This is the Lexus LF-Z Electrified Concept which the automaker says incorporates driving performance, styling, and advanced technology set to be realized by 2025. Underpinning the concept is a battery-electric vehicle-dedicated platform that uses the company’s DIRECT4 four-wheel driving force control technology, making the most of the instant responsiveness of an electric motor’s force to freely control the concept’s wheels. Lexus adds that this technology controls the distribution of power across the wheels and can operate in front-, rear-, and all-wheel drive configurations.
Lexus hasn’t provided all that many
details about the car’s key hardware components, other than the fact that it
features a steer-by-wire system. The Lexus LF-Z Electrified Concep previews the
evolution of the automaker’s design language. With a silhouette that reminds of
coupe-crossovers, the front of the concept features an iteration of the brand’s
spindle grille which, since this is an all-electric vehicle and has no internal
combustion engine at the front, is closed off.
Viewed from the side, the vehicle’s short
front and rear overhangs immediately catch the eye, as do the large wheels, fitting
of a concept car like this. The rear of the LF-Z Electrified Concept is
especially intriguing and includes a complex LED lighting array and a third
brake light positioned vertically in the bumper. Lexus says it designed the
interior of the vehicle around the concept of ‘Tazuna’, Japanese for ‘rein’. As
such, it takes inspiration from the relationship between a horse and its rider,
and therefore features a yoke-style steering wheel, various steering
wheel-mounted switches, and a complex head-up display.
Beyond premiering the LF-Z Electrified
Concept itself, Lexus has announced a plan to introduce 20 new or improved
models by 2025. More than 10 of them will be electrified, including
battery-electrics, plug-in hybrids, and traditional hybrids, depending on the
needs of specific countries and regions around the world.
Lexus has committed to expanding its sedan
and SUV lineup and will also “pursue the possibility of rolling out models such
as sports models that continue to provide the fun of driving.” It will also
launch a new model that “redefines the concept of having a chauffeur” and will
launch models into new “genres that have never before existed.”
The Japanese car manufacturer aims to
offer electric variants of all its models by 2025 and wants sales of EVs to
exceed those of gasoline-powered models by that date. By 2050, Lexus also aims
to achieve carbon neutrality throughout the lifecycle of its entire model
lineup, including the manufacturing of materials, parts and vehicles, vehicle
logistics, and the final disposal and recycling of older vehicles.
