This past August, I was one of the first people to walk through the gates of The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering in Monterey during Car Week. While strolling the booths, I came across a never-before-seen Lexus concept that was just… sitting there, out in the open.
At the time, no one really knew what the concept was. There weren’t even any Lexus spokespeople at the booth to explain what was going on. In a one-paragraph press release, the company called the car the Sport concept, but didn’t reveal any further details.
Now, we finally have more info. It turns out the Sport concept was actually a new LFA Concept all along. And while it was revealed alongside the V8-powered GR GT supercar, this Lexus is all-electric.
What Is Toyota Doing Here?
The LFA Concept was revealed alongside the GR GT and the GR GT3 race car because it shares a lot of those cars’ design elements. Like the GR, the LFA Concept gets an all-aluminum frame and a low driving position. It has the same proportions, with a long nose and a short rear end.
Like in the Toyota, the designers’ main focus was on low weight, high rigidity, and strong aerodynamic performance, according to the brand. Lexus hasn’t released any stats or performance specs, which means we’ll just have to take its word. As for delivering smiles, the company promises the LFA Concept can still do that, despite the lack of internal combustion:
The thrill of driving is an unwavering value that continues to support the appeal of sports cars, even as times change. The Lexus LFA Concept, as an entity that enables more deeply and purely enjoying that thrill, draws the driver into the world of driving and creates an immersive experience like no other before it. This is the essence of Discover Immersion.
The sense of immersion provided was born from the pursuit of achieving a high level of fusion between aerodynamic performance and sculptural beauty. Centered around the ideal driving position, the cockpit has been refined down to the minutest of details. The overall design—in which harmonized function and beauty transform operation into an extension of the driver’s consciousness—deeply immerses the driver in the driving experience.
The cabin is decidedly concept-esque, with driver-centric panels that envelop the person behind the wheel, displaying a series of screens and presenting a racing-inspired steering yoke.
But What About The Powertrain?
The main reason the original LFA is so beloved is its wailing V10 powertrain, which some hail as the best-sounding production engine of all time. Much like Honda did with the most recent NSX, Toyota looks at the LFA name not as a car with a high-revving, naturally aspirated engine, but a car that demonstrates the latest tech it has to offer:
Not bound to vehicles powered by internal combustion engines, “LFA” is a model name that symbolizes a vehicle model that embodies the technologies that engineers of its time should preserve and pass on to the next generation. From the past to the future, the Lexus LFA Concept is a testament to Lexus’ taking on the challenge of continuing to preserve and pass on to the next generation the value of sports cars and car-making knowledge that must be retained while striving to evolve such know-how.
While I do love a good EV, I find it hard to believe any electrically powered car could evoke the same emotions conjured by the LFA. I won’t knock Toyota for trying—as far as emotional sports cars go, the LFA is pretty up there.
Will Lexus Build It?
There’s no word yet on whether Lexus actually plans to put the LFA Concept into production. It didn’t mention any plans in its release, so as of now, it’s unclear. While I’m sure it would be great to drive, I think it might be especially difficult to convince people to buy a car with an LFA badge on it, but no V10 under the hood.
With slowing demand for EVs in places like America, Lexus’s main market, and a general apathy for electric supercars, I wouldn’t be surprised if this thing stays a concept. Still, it’s a cool way to advance the legendary nameplate while showing off the company’s latest tech.
I’d be more sad, but then again, Toyota also just revealed a V8-powered sports car that looks amazing, so I can’t be too disappointed in the brand.
Top graphic image: Lexus
> Is actually the new LFA
> Electric
????
Just please don’t give it an idiotic sound generator thats supposed to sound like a good engine.
It’ll probably just be a cartoonish zooooOOOOOOmmm in sync with wheel speed.
What is the point of making an EV supercar with the proportions of a ICE supercar?
What is under that long, long hood?
It can’t possibly be filled with batteries, because the weight distribution would be horrendous.
100%. I am watching the rebuild/fix/restomod of the last EV1, and the T-shaped battery pack would be much more suitable for an EV supercar.
I recently sat in a MG Cyberster, and even its very low battery pack has a huge impact on the seat height and overall driving experience of the car.
T-Batteries make so much sense Maserati used them in their Folgore series.
Hey Headline Writer/editor, the word is spelled W-H-O-A; and while i’m sure the World Organisation for Animal Health is a fine organization, that’s an acronym and there is no ‘woah’ in the dictionary (redirects to whoa, go figure).
/end pedantic pet-peeve rant
I get it. But do we want a car site written by English majors? No. I get annoyed by obvious typos that get ignored and posted. I am not the grammar police. I don’t carry a badge. But some of the stuff that gets through to this site would get flagged by MS Word. And even Outlook.
