Next-Gen LS 500 Sheds Big-Time Weight

By Adam Pockross - February 24, 2017

Lexus

Higher Strength Steel and Selective Use of Aluminum Help Shed 200 Pounds from Previous LS Generation

Now that we’ve gotten a chance to get a good look at the newly-debuted next-gen LS 500, let’s dive a bit further into why it shall remain the Lexus flagship. (Well, perhaps the co-flagship, along with the LC.)

One of the reasons the LS has been around since 1989 is because it keeps improving. That’s accomplished by staying ahead of the game, and offering the most advanced engineering, design, and technology. That’s certainly been accomplished with the new LS, which debuted last month in Detroit.

For but one example of the next generation’s improvement, let’s talk about how Lexus shed some 200 pounds of weight off the previous LS. Which would be impressive in its own right. But they also created a more spacious and luxurious cabin at the same time. That’s doubly impressive. So how’d they do it?

RELATED: Lexus Unveils 2018 LS Flagship Sedan

The LS’s main weight reduction can be attributed to the car’s use of ultra-high tensile steel sheet and aluminum in the platform and body. And now the trunk lid and hood are made strictly of aluminum — the only exterior parts to be constructed as such.

While the use of aluminum comes with some very specific instructions and tools for repairers, it also serves to drastically cut weight. That’s particularly true in the chassis, the “web-lattice aluminum structure,” as Lexus communications manager, Moe Durand, calls it. It’s the same chassis enjoyed in the co-flagship LC.

But just because the chassis is lighter, that doesn’t mean it’s not solid. It’s meant to pass the “most stringent” of crash tests. Which is good, because the the LS will be pleasing many a happy customer in some 90 countries around the world.

Will you be one of them?