Production coupe to be based on Lexus LF-LC concept

Lexus’s LF-LC 2+2 coupé concept will make production, in the international markets, in 2016 as a new flagship model for Toyota’s luxury arm.

Lexus Europe’s vice-president Alain Uyttenhoven revealed to Autocar UK on the launch of the new NX crossover that a production version of the LF-LC was due to make production as part of Lexus’s plan to launch a new model every year up to 2020. The dramatic LF-LC was first seen at the Detroit motor show in 2012, and Uyttenhoven said that company boss Akio Toyoda “doesn’t want the production car to look any different from the concept”. Uyttenhoven said that the LF-LC concept was anything between 90 and 100 per cent representative of the production car, which he has seen.

Previous speculation has suggested that the production LF-LC would take the LC badge for production, and would be based on a shortened version of the LS’s underpinnings. “The production LF-LC will not be huge volume [car] for Lexus, but it will bring huge emotion,” said Uyttenhoven. “Every year there will be a new model for Lexus, either a volume car like the NX or a model to boost brand image [like the LF-LC].”

With the NX planned to be introduced as 2014’s new car, next year will see the introduction of the RC coupé in the international markets, including the range-topping 450bhp 5.0-litre V8-powered RC-F version. The RC-F will be the first version of the RC to be sold in Europe, with an initial run of 500 units planned. Further variants of the RC are planned, including a staple RC300h hybrid version and a RC200t version that uses the new 2.0-litre turbo petrol engine found in the NX.

The plan to introduce one new model a year is part of Lexus’s wider aspirations to double its European sales.