Does that make me not want to read it? No. It just feels sloppy.
And don’t get me started on the weird logic of the sorting of the comments. It should always be when you get to end of an article, the comments should be offered oldest first so one does not make an embarrassing post after some other fellow member already made the same point. Maybe on a previous page, if I end up commenting on page 2,3,4 etc. That is the biggest gripe I have about this site.
But Autopians, authors and commentors, keep doing fun stuff to read.
Signed, pedantic former newspaper reporter.
Maybe it’s the hood vents, but man, that thing has a lot of design cues in common the Emira.
My feelings about styling here are the exact opposite of the ones I have about the 718-based Audi EV flagship, this car looks fantastic, but my feelings about the car are the same: You can’t make an electric flagship sports car. The tech is mature enough, but it performs the same for everyone.
Everyone uses the same cell suppliers, the same motor technology, the same performance approach, the most interesting choice you can make with drivetrain is the chemical composition of your cells, and that doesn’t appreciably change the experience. If I test-drive Audi’s and Lexus’ flagships and they both have the same party trick, it leaves me feeling like both companies phoned it in. Every performance EV has a low center of gravity in the middle of the car, multiple motors with advanced torque vectoring and a (often literal) ton of power.
What an electric sports car flagship communicates about your company is: “we’re keeping up”.
Another solution to a question no one is asking (“Where’s my electric sports car?”). There’s a reason Porsche and Ferrari are backtracking on these. Hybrids, yes; full electric? These will be anchored to the showroom floor if they build them.
The people who bought the original LFA are now out of the target demographic. All of these new cars are targeted at millenials. Very few of the people who purchased the original will go to this one. It is geared toward a completely different person, and my hunch is this car will debut solid state batteries at launch. We just live in a less cool, more tech forward time than when LFA1 was out. I really think they should’ve called it LFB or LFA-2.
LFE obviously
The vast majority of millennials are broke. They won’t be buying these.
The best thing about the original LFA was the V10. Styling was that odd Toyota-perfected combination of ugly, yet bland. This one looks good, but misses the drivetrain.
Dealers better stock up on feather dusters for these things.
Behold the powers of The Quail!
Sigh. The EV bashing bandwagon has become tiring here.
What folks forget about the original LFA is it was a complete flop. Most reviews at the time skewered the car as being absolutely impractical compared to the competition. With a tiny gas tank and thirsty engine it only had an range of 200 miles with thrifty driving! With spirited driving range was way below 150 miles and getting only double digit range was entirely possible. Yeah, take that car for a road trip.
Imagine if the new LFA only had an EV range of 200 miles. Pitchforks would absolutely savage the range. Yet the beloved OG LFA only can get 200 miles. The OG LFA is a deeply flawed car.
How long does it take to add 200 miles of range to the original LFA and how common are places to do so?
Lets take the the 625 mile drive from Calgary to Vancouver with incredible elevation changes. This is pretty sparsely populated so there is a LOT of distance between gas stations. You would have to play a lot of range mathematics to ensure you did not end running out of gas. I figure you would have to stop 4 or 6 times to ensure a safe buffer. Shoot, you could do the drive with a good EV with two 20 minute charging stops.
“In this very atypical situation I created, where I’m also comparing a $400,000 supercar to a ‘good’ EV that can add hundreds of miles of range in 20 minutes, I still end up taking longer to recharge (4-6 x 5 minutes vs 2 x 20) than to fill with gas” is quite the flex, I agree.
Lets assume 5 six minute fill ups (gotta include bio breaks and breaks to eat something). That’s 30 minutes filling. 40 minutes with an EV. So a whopping 10 minute difference in a 12 hour drive. Or 1.4% longer.
I don’t think we’re bashing EVs so much as acknowledging that there really isn’t much of a market for high end EV sports cars. That’s not conjecture either, it’s a fact. There’s a reason so many manufacturers have had to walk back their plans for BEV performance cars.
I’d daily an EV and have mentioned several times that an iX3 is going to be on my shopping list next go around. I’d even consider a lightweight/Miata type EV experience as soon as someone figures out how to do that because I don’t think the engine/propulsion system is the selling point of a little lightweight roadster.
But a likely half million dollar plus EV supercar? No one is going to want that, unfortunately. Like I mentioned in my other comment, Rimac can’t even sell their cars and they’re cool as hell and reputable hypercars.
In my opinion, the Nevera is not really a good example to say there is no market for a two door EV sports cars. I would suggest the USD$2.7++ million cost is really the constraining factor with that car.
