perhaps but the ES really doesn't fit the mould of those cars. it's trying to be something it's not and can't be, with this leaked design.

hopefully this thing is just for china and the ES keeps its soul here in the US.

 

That will only bother someone who wants an pure EV.

 

I shouldn't even say leaked. this is lexus's own release... so it's happening. just a question of where i guess...

 

Yep we'll all stay tuned.

 

it'll bother sales when one EV can't compete with a pure EV because it doesn't have XYZ features of pure EV. we're seeing this happening now with the sales charts of EVs. heck even pure EVs are a far extremely distant 2nd place in terms of pure US sales. so being a compromised EV has exponentially more difficult challenges.

 

also tech. the #1 most important factor in their EV purchase is technology. these shared platform cars keep using recycled old legacy contract technology so it's an EV with gas car technologies. old school contracts. vs. developing new stuff from scratch customers want.

 

Up until a couple of years ago that was the barking orders from engineering consulting firms. However Legacy that followed these orders have not found much success, besides asking their captives to magic math the crap out of leases.

BMW however has been able to utilize their multi powertrain CLAR platform approach and is actually moving units out of all the legacy mfgs with as little magic math as possible.

I think shifting to a pure EV platform will need to be pushed out further along with recent shifts in the global regulatory environment.

 

not leaked. And it’s a global release. ES has debuted in China for 7th Gen. 8th Gen is no different.

But don’t worry, the US will be last of the main markets to receive it due to tariffs. These ones are all assembled in Japan.

 

HEV and BEV of the ES doesn’t share platforms.

 

So, almost 400hp?

 

That's doesn't seem like what the buyers want, BMW is the most successful legacy luxury maker with EVs, and that is only because they made look exactly like their gas/hybrid variants, only a powertrain option. On the other hand Mercedes and Audi did the pure EV path with the EQ and e-Tron lines, both failed miserably, Mercedes already announced they are scrapping the whole pure EV (EQ) stuff and switching to similar strategy as BMW which is offering an EV variant of each one of their gas models and they already started with the new CLA which has EV and gas variants. Audi also will follow BMW example.

Lexus, is following the same what BMW proved the only way the people want, the traditional cars we know just with an EV variant, they will be stupid to experience with the pure EV stuff after the results we saw with BMW EV strategy vs the others.

 

Maybe Lexus will rethink moving ES production out of US. This market and infrastructure is nowhere ready for EV mass buying. Especially if gas prices goes under $2/gallon which I believe will happen. Also Japan is in talks with administration today about tariffs so hopefully it can be worked out.

 

What tech are we talking about here?
Do the customers want the bleeding edge stuff that is not tested long enough and will break after the warranty is out?
Or do the customers want something that is tested for years?
This is why I like Japanese.. Instead of starting from scratch and throwing everything they have done in the bin, they improve slowly which makes these systems more reliable in the long run.

 

Looks really nice.

https://www.carscoops.com/2025/04/2026-lexus-es-to-debut-on-april-23-as-a-global-flagship-is-the-ls-about-to-get-axed/

 

Not to be rude, but I’ll stop laughing long enough to ask how you think gas will go below $2/gallon? Unless the global oil market collapses, the price per barrel plummets and the US oil industry wants to lose massive profits…?