Lexus announced in late 2021 that it was working on the spiritual successor to the LFA. Its arrival is still a few years away, but a recent trademark filing suggests the luxury brand could be solidifying its plans for the model. Toyota Motor Corporation filed a new trademark application for the “LFA” word mark in August with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
It’s far too early to know with certainty what Lexus will call its new supercar. When the automaker teased it nearly two years ago, it called it the Lexus Electrified Sport, which isn’t an exciting name. LFA seems like a better fit, but the recent filing could also be a move from Toyota to protect its intellectual property. Lexus may never use the name again.
Gallery: Lexus electric hypercar teasers
Regardless of the badge and name, Lexus did provide some preliminary specs about the battery-electric vehicle that will be slathered in “the secret sauce” derived from the development of the LFA. The successor will go from 0 to 62 miles per hour in the low two-second range while offering a maximum driving distance of over 435 miles. It’ll feature steer-by-wire, torque vectoring, and carbon fiber.
Lexus will engineer the car to accommodate solid-state batteries, but Toyota won’t begin installing them in vehicles until 2025. And they’ll initially go in a hybrid, not a BEV. The automaker also didn’t specify the EV’s powertrain configuration, leaving an open question about whether it’ll have a single- or dual-motor setup with either rear- or all-wheel drive.
While Lexus will make the replacement LFA electric, it will keep one aspect of the combustion world – the manual transmission. Lexus could simulate the manual gearbox experience with software. The company will use carbon fiber as needed, and using in-house designed batteries gives engineers freedom in where to place them in the vehicle.
Rumors leading up to the reveal of the 2021 concept suggested the LFA replacement could pack a 937-horsepower plug-in hybrid V8 engine. That hasn’t materialized, but the automaker is working on a combustion-powered, road-legal version of the Toyota GR GT3 concept that will likely wear the Lexus badge. It was recently spotted testing at the race track.
That means two new performance vehicles are likely coming to the brand’s lineup that will need names, and LFR could be one of them. Lexus filed a trademark for that moniker in 2022, piquing our interest because of its similarities to LFA, but it was for Europe. Both defy the brand’s typical nomenclature, but we have no clear indication when they will go on sale.
