Lexus electric car plans take a big backwards step
Another grand plan bites the dust, as Lexus is the next big brand to take a backwards step in BEV technology
Lexus, the premium outfit leading Toyota’s battery electric vehicle charge, has confirmed it’s pulling the plug on a massive development program for its new-generation electric vehicles. This plan was previewed by the LF-ZC concept in 2023, but the decision to end the program represents another big backwards step back from BEV technology from a massive Japanese group.
Lexus said: “It is true that we decided to cancel the LF-ZC development project as part of a company-wide review of vehicle development projects, taking into account fluctuations in market demand and workload associated with vehicle planning and manufacturing”
This reveals the harsh reality that many Japanese manufacturers are facing when it comes to the development of new BEV models, because neither the local Japanese nor the American markets – the two major profit drivers for companies such as Toyota and Honda – are receptive enough to BEV cars to recover the development costs of such new models.
As with the Honda 0 Series that has suffered the same fate, this isn’t just the cancellation of a new model, but a new philosophy that would drive a whole range of BEV models from the Lexus brand. Beyond just new batteries or electric motors, this program was also responsible for fundamentally rethinking how Lexus builds its cars.
Technologies including mega castings, cell-to-body construction methods and the integration of steer-by-wire technologies are all inter-woven into this program. However, it remains to be seen whether Toyota will be able to extricate these elements from this line of development and integrate them into other models, in effect leading to more powertrain-flexible models in future.
This doesn’t mean that all of Lexus’ plans for BEV models are being halted, though. Instead, we expect the premium outfit to realign its models with those from the Toyota brand, which has committed to offering total powertrain flexibility across all its models, with ICE, hybrid and full BEV options. Whether future Lexus models will be able to keep up with European competition with their dedicated platforms, though, remains to be seen.
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