The supply/demand curve for a cheaper EV coupe has not really been tested.
I think I good comparative company to Rimac would be Koenigsegg. Koenigsegg sells 30-35 cars a year at prices similar to Rimac. With stratospheric prices comes very low sales numbers.
Yeah the massive problem is that they can get the on-paper numbers of an “EV supercar” in something like the Lucid Gravity, and sports car nerds who care about handling and dynamics recognize that the EV supercar weighs twice as much as it should and therefore won’t have the expected dynamics.
Add in that every sports car purchase is about emotion, which even the best EV’s don’t have much of, and it’s a recipe for failure.
I would personally never buy a Tesla, but you can get a used Model S Plaid for like 50 grand and it has as much straight line performance as just about anything.
Yup, and the only reason a 50k EV might get the nod over buying a similarly priced ICE “fun car” would be the practicality to daily it. I’d prefer to have a used CTS-V or something fun from BMW, but the EV practicality wins out.
If I’m giving up passenger and cargo space to get a “fun car” I’m definitely not buying an EV. ICE Miata vs hypothetical EV Miata is no contest, no matter how quick the EV is.
EV sports cars are big in China. This car also doesn’t come out for a few years. Wealthy people, especially a lot of millenials, refuse to buy cars that aren’t electric a lot of the time. There will be enough buyers of this car because of how Lexus makes them at the Motomachi plant. There won’t be that many of these.
….there are wealthy millennials? That’s news to me
The very small percentage that are nepo babies. But that’s not much of a market.
Nobody drives LFAs for 200 miles. You made excellent points. Gold star!
It would be somewhat funny to see Toyota (rightly IMO) underinvest in mainstream EVs, only to turn around and try to sell an electric halo car.
If this is a technology showcase for their work in solid state batteries, that would be a unique hook that could make it cool. Otherwise, I’m with the general consensus here that this doesn’t have a lot of prospects for success.
I think you’ve nailed it. It’s not like the LFA was meant to be a sales success.
There’s no use in actually making this whatsoever. No one wants EV supercars. Hell Rimac, who makes far and away the coolest EV supercar, can’t sell their cars. Nerds on blogs are gonna be PISSED about them calling it an LFA too. Swing and a miss.
What? That doesn’t make sense at all.
I think that Toyota is on the money with this one, their claim that the LFA doesn’t mean ICE engine, it means their latest and greatest.
ICE will be around for a while, but the potential for an EV sports car is so high. All we seem to get are 0-60 tricks out of your popular automakers, but I have yet to see a mainstream automaker do something meaningful with a pure EV.
I would love to see an electric roadster like when the original Tesla Roadster came out. It’s not like that sort of car needs a bazillion miles of range or a bunch of other things like cold weather capabilities, 4wd or any other things.
Once we see something akin to a “pure” roadster or EV sports effort, I cannot imagine that it would be a failure.
I say this as a person who doesn’t own a single EV, not even a Toyota.
Yeah, but Honda did this already with the NSX and nerds on blogs were still pissed.
As for the potential for EV sports cars being high, I’m not buying it. EVs are so fast already that if you want a blistering 0-60 time you can do it in a more practical body style.
If you want the great driving dynamics of a sports car, you have to overcome the weight of the batteries, which again, can be done in something like a Model 3 to the same effect.
If you want the emotional, visceral experience of driving, an EV just doesn’t have it compared to the thrill of high revving NA engines and well-built manual gearboxes.
At the end of the day, all you’re left with is the visual component, but I’m just not seeing a ton of potential there. If they feel the same to drive, I’ll take a well-styled sedan over a roadster or coupe any day, especially if they’re trying to push the price of the “sports car.”
I would bet that whatever plans they had for this are being trashed already.
After watching Larry Chen’s video about an EV converted AE86 from Toyota/Lexus guys, I’m hopeful they can make this exciting. Cause that car was an EV I really wanted to try driving.
I’m kinda surprised for these two cars that they’ve walked back their massive innovations with carbon fiber – supposedly they saved 220lbs vs the same chassis as alumin(i)um. If these are relatively affordable, no harm no foul – but it’s going to be hard to ask for half a milly if they’ve lost a big part of what the LFA used to be.
The better looking twin should get the exciting V8, that’s a shame.
I find it really strange this is now billed as an EV. This same concept was shown at Pebble Beach and featured exhaust tips (admittedly hidden below the retractable wing).
Was this a last minute decision to make it electric?
yes, give this that Toyota engine and it would be a great car. They need to combine the two. Each separately are failures.
The better looking twin did get the V8 (IMO, of course).
