Toyota can’t wait to shed the label of being a conservative carmaker, and it’s gone on the front foot to tease what it’ll unveil at the upcoming Japan Mobility Show.
Previously known as the Tokyo motor show, JMS will be the site of at least four major reveals for Toyota – including its luxury brand Lexus and performance sub-brand Gazoo Racing (GR).
Running from October 30 to November 9, Toyota has teased four important models or concepts which will be revealed at the show, starting with the expected successor to the Lexus LFA.
As previously reported, Toyota is working on a twin-turbo V8-powered front-engined coupe to fill the hole left long ago by the LFA, and it plans to take it GT3 racing.
It’s still unclear whether the model will be badged as a Lexus – adopting the LFR moniker – or also be sold as a dedicated Toyota GR product (likely as the Super Sports), though the teaser image which includes the LFA and Toyota 2000GT shows it’ll adopt the brand’s current ‘hammerhead’ design language.
Regardless of what the new coupe is revealed as, Lexus will get its own time in the spotlight at JMS with the new LS Concept – but this is no Luxury Sedan.
Instead, the concept is of a six-wheeled people mover, more akin to the LM than the long-running sedan which launched Lexus as a brand in the 1990s.
Set to now mean ‘Luxury Space’, the LS Concept will potentially preview another Lexus flagship, likely with electric power, though whether the six wheels will carry over to production remains unclear.
Toyota is also not willing to let passenger cars die, with the teaser images showing off a new sedan which could preview a future Toyota Corolla.
With angular lines and a charging port ahead of the front doors, this would be a completely new take on the Corolla, suggesting the sedan could be sold alongside its hybrid counterpart – a similar strategy to what Toyota has adopted with the C-HR and C-HR+ in Europe.
Again we have to wait until the end of the month to see what it’s truly about, but with sales of passenger cars on the slide globally, it could be a timely injection for Toyota to put effort into its future.
Finally, at the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Toyota has teased what appears to be a luxury coupe to be sold under its Century brand, providing a competitor to the likes of Bentley and even Rolls-Royce.
The Century was once solely a big luxury sedan, though recently it has been spun off into a sub-brand, which includes an SUV offering, with a coupe to only strengthen the lineup.
From what we can see, it’ll adopt a split headlight design, frontwards-opening, power-sliding doors, and relatively short front and rear overhangs.
More will be revealed about the concepts and potential production models within the next month.
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