Identifying a new or a late-model Lexus is child’s play: Search for the giant spindle-shaped grille. It’s a styling cue that defines all of its recent models, and designing an electric car is evidently no excuse to eliminate it. Lexus published a dark teaser image that previews an electric concept that will usher in its next design language.
Like parent company Toyota, Lexus has long resisted the shift towards electric cars by fervently arguing hybrids be preferable. But, as even its home country mulls a blanket ban on internal combustion technology, it’s playing no choice but to go electric. It already sells a battery-powered variant of the UX in Europe, however the concept it previewed on its social channels was designed as an electric car in the get-go.
It’s still shrouded in secrecy, we don’t know its name yet, but we can already tell the spindle stays. Its outline clearly appears between the sharp LED headlights, though it almost looks full. And, like seemingly every concept car released previously three or four years, the newest member of the Lexus portfolio wears a backlit emblem.
Interestingly, Lexus also quietly published a separate video highlighting the electrical and hybrid technologies it’s developing for that 2021s, and the footage reveals a heavily-camouflaged crossover lapping an evaluation track in Japan. Shown within the gallery above, it’s fully electric, also it may be at least associated with the upcoming concept.
Direct4 technology perseverence the car. Short for Direct 4-Wheel Drive Force Control, it’s a method that automatically adjusts the torque delivered to each wheel in line with the road and driving conditions. In this application, it includes two electric motors (one per axle), and its total output checks in at 402 horsepower and 442 pound-feet of torque. Lexus noted it can be used for gasoline-electric plug-in hybrid systems, too.
We’ll need to be patient for more information about the concept. For example, we don’t know if it’s associated with the electrical car that Toyota will release in Europe in 2021, or if it’s something else entirely. If the concept and the prototype shown testing in Japan are indeed the same car, it appears as though its launch is right nearby.
