The new Lexus LFA is electric: everything we know, what's rumored and what's still unknown

The Lexus LFA is coming back, but without the V10 that made the original famous. The new LFA is a battery-electric two-seater, developed alongside Toyota's new GR GT road car and GR GT3 race car and built on the same all-aluminum frame (Toyota global newsroom). Spy photos published by Motor1 on Oct 22, 2026 show a camouflaged test car, low and long with its rear wing raised (Motor1).

Officially, it's still the "Lexus LFA Concept." Lexus has published its size and its purpose, but not its power, battery, range, weight, price or how many will be built. Below is what the company has actually said, what has only been reported, and what we still don't know as of Oct 24, 2026.

What we know: the quick list

• Powertrain: battery electric. Lexus says the LFA name is "not bound to vehicles powered by internal combustion engines" (Toyota global newsroom). Motors, power and battery size: not announced.
• Underneath: the Toyota GR GT's all-aluminum body frame, plus the same driving position as the GR GT and GR GT3 (Toyota global newsroom).
• Size: 4,690 mm long (184.6 in), 2,040 mm wide (80.3 in), 1,195 mm tall (47.0 in), 2,725 mm wheelbase (107.3 in), two seats (Lexus USA newsroom).
• Revealed: Dec 5, 2025, at a Toyota plant near Mt. Fuji, after earlier showings as the "Lexus Sport Concept" (Toyota corporate release).
• First public drive: Goodwood Festival of Speed, Jul 9–12, 2026, in camouflage (Lexus Europe).
• Launch: 2027, according to Autocar, Motor1 and Drive. Not announced by Lexus (Autocar; Motor1; Drive).
• Price and build numbers: not announced.

The reveal: a story about being called boring

Toyota revealed the three cars together on Dec 5, 2025 at its old Higashi-Fuji plant, where the first Century was built in 1967 and which is now part of its Woven City project (Toyota corporate release). The speeches, published in full by Toyota, were less about specs than about pride.

Simon Humphries, Toyota's chief branding officer, said that 14 years earlier at Pebble Beach, Akio Toyoda had been told "Lexus is boring." Toyoda's answer became a promise: "No more boring cars." When the team asked how to show the Sport Concept at Pebble Beach in 2025, Humphries said Toyoda told them: "Just put it out there and let it speak for itself." He added that the car is "all under 1,200 mm in height," and that when it's finished "it will answer Akio's last request: to completely redefine the sound of an electric sports car" (Toyota corporate release).

Toyoda, now Toyota's chairman, talked about the first LFA and his late mentor, master test driver Hiromu Naruse. When the original car was done, he said, Naruse told him: "It's the first time I was able to drive Nürburgring just looking ahead." But Toyoda said the win felt incomplete: "The LFA went into volume production, but it was a limited volume production," and he could still hear people saying, "No way that you guys at Toyota could build a car like this!" (Toyota corporate release).

Morizo will continue and stay up and running until I fall down.

— Akio Toyoda, Toyota chairman, at the Dec 5, 2025 premiere

Humphries framed the three cars as one family: "the V8 twin-turbo in the GR GT3 or the hybrid version in the GR GT, both running on conventional fuel or e-fuel, or an electric future in the LFA." Toyota posted the full presentation on its Toyota Times channel (YouTube).

The GR GT underneath, in detail

The LFA shares the GR GT's frame and wheelbase, so the Toyota is the best guide to how the Lexus is built. Toyota published these development targets for the GR GT prototype (Toyota GR GT release):

• Frame: Toyota's first all-aluminum frame, made from large castings and extrusions, with aluminum and carbon fiber body panels.
• Engine: a new 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 (3,998 cc) with the turbos inside the V and a dry-sump oil system, plus one electric motor. It