Lexus Electrified Sport ‘unboxed’ at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance

Hot off the heels of an impressive European debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Lexus Electrified Sport crossed the pond, making its American debut at the annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. The Lexus Electrified Sport gave visitors a taste of the brand’s evolution and a look at its future through the lens of its Next Chapter pillars of bold design, Lexus Driving Signature, electrification, and intuitive technology.

In order to mark its arrival at Pebble Beach, the Electrified Sport was ‘unboxed’ in a similar fashion to its Goodwood debut, the journey continuing from the UK to the USA. You can watch the Pebble Beach unboxing video above, and the Goodwood unboxing video below, which shows the concept emerging from its bespoke transit container.

Goodwood Festival of Speed

New images were also produced using studio techniques to demonstrate how the car might look on the festival’s famous hill climb course, in front of the historic Goodwood House. Its powerful combination of design and performance references the look and spirit of the Lexus LFA supercar, which itself was a major attraction at the Festival of Speed when it made its first appearance at the event ten years ago.

Having seen the Electrified Sport in person, Autocar journalists made a similar connection to the LFA, calling the concept its “spiritual successor” and that Lexus will use the experience of developing the concept for other future EV models “as part of a drive to emphasise the brand’s dynamic focus.”

Lexus Electrified Sport sketches reveal concept’s evolution

These illustrations of the Lexus Electrified Sport concept showcase the early thinking that went into our vision for a future all-electric high-performance sports car. The concept inspired by these drawings made its first European public appearance at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The sketches are the work of Tom Matsumoto, Senior Lead Designer at Calty Design Research, the innovative design studio in California which plays a pivotal role in communicating the future for Lexus design via bold and exciting concept vehicles.

This study for a radically styled coupe was a striking model among 16 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) revealed by Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motor Corporation President, in December 2021, as he outlined the company’s far-reaching strategy to achieve carbon neutrality. The show car’s appearance at Goodwood was its first public appearance outside of Japan.

With the essential bold proportions and low ride height of a sports car, the concept symbolises Lexus’s sharp focus on the future. It will showcase the unique driving performance of a Lexus and become a model that symbolises the future of the brand. Acceleration time will be in the low two-second range, cruising range over 700km, and with the possible use of solid-state batteries in mind, we will aim to create a truly high-performance BEV.  

The images labelled ‘early sketch’, ‘goshintai’, ‘lamp idea’ and ‘side view’ were drawn at an early stage in the genesis of the concept.

Of those, ‘goshintai’ is intended to be more like an image model rather than a three-dimensional sketch. It helps the designers to create a target of the image without being constrained with the practicalities of size or packaging details.

The images labelled ‘final rendering’ show the vehicle in a more progressed state of development and provided the reference points for the physical concept.

Visitors to the Goodwood Festival of Speed (see story above) were the first to enjoy a close-up look at the concept, a car that has been greeted by the media as a potential successor to the legendary Lexus LFA. Indeed, Autocar magazine in the UK proclaimed the concept as one of the ‘biggest unveilings’ at the 2022 Festival of Speed.

The festival took place on 23-26 June 2022 in the grounds of Goodwood House in Sussex. The concept was situated in a bespoke display between the Future Labs and Electric Avenue areas. Read more about Lexus’s presence at the event by clicking here.