traverses railroad tracks as, say, a Mercedes GLS.
I don’t get the chance to ride along in the back seat, but as a four-seater the Ultra Luxury dukes it out with other chauffeur-minded SUVs with curvy headrests, outboard heated rear seats, and a center console with its own digital control panel and its own wireless device charger.
2025 Lexus LX 700 F Sport
I do spend some time crawling around the seven-seat Overtrail to gauge whether I’d want to ride along in it as one of the other six people not at the wheel. In row one or two? Sure. Row three? Pass. Not only does the hybrid battery shave about four inches from the width of the third-row seat, but the cushion’s also mounted low, and it’s a long way in to reach it in the first place. Keep that space reserved for people under five feet tall and 21 years old, is what I recommend.
Or use it as it’s intended, and power-fold the third row out of the way. In the hybrid, doing so will expand the meager 7.2 cubic feet of space behind the rearmost seats to a maximum of 62.4 cubic feet of space—not a huge amount, considering the vehicle’s footprint, but still quite useful. What’s more, the packaging of the battery yields a tall box that raises the cargo floor; Lexus has built a fold-up platform to level off the top of the battery pack, but it’s an awkward solution even though it can support up to 176 pounds of cargo. To offset the oddity, a 2,400-watt power outlet lives near the hybrid battery.
It’s superior to its gas-only cousin off-road thanks to its hybrid system, and the LX 700h betters the LX 600 in the EPA derby, too, with estimates of 1 mpg better combined and 2 mpg better city; that lifts the LX 700h to 19/22/20 mpg, from 17/22/19 mpg on the LX 600.
The differences are far from remarkable, but they’re measurable. Few who are willing to pay at least $115,350 for the LX 700h Overtrail will quibble over the finer data. They’ll tune the 25-speaker Mark Levinson sound system to a favorite streaming channel, dial up the cooling on the front seats to a chill plateau, and won’t worry about the mud they’ve tracked in on its rubber mats—or the ruts they’ve left up on the vineyard hillside. When the Lexus LX is your overland cruiser, those ruts—those grapes—are yours anyway.
Lexus paid for travel arrangements so that we could cruise through someone else’s vineyards to bring you this first test-drive review.
