Toyota held a press conference to talk about how it fared in the fiscal year 2023, which ended on March 31. Instead of boring you with all the numbers, we'll cut to the chase. At one point during the presentation, a slideshow depicting the product roadmap pertaining to electric cars coming by 2026 was shown. There was a shadowy silhouette in the "Sports" section, thus signaling a performance will go on sale within the next three years.
It's unclear whether it will be badged as a Toyota or as a Lexus since the slideshow included cars from both brands. However, the Japanese automotive giant has been talking a great deal about the Electrified Sport following its unveiling in late 2021. If the teased car is a production version of that concept, it'll be sold as a Lexus to indirectly supersede the V10-powered LFA.
In fact, the luxury brand mentioned the stunning showcar is a preview of a "next-generation battery EV sports car that inherits the driving taste, or the secret sauce, of the performance cultivated via the development of the LFA." From the details released thus far, the production-ready Electrified Sport will have all-wheel drive, meaning it'll feature a dual-motor setup at the very least.
A simulated manual gearbox is planned, as are the steer-by-wire and brake-by-wire systems. The concept was touted as having a 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) sprint in the low two-second range and a maximum autonomy of 435 miles (700 kilometers). Lexus has said the two-seater electric sports car is being developed to accommodate solid-state batteries.
But what if it's a Toyota? In that case, it might be the Sports EV that was previewed alongside the Electrified Sport. Pictured at the bottom, the smaller car was described as being a "mid-ship run-about 2-seater" to compete with the future Porsche 718 EV coming around 2025.
The same slideshow includes two additional luxury EVs arriving by 2026, likely with the Lexus badge. Zero-emission compact cars for emerging markets are also in the pipeline in this timeframe. Meanwhile, an official preview of Toyota's next wave of EVs is planned for the Japan Mobility Show in late October where we might see that swoopy Lexus that was recently teased.
