Lexus LFA successor may get engine power after all - report
The next-generation Lexus LFA will do without the original’s howling V10, but one Japanese outlet claims it won’t be an EV as first planned.
Lexus is preparing a new LFA for production, as previewed by last year’s LFA Concept, underpinned by the same chassis as the twin-turbo V8 Toyota GR GT, though the luxury marque’s offering is set to be an EV.
While the original LFA was headlined by its V10 engine and Yamaha-tuned exhaust, the new LFA will be comparatively silent, powered by electric motors – or at least that was the plan.
According to Japanese publication Best Car – which can sometimes stray too far down the path of sensationalism – the next LFA could become a plug-in hybrid rather than a fully electric vehicle.
Though the publication attributes this to the cancelled ‘LF-ZC’ project, which was axed in June but said to carry across its learnings to other vehicles, there is no official indication that the upcoming Lexus LFA will be anything other than an EV.
However, as previously reported, the production LFA is expected to make some kind of noise, after the LFA program’s general manager, Yukihiro Yukita, told the UK’s Autocar it will produce noises to keep the driver involved.
“What I get from the market is that a BEV is fake because we imitate the sound [of an internal combustion engine] – but that's not something we want to do,” Yukita said.
The executive added Lexus wants its LFA drivers to “feel like they are driving with an engine”, saying that a downside to EVs is that “we lose the sound or the vibration, which gives a big impact to the five senses of the driver.”
While acknowledging the popularity of synthesised engine noises in performance EVs from Hyundai and a growing number of brands, Yukita said: “We're not just wanting to replicate the sound of the engine: we want to redesign the sound itself.”
Lexus recently ran the LFA Concept at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, alongside its Toyota GR GT and GR GT3 cousins.
