Lexus Teaser Appears to Be Showcasing New BEV… Right?

Lexus issued a teaser this week and it took a few passes before we could identify it as a vehicle. Initially, your dim-witted author presumed it was some kind of at-home charging solution or wildly modern vacuum cleaner design. Lexus’ tagline wasn’t much help, either. “The Future is Electrified” is boilerplate content for the automotive industry right now — or perhaps some highly contagious corporate tic.

This time it’s being used to preview a new battery electric vehicle Toyota’s luxury arm intends on debuting at the Tokyo Motor Show this month… at least that’s what we’ve been told.

Honestly, it’s still a little difficult to tell. While it seems as though we’re getting a close-up glimpse of the portion surrounding the model’s headlight, there are factors at play that make it hard to feel certain of anything. Is that giant opening supposed to be an air inlet? Where does it lead on this purely electric vehicle? Is this even the car’s front?

All Lexus has said is that the model is a concept vehicle “leveraging continued advances in technologies such as electrification and autonomous driving.” While not the most original or descriptive copy the industry has churned out over the last few years, it’s not fair to complain about vagaries surrounding an intentionally mysterious car.

We’re not even going to proclaim this as company’s first BEV, as there’s been no production announcement made. If anything, we imagine Lexus wants to use this creation to test a new design theory or signature feature on the public. Touting any future commitments to electrification is just icing on the cake — but we’ll have to wait and see. There’s always a chance this covert concept could be foreshadowing something the automaker actually wants to put into production.

We’ll know more on October 24th after Lexus has pulled the covers off in Japan.

[Image: Lexus]