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NEWS
Lexus announces three new models to follow IS
A reprised ES range is scheduled for local launch in Q4, with a new hybrid GS arriving early next yearLexus Australia has confirmed it will follow the July launch of its third-generation IS with the latest front-drive ES and a new GS hybrid.
Not seen here since 2005, the mid-size ES will make its return in Q4 this year, in ES350 petrol and ES300h hybrid variants. Hot on the heels of the ES, a new petrol/electric variant will join the upmarket GS range early in 2014.
Set to supplement the range-topping GS450h, the four-cylinder hybrid GS300h will likely slot in between the base petrol GS250 and the more powerful GS350 pure petrol variants. It gets the same all-new hybrid drivetrain, which will already be on the market in the IS range.
While the ES350 gets the 3.5-litre petrol V6 already well-established in the IS compact and GS premium mid-sizer, the new ES and GS hybrids feature the same four-cylinder engine (turned transverse for the ES, of course).
The package combines a 133kW/221Nm 2.5-litre Atkinson-cycle petrol four with a 105kW/300Nm electric motor. Lexus rates power output at an aggregate 164kW; in the absence of an official combined torque figure, sources have suggested to motoring.com.au it’s good for anything from 260 to 300Nm.
Contrary to current trends in petrol engines, the hybrid mill reaches its peak torque band at a busy 4200rpm. That reflects the nature of Atkinson cycle engines, and this one’s relationship with its electric helper, which serves up its full 300Nm of torque instantaneously. Atkinson cycle engines generate less muscle down low than their conventional Otto cycle counterparts, but they make up for it by being very frugal. So the drivetrain uses the two complementary power plants to offset each other: down low, the engine leaves the electric motor to do the work, then ramps up as the electric mojo tapers off.
The result: decent muscles with excellent fuel consumption figures. Asked the usual questions about specs and pricing, Lexus Australia’s new CEO, Sean Hanley, told motoring.com.au that it’s too early to say.
While we wait for them to nail down the local details, the company’s figures for the US-spec ES300h says 40mpg on the combined cycle, which translates into 5.9L/100km in Aussiespeak. Even taking that merely as an indicator, it looks pretty wholesome for a 1660kg, five-adults-plus-golf-clubs lounge room.
On performance, the ES300h claims 8.1 seconds for the 0-60mph sprint, which means add a couple of points to reach 100 kays. A top speed of 180km/h is far from supersonic in this day and age, but well past the aspirations of the ES’s target market.
Lexus execs have told us in the past that the spacious front-wheeler’s raison d’etre is the retention of the staid, comfort-focused (read: older) customer base with which it’s found success to date, while it goes after their twenty- and thirtysomething offspring with more sporting product, particularly that carrying the F Sport badge. As such, the company has already confirmed there will be no F Sport variant in the ES lineup.
Notable also in the US figures is that the hybrid sits above the V6 ES350, despite being about a second slower to 100km/h and almost 30km/h slower at the top end.
Take it again as a reflection of the target market’s priorities, but we’ll have to wait for word on how the car will be specced and priced locally.
The ES shares platform basics with Toyota’s front-drive Avalon. A near match for the rear-drive GS in exterior dimensions, its FWD layout gives it more interior space. That may come at a cost in driving dynamics, but the ES sets the company up to shift the GS more towards those priorities without alienating an all important element of its existing customer base.
Mr Hanley confirmed it will sit between the IS and GS ranges.
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Written byJeremy Bass
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