Lexus BEV Luxury Concept Claims Range and Performance

Paul Myles

TU-Editor

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23rd October 2019

Lexus has debuted its luxury BEV concept claiming supercar acceleration married to range of more than 300 miles ahead of plans to market its first all-electric car later this year.

Those figures put the vehicle, the Lexus LF-30 Electrified Concept, as clearly a direct competitor for the upper level Tesla models even featuring the automaker’s own version of the Falcon elevating passenger doors seen on the Model X. The vehicle launched at this week’s 2019 Tokyo Motor Show features a powertrain with a 110kW/h battery pack producing 533bhp and torque of 516ft-lbs delivering a 0-62mph sprint time of 3.8 seconds with a top speed of 124mph. Naturally, the downside to all that BEV beef is a hefty curb weight of 2.4-metric tonnes (2.6 tons US).

Unlike many other BEV powertrains on the market, the concept’s approach is to put the electric motors in the wheel assemblies and claims this has influenced the car’s body design language expressing “the energy that streams from the wheels at each corner towards the cabin”.

It also employs wireless battery pack charging and AI-based energy management for distribution of electric power to both the vehicle and the home, with charging control co-ordinated with the user’s daily schedule. AI also features in the cabin where it is said to distinguish the voices of different vehicle occupants and uses personalized information stored on the driver’s control key to serve as a partner.

It also claims to be able to adjust functions based on learned preferences such as air temperature, audio and navigation routes and destinations as well as suggesting activities when the journey is completed.

— Paul Myles is a seasoned automotive journalist based in London. Follow him on Twitter @Paulmyles_