As a show car, it’s whatever they want it to be.
It’s literally impossible for me to get excited about an electric sports car. Impossible. I don’t hate electric cars, in fact, I think they’re THE solution for a lot of folks who just want a transportation device. I’ve driven a few EVs, and they’re pleasant enough, but there is absolutely zero engagement. Fantastic as appliances, but absolutely soulless. The GR GT? I love it. I want it. This thing? I think it looks good, but aside from that, I have zero interest.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go yell at some clouds.
What’s missing on the engagement factor?
For me this seems like a chicken-egg problem. There are no “engaging” electric cars because there are no electric sports cars; there are no electric sports cars because EVs are perceived not to be “engaging.”
It seems to me that an EV sports car with a ~3,500lb curb weight, good weight distribution, and rear wheel drive (or rear-biased AWD) would be a great formula for an engaging driver’s car.
So what’s missing? Engine noise? Meh who cares. And dumping fat power into an electric motor makes good sounds, just different than what you get out of a petrol engine. Shifting? I certainly enjoy shifting, but the point of shifting is to make torque available. Not necessary on an EV. And people have had good things to say about “synthetic” shifting on EVs, especially the Toyota prototype system.
I guess I’m just wondering where the disconnect is. It’s like saying “Well, the Camry isn’t engaging to drive, so I don’t think that Toyota should make the Supra.” Of course existing EV’s aren’t as engaging as ICE sports cars… because existing EVs aren’t designed to be engaging.
I expect that when the Porsche 718 EVs (and their Audi sibling) come out they will be unobtainium for a few years because they will be fantastic drivers’ cars. Porsche is taking the right approach by not going with a skateboard design, keeping MR proportions and weight distribution, etc. We know Porsche knows how to do steering and suspension.
Yeah, engine noise and shifting are the big reason I don’t care about EV sports cars.
They’re visceral, emotional things that connect the machine to my lizard brain, and that’s appealing in an ICE sports car.
EV acceleration can happen in anything, so I’d rather have a more practical body style. And if they can solve the battery weight problem, they can solve it for both sports cars and more practical body styles.
At the end of the day, if I can get an Ioniq6 that drives just as well as the EV 718, there’s nothing in the 718 that’s going to convince me to shell out the extra coin.
Currently, there’s a massive difference between a 718 and a Camry, especially a manual 718, but that difference evaporates when you swap to EV.
This is exactly how I feel. EVs, no matter how well they perform, do absolutely nothing for my lizard brain, and let me tell you, my inner lizard calls a lot of the shots around here.
oh nooooo… this looks so much better than the GR GT.. Feels like the only reason this is electric is, because they’re admins of both brands. If Lexus was a stand-alone company I bet it wouldn’t have been an ev.
I think Toyota also needs a vehicle to test their solid-state battery tech with. Those batteries will be expensive when they first come to market, so they need something above and beyond “Electric Camry” (or even “Electric LS”) to put them in.
This looks much better than the GT (even though I also liked that car, it was a bit busy, just like a lot of new cars coming out of Japan and especially Korea these days).
However, while I’m not against the EV drivetrain, I think they shouldn’t have called it the LFA. It doesn’t matter how much flowery overwrought marketing speak you can throw at it, most people associate the original LFA with that incredible V10 soundtrack, which will be hard to replicate in this modern era. Better to have left the LFA nameplate alone.
I will be watching this car with interest. I think it looks beautiful, but I will be curious if Toyota can do something with an electric vehicle that others haven’t to give it a bit more soul to match what the older LFA has.
They finally got the memo that nobody wants the Predator grille?
The Lexus looks a lot better than the Toyota IMO, but the use of the LFA namesake harkens to the past while a BEV platform harkens the future. It doesn’t add up for me.
This and the Yota you just posted a bit ago are sure cool enough but I don’t know..
Maybe I’m getting old , but all this pales in comparison to the joy of a gas V8/10/12/6 whatever sports car or sedan that you can beat down at a track all day and actually feel the car and have the visceral human connection with the vehicle.
And then just fill it up with more gas to keep ripping around, then drive or trailer home.
Think it’s time to pick up a ratty C5 / C6 corvette with a lumpy cam and headers to complement my sedan. More old school no gizmos cool for real unfiltered fun.
This is an extremely pretty car. I hope they make it.
That’s some SERIOUS marketing salad with servile drivel dressing. +10 points to whomever put that together, as disgusting as I may find it.
My brain won’t even process that crap, it just scans through it looking for content . . . fusion . . . harmonized . . . consciousness, yeah, the BS is still going.
100% AI spew trained on the finest cohort of marketing drivel emitters.