The BEV Sport is like the LC and the LFA got together and the results are stunning.
LexusNormally, I find it pretty tough to get excited about concept cars. They may look cool or promise significant technological advances, but ultimately most of them go nowhere except the basement at their respective corporate headquarters. However, I am pretty excited about the Lexus BEV Sport concept, which debuted in 2021 and which Lexus dropped a bunch of new photos of on Monday.
Why am I excited? Well, first, just look at it. It takes all the best bits of the LC 500 and the still-jaw-dropping-after-all-these-years LFA supercar and makes them lower, longer, cleaner and greener while making performance claims that don’t immediately read like science fiction. In other words, it’s a concept that could be made real.
Lexus debuted the BEV Sport concept alongside both a sedan and an SUV concept, also battery-electric, and while those were cool, it’s the Sport concept that stands out. Lexus estimates that with solid-state battery technology (something its parent company Toyota is investing heavily in), it could achieve a 0-60 time in the low-2-second range and have a maximum mileage of around 430 mph.
The BEV Sedan concept is almost as slick as the Sport concept and the SUV concept definitely has Land Cruiser/LX vibes, which also works for us. The RZ seems like a more futuristic RX, which makes sense and thus it’s the least exciting of the bunch, but if any SUV’s whole vibe works with an EV version, it’s the RX, which is about as calm, comfy and sedate as a midsize SUV gets.
The fact is that Toyota and, by extension, Lexus waited a long time to get into the fully battery-electric vehicle business, which was possibly a mistake. But, if these BEV concepts are the kinds of vehicles we can expect from Lexus, then maybe the wait was worth it.