After a 37-year run, the Lexus LS sedan is set to go out of production in the coming months – but Toyota’s luxury brand might not go without a flagship for very long. That said, two potential replacements debuting at the Japan Mobility Show this week suggest Lexus could be ready to push to new extremes. More from Headlight.News.
Lexus ended the long run of the LS sedan, but it’s showing a few concepts in Tokyo that could be the basis for a replacement.
Lexus is doing quite well, thank you, when it comes to mid-range volume models like the RX and TX. But it’s about to lose the flagship sedan that helped establish the brand nearly 40 years ago.
And with the Toyota luxury brand ready to “shift the center of gravity up again,” it needs to find a suitable replacement for the long-lived LS sedan, according to Ian Cartabiano, president of Toyota’s CALTY Design Research facility in California.
What sort of replacement might be coming? That’s something that Lexus has yet to determine for itself, though it’s clear that it won’t be a traditional four-door, added Cartabiano, who believes sedans are “losing the battle against SUVs.”
That’s why Lexus is floating two very different alternatives at this week’s Japan Mobility Show, hoping to get feedback from showgoers that could help it come up with a next-generation flagship.
LS Concept: pushing the boundaries
Lexus officials believe they need to find a suitable replacement for the long-lived LS sedan.
“The rules of the luxury market have changed dramatically,” the design chief said during a media backgrounder ahead of the biennial Tokyo show. That opens up opportunities to push things to new extremes, as Lexus demonstrates with its six-wheeled LS Concept.
First teased earlier this month, the show car has seriously polarized Lexus fans. It was initially envisioned as an electric van with massive interior proportions by Takashi Watanabe, the brand’s president and chief engineer.
The idea was immediately embraced by Toyota Motor Co. chairman — and founding family heir Akio Toyoda, who replied in an e-mail, “If we think of the LS as a BEV chauffeur car, it could become a new pillar of the Lexus brand in a new package that no one has ever thought of before.”
A place to reenergize
The unusual design of the LS Concept features normal sized front wheels and two sets of smaller rear wheels.
The unusual design of the LS Concept features normal sized front wheels and two sets of smaller rear wheels, which Cartabiano explained to Headlight.News, don’t intrude into cabin space. Indeed, all three rows have the sort of legroom you’d find in a business jet.
There’s a mix of high-tech and tradition to the show car’s cabin, with a yoke-style wheel, large digital gauges — and distinctly classic Japanese touches, including a bamboo privacy screen shielding those in the back two rows.
That transforms the cabin into “a place to relax, decompress — or reenergize,” explained Cartabiano.
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LS Coupe Concept: “A balance of contradictions”
There’s a mix of high-tech and tradition to the show car’s cabin, with a yoke-style wheel and large digital gauges.
The LS Coupe Concept making its own debut in Tokyo is seemingly tame. But only by comparison to the radical six-wheeler. It also seeks to find a new formula, here combining elements of a coupe, sedan and crossover. Think of it as “a balance of contradictions,” suggested Cartabiano.
A cursory inspection reveals the Coupe Concept picks up on a number of familiar Lexus design cues, starting with the Lexus “spindle grille.” But here its boundaries are framed with LED lighting. Indeed, Cartabiano’s design team made extensive use of lighting to accentuate the show car’s angles.
The overall design blend is not without precedent. If anything, the profile shows a subtle resemblance to the far more mainstream Toyota Crown Signia, which also seeks to find a new balance between sedan and crossover.
A massive interior
Though Lexus clearly would like to find a suitable replacement for the outgoing LS, it doesn’t appear likely we’ll see any of these.
If anything, the new LS Coupe Concept boasts more legroom than the outgoing LS sedan, one benefit of the taller seating layout. The cabin itself has a high-tech feel — yet it’s almost Scandinavian in its simplicity.
One of the more unusual tech features: a two-level digital display mounted behind the steering wheel. Rear seat passengers are treated to a pair of huge touchscreens mounted within the back of the front seats.
The LS Coupe Concept retains the emphasis on craftsmanship that long distinguished the old LS sedan. That includes the use of Japanese artsugi woodcrafting where individual pieces features such precise joints they merge into one.
Multipathway options
Lexus is looking for something that will have the impact that the original LS had on the brand.
Though Lexus clearly would like to find a suitable replacement for the outgoing LS, it doesn’t appear likely we’ll see any of these — or some other option — in the near future. “At the moment we don’t have a dedicated platform for any of the concepts,” the design chief acknowledged.
Part of the challenge will be to decide on the powertrain — or powertrains — Lexus ultimately will use for a new flagship. It’s quite likely, said Cartabiano, that the next flagship will go with parent Toyota’s “multi-pathway approach,” offering a mix of different systems, potentially including gas, hybrid, plug-in and all-electric.
As for pricing, based on what Toyota officials are saying, whatever eventually replaces the Lexus LS will move even further up-market than where the old sedan sits today.
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