Once upon a time, there was an underdog sports car, but now it captures the possessive imagination of every respectable automobile enthusiast. I’m talking about the Lexus LFA – a contemporary legend. Engineers worked obsessively for about 10 years on LFA’s development. When it finally came out, Lexus LFA was fairly underestimated and had a price tag north of 360.000 USD – you know, like around two new Ferrari 458.
Lexus LFA Top Gear review
I mean, it could be bought with this significant (for a Lexus) amount of cash, but now, considering only 500 were made, it’s an even more expensive supercar. Oh, and even at this price, Toyota was losing money with every unit leaving the dealership. So… I would die happy if I only see one on the streets, let alone drive it.
The sound of LFA`s engine is probably the best one you`ll ever hear
This considerable but necessary introduction brings me to something that happened recently: Toyota presented 15 new vehicles, as part of its 2030 global EV range. This includes sedans, SUVs, two supercars, commercial vehicles, AND the spiritual successor of Lexus LFA.
Toyota described it as a “battery-EV sports car which inherits the driving taste, or the secret sauce, of the performance cultivated via the development of the LFA” (Akyo Toyoda).
It will be able to reach 100 km/h in under 2 seconds (!) and offer a pretty decent 700 km range.
What I find particularly great about this LFA concept is not only its mindblowing acceleration or good range, but the way it gets the “performance juice”: LFA’s batteries will be solid-state, which is a big deal because this type of battery is super light, charge fast, and have a long life cycle.
To put it in different words, batteries in a Tesla are equivalent to the old hard drive technology (HDD) versus the SSD (Solid State Drive) type of storage, which transformed our computers into waaay more powerful & capable devices.
“The Lexus driving signature is something we will continue to stress because we believe electrification and driving pleasure are not in contradiction. It’s the opposite: they can go hand in hand“, stated Pascal Ruch, Toyota vice president, in an interview for Autocar.
It’s going to be a while until we see all these electric dreams on the streets, but I’m pretty sure time will fly by. Feel free to click on the links below for more details about the electric Lexus LFA-inspired concept and the next all-electric vehicles presented by Toyota.
Source & photos:
motor1.com
autocarindia.com
unklar 