Lexus Just Built Its First Hybrid Sports Car-And It’s Dramatic

Lexus will unveil the LC 500h at the Geneva Motor Show next month, powered by the company’s next-generation hybrid powertrain.

What Lexus aren’t revealing is exactly what the new hybrid system offers the LC, but we can reveal what the informed rumour mill claims.

The non-hybrid Lexus LC 500 revealed in Detroit has a 5.0-liter V-8 engine that produces 467 horsepower, and it’s mated to a 10-speed, automatic transmission.

The speculation is that the LC 500h gets an all new 3.5 litre V6, coupled to an electric motor. The Toyota luxury brand has released the first photos of the vehicle, which is designated an LC 500h and confirmed to have a next-generation hybrid system, reports Motor Authority.

Although rumors of a production version of the original LF-LC concept had been circulating for some years, there was no shortage of dropped-jaws in Detroit come January when Lexus showed exactly how close to that design its production auto would stick. The two are also expected to share the new GA-L platform, which features high-strength steel and aluminium suspension components to reduce weight. The mix of materials promises a higher torsional rigidity than that of the LFA, Lexus’s all-carbon supercar. It’s possible that Lexus will follow the lead of other hybrid sports cars and supercars, like the Acura NSX, BMW i8, and Porsche 918 Spyder, and use electric motors at the front wheels for a hybrid all-wheel-drive system.

The LC 500’s design and engineering team have made no disguise of the fact that the car’s underpinnings have wide-ranging implications across the future Lexus line-up.