New Lexus LF-30 electric car concept wows Tokyo show

This is the Lexus LF-30, a Tokyo Motor Show debut designed to preview how the Japanese manufacturer would take a bespoke electric car platform and turn it into a production model.

The LF-30 is a dramatic-looking flagship model, with an overall length over five metres. It’s not a direct concept linked to any production car, but rather a showcase to highlight the fact that Lexus’s first all-electric model - a conversion of an existing hybrid vehicle, most likely - is due in 2020.

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The concept demonstrates further evolution of Lexus’s design language, incorporating the lengthy wheelbase and floor-mounted battery that are common on bespoke EV platforms.

It also reveals two targets of Lexus’s long-term electric car ambitions. The LF-30 has four in-wheel motors, and Takashi Watanabe, the chief engineer on Lexus’s electric vehicle programme, told us, “At this time, what we adopted in the concept car is one of the specific examples for electrification in the future that we want to use. We want to develop in-wheel motors for use in electrified vehicles.”

In addition, the car has no visible charging port - because Lexus is evaluating how wireless charging can make EV ownership more ‘premium’ and luxurious by doing away with cables and ports. “In the future we want to enhance the convenience of charging,” Watanabe said, “so we wanted a contactless charging system that didn’t use cables. We’ll hope to accelerate our development so that we can achieve this contactless charging system as soon as possible.”

Let us know what you think of the Lexus LF-30 in the comments...