Amazing what a color scheme can do to a car. Tri-tone interior is beyond beautiful in my opinion! Looks very similar to the concept. That is breath taking!!!

 

Yeah, loving the interior but the powertrain is a bit meh. It's a GS450h system with an auto box instead of a second planetary gearset connected to the driveshafts. Not sure how efficient that would be, although it would be weird to have 4 real gears on a hybrid. A 4-speeder, in 2016!

I think Lexus are playing it too safe with the LC500h. It should've been a plugin hybrid with 400+ hp, a ton of torque and decent battery range, using their latest small turbos instead of the same old big V6 they've been throwing into their performance hybrids. I don't know how it would compete against the i8 and future German sport hybrids in the same price bracket.

 

That interior color combination looks awful

 

it is very disappointing.

Until you realize that LC500h has improved the acceleration over GS450h by over 1s.

0-62mph
GS450h: 5.9s
LC500h: 4.8s (or less).

So LC500h's 0-60 should be 4.5s or less (5.6s for GS450h). That significantly impressive for vehicle that should weight around the same as GS450h!

Apperantly, they quote improved efficiency, so we are going to have a car that does over 30 MPG and under 4.5s 0-60mph all without deception and cost of 20 mile plugin hybrids.

So yes, this is trully impressive powertrain and lets bring it to GS450h ASAP!!!


p.s. GS450h has very expensive 2 stage planetary gearset right now, which is why it is so much more expensive over RX450h. This basically introduces 4 stages into that equation, instead of 2. RX450h and other Lexus and Toyota hybrids have 1 stage transmissions basically.

Engine is also changed. About the same HP but achieved at 6,600 rpm like regular GS350. Maybe it is not full time atkinson cycle anymore? But it is still missing 11hp from GS350 so who knows really. Most important part is that efficiency has improved.

 

I read an interview article. Mark Templin want a loaded (fully loaded?) LC500 under 100k, so 90K starting price is quite possible.

 

I'm a little bit confused. Is 500h going to be base engine? There is no way people are paying more for 350hp regardless of 0-60 time. Most people only look at hp # and not how efficient the car use its power. I hope it's priced similarly to 500.

 

People are paying 57,000-59,000 for brand new rcf . You can see on the rcf forum

 

Why not Tan/Caramel Seats as well? Those white seats look off.

 

Here we get more info:
http://www.autofans.be/reportages/sa...s-lc-500h-2016

- there is still e-CVT, but 4 speed auto now acts as 4 reduction gears. This is why it is so fast and why it gets even better MPG than before. So you could say it has 10 gears. Think of it as transmission on bike! Previous GS450h had 2 planetary gearsets for 2 reduction gears, thats why it was much faster than RX450h.
- 1800kg total weight - 4050lbs. Very light for a hybrid!
- Maximum electric speed is 85 mph!!! Prius G3 had 42mph, Prius G4 has 70mph, now LC450h brings it to 85mph! This means significantly better highway consumption in real life.

So this will be not only really fast, but also be very efficient, more so than GS450h today, maybe even considerably so.

 

well, lets look at it this way. Each of 4 reduction gears of 4AT will be paired with unlimited ratio E-CVT that has 6 virtual gears in GS450h. So we could say it has 24 gears!!!


LEXUS 500h HAS 24 GEARS!

:-)

 

Well there is your explanation why its faster to 60mph from standstill.

 

this is not a plugin... batteries can contribute only 60hp on their own due to their size (plugins can do much more but only for 20-30miles after which extra batteries are dead weight). Deciding factor is likely reduction gears from 4AT... electric hp is increased by 19hp, which isnt a bad increase but it isnt a lot either. Q50 with virtually same weight, similar engine and 7 speed DCT, 61hp max battery output, gets 0.5s-0.6s slower 0-60.

Electric only mode means that engine can be shut down during highway cruise, which was not possible before (i think GS450h had maximum of 42mph engine shutdown). So in real life, you will get much better mpg during highway use because engine will be able to shutdown while cruising.

I think this increase in Prius to 70mph is what is getting all these reviewers so much better test mileages, much better than EPA numbers suggest. We should have the same in LC500h.

 

Not the color combination I would get but I applaud Lexus for varying the pallet. Very rich.

Great highlights

Finally!!

 

Breathtaking interior!

 

57K-59K. Are you sure?