- Lexus shelved the production version of the LF-ZC sedan concept.
- Its gigacast modular platform survives and is still heading to production.
- The smart money says the new EV arrives as a crossover, not a sedan.
In late 2023, Lexus pulled the wraps off its innovative LF-ZC concept, a high-riding sedan riding on a new electric platform, with a launch planned for this year and the BMW i3 in its sights. The timeline slipped to mid-2027 before Lexus killed the program outright last month, ending a project that never made it past the concept stage.
Scrapping the LF-ZC doesn’t mean Lexus is walking away from electric cars. As we recently reported, much of the engineering created for the concept survives and heads to production anyway. That includes the gigacasted modular structure, which splits the body into separate front, center, and rear sections that bolt together as one.
Read: The 2027 Lexus TZ Borrows The Highlander’s Bones And The LFA’s V10 Voice
In addition, the electrical and electronic platform used for new advanced driver-assistance systems will reach production, as will the concept’s prismatic battery cells. We may not have to wait long to see them reach the road.
Toyota vice president and chief technology officer Hiroki Nakajima says Lexus has already settled on a “successor vehicle” to take the place the canceled LF-ZC left open, which means the replacement was decided before the original was even cold.
Some Of The Hard Work Is Already Done
“We did indeed discontinue development,” he told Nikkei CrossTech. “It was at a point where we needed to make significant investments, such as arranging molds and mass production equipment for the LF-ZC. However, many new technologies cultivated during the development of the LF-ZC, such as Gigacast, a new electrical and electronic platform for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), and miniaturization and weight reduction, have already been completed. We will develop a successor vehicle that utilizes these new technologies.”
Nakajima-san went on to reveal that Lexus approved a “successor” to the LF-ZC on the same day it canceled development of that model, agreeing to repurpose the LF-ZC’s technologies for this new model.
We don’t yet know what form this new EV will take. The safe money points to an electric crossover or SUV, on the logic that either would move more metal than another sedan. The new BMW iX3 and Mercedes-Benz GLA EQ just hit the market, and it’s possible Lexus may fancy its chances in developing a competitor to them.