Is another legacy car maker failing to fully grasp the current trends in the automotive industry?
Last weekend, while speaking at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Lexus president Yoshihiro Sawa joined his German car industry counterparts in what is seemingly another cautious wade into the waters of the electric car. During his first visit to Goodwood, Sawa talked to the press about the electric future for his company. He revealed that Lexus is working on all types of electric vehicle powertrains – being developed in conjunction with their parent company Toyota – but they aren’t going to leap into the electric car market any time soon. He believes that staying until the customer and environmental benefits are clear is a good way to go about the whole electric car thing.
Certainly, Mr. Sawa is more than qualified to make these assumptions. However, while we tend to agree in part with his conclusions, the sheer real-world examples provide us with a completely different view of things. The fully-electric Toyota Landcruiser conversion, or the record-breaking 2017, where we saw electric vehicle sales up more than 25 percent compared to the year before, beg us to differ. Right now, even some of Lexus’ primary competitors like BMW and Mercedes already offer plug-in hybrid variants of their flagship sedans, specifically, the 7 Series and S-Class, but Lexus is staying silent on the EV front.
While we’re not ready to call it quits on Lexus just yet, these are not strong signals for an electric future from one of the world’s most premier luxury car brands. If the trend within the company isn’t reversed and more emphasis isn’t put on electric vehicles, we fear the Japanese car company may soon face the prospect of doing simply too little, too late.
Is another legacy car maker failing to fully grasp the current trends in the automotive industry?
Last weekend, while speaking at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Lexus president Yoshihiro Sawa joined his German car industry counterparts in what is seemingly another cautious wade into the waters of the electric car. During his first visit to Goodwood, Sawa talked to the press about the electric future for his company. He revealed that Lexus is working on all types of electric vehicle powertrains – being developed in conjunction with their parent company Toyota – but they aren’t going to leap into the electric car market any time soon. He believes that staying until the customer and environmental benefits are clear is a good way to go about the whole electric car thing.
Certainly, Mr. Sawa is more than qualified to make these assumptions. However, while we tend to agree in part with his conclusions, the sheer real-world examples provide us with a completely different view of things. The fully-electric Toyota Landcruiser conversion, or the record-breaking 2017, where we saw electric vehicle sales up more than 25 percent compared to the year before, beg us to differ. Right now, even some of Lexus’ primary competitors like BMW and Mercedes already offer plug-in hybrid variants of their flagship sedans, specifically, the 7 Series and S-Class, but Lexus is staying silent on the EV front.
While we’re not ready to call it quits on Lexus just yet, these are not strong signals for an electric future from one of the world’s most premier luxury car brands. If the trend within the company isn’t reversed and more emphasis isn’t put on electric vehicles, we fear the Japanese car company may soon face the prospect of doing simply too little, too late.
