Lexus offers a tease of the new styling concept it plans to unveil in Detroit next month.
The folks at Lexus (and parent Toyota) seem to be making it a requirement to use the word, “passion” whenever possible. It certainly has been a hallmark of comments made by CEO Akio Toyoda in recent months, especially when he has turned the topic to the maker’s high-line Lexus brand.
According to the grandson of Toyota Motor Co.’s founder, the goal is to dial up the emotional factor for a marque that has tended to be staid and solid but decidedly not passionate in its first two decades. We got a hint of the more expressive Lexus with the recent launch of the 2013 GS sedan. (Click Here for more on the Lexus GS.)
But, apparently, that’s just the start of what’s to come. This teaser shot, released today by Toyota, certainly doesn’t look like your typical Lexus product. If anything, it offers hints of Maserati and even Ferrari layered on top of the most passionate Lexus product to date, the LF-A supercar.
For the moment, the maker isn’t saying much beyond the fact that the concept coming to the Detroit Auto Show next month, “showcases the new design direction embraced by Lexus.”
The one other detail we now know is that the show car was designed at CALTY, Toyota’s advanced design studio in California. The good news is that CEO Toyoda has encourage Lexus to break free of the parent Toyota brand, providing significant new design and engineering resources meant to permit the luxury marque to flourish without simply cloning products from the more mainstream maker.
Intriguingly, the 2012 Detroit Auto Show appears to be shaping up as a battleground in the luxury segment, especially among Japanese brands. As TheDetroitBureau.com reports today, Honda’s high-line Acura will use the Cobo Center event to reveal its own new direction – with a variety of products debuting, from the entry-lux ILX to the newly reborn NSX supercar. (For more on Acura in Detroit, Click Here.)