Wild Concept Previews A (Sort Of) Lexus LFA Successor

Significant car news can be hard to come by in December, and yet here we are with one of the biggest motoring stories of the year. Toyota has just shocked the industry by revealing no less than fifteen electric concepts in one sitting - 11 Toyota-branded vehicles, and four from Lexus.

Naturally, there’s one we’re drawn to much more than the others. It’s an all-new sports car, and it previews a production car developed with influence from the seminal LFA. “Lexus will develop a next-generation battery EV sports car that inherits the driving taste, or the secret sauce, of the performance cultivated via the development of the LFA,” Toyota president Akio Toyoda said.

It certainly looks as striking as the LFA, and from some angles, we’re getting some GR Supra vibes. For the car, Lexus is targetting a low two-second 0-62mph time and a range of up to 435 miles. That’s as far as the technical details go for now, sadly. In fact, little has been said of the concepts themselves, which are unnamed, although some do have number plates denoting the kind of vehicle they are.

One is dubbed a “compact cruiser EV,” and it looks an awful lot like an all-electric FJ Cruiser successor. Pretty much every niche going is filled - we have (inevitably) multiple crossovers and SUVs, saloons, a pick-up truck, a van and one of those boxy, anonymous “mobility solutions” manufacturers love to roll out at motor shows.

Alongside the ‘new LFA’, the other one to interest car geeks is a Toyota GR-branded two-seater sports car. With its compact proportions, it could be seen as a successor to the MR2.

Indeed, Toyota is rumoured to be mulling over a tie-up with Lotus to produce such a car using the genes of the next Elise. As a reminder, that car will feature a ‘chest’ of battery cells mounted transversely behind the cabin, giving similar handling characteristics to a traditional mid-engine car.

The majority of the cars here will get showroom versions, and we won’t have to wait long for them either. “Most of the Toyota battery EVs that we introduced here are models that will be coming out in the next few years,” Toyoda said.

Toyota wants to reach global EV sales of 3.5 million by 2030 and plans to increase investment in the sector by £13.3 billion. By then, 30 BEVs will be offered across the Toyota and Lexus brands.