Lexus News: Lexus' Boss Hints At Possible Electrification For F Models

[William Maley]

Lexus' F performance sub-brand has relied on V8 power. But the head of Lexus, Yoshihiro Sawa tells Auto Express that F needs to "embrace different powertrain choices" to stay relevant in the future.

“F is very important; with F we have to think of our own original way. One solution could be a pure F GT car, which could be a hybrid with an electric motor and a strong engine, giving a different kind of drive feel. We don’t stick to V8, V10, twin-turbocharged; they’re important but we’re looking at the future. We’d like to find a way to connect to the next era,” said Sawa.

“I think that now, we’re in a transitional period. At this moment people say EVs are trendy but three years later, who knows? People like the sound, the dynamics [of combustion engines]. I think we cannot stick to the one solution when it comes to providing emotion.”

Both BMW and Mercedes-Benz have announced plans to add electrified powertrains to their future high-performance models.

Source: Auto Express

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[G. David Felt]

Performance EV version should help this greatly.

[Suaviloquent]

I think they’re going to probably do something conservative, like an F version of the RX. That’s all the performance Lexus needs. Or wants to sell even.

[smk4565]

These guys don’t know how to do performance.  What racing league have they ever won?  I think still to this day Lexus has never made a car with 450 lb-ft of torque and that is the stuff that makes you go.   When F sport has at 10 models with over 500 hp I’ll take them seriously.  Right now they have zero.  AMG has like 25 cars with 500+ hp.

[G. David Felt]

41 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

These guys don’t know how to do performance.  What racing league have they ever won?  I think still to this day Lexus has never made a car with 450 lb-ft of torque and that is the stuff that makes you go.   When F sport has at 10 models with over 500 hp I’ll take them seriously.  Right now they have zero.  AMG has like 25 cars with 500+ hp.

Blah Blah Blah AMG Blah, Mercedes Blah, Racing Blah, Blah Blah................

Not EVERYONE WANTS A FREAKING MERCEDES! Plenty of folks like what Lexus, Infinity, Genesis build and will continue to buy them over the overpriced Germans with crazy maintenance and repair costs.

Some day your going to have to accept that not everyone wants your horse with blinders German only auto. 

After all German lost the war because of their arrogance about superiority and superior race. They murdered millions and to this day, my heritage brothers and sisters have yet to learn how to live in the worn with others that are not just like them.

Lexus makes a profit they are happy with without needing 10 models all 500+ HP of over rev'd dual overhead came German machinery.

[smk4565]

Japan lost the same war.  And Lexus wants to talk about F as serious performance but compared to Porsche, Ferrari, or an AMG or M car they are nothing.   Mostly F-sport is just a trim level on an RX350.  

[G. David Felt]

1 hour ago, smk4565 said:

Japan lost the same war.  And Lexus wants to talk about F as serious performance but compared to Porsche, Ferrari, or an AMG or M car they are nothing.   Mostly F-sport is just a trim level on an RX350.  

Any company if they wanted to compete on specific engineering item for item, performance for performance could with the Germans. Especially the Japanese, but they went after a certain price point, with a certain performance level for their customers and seems to have hit the bean counters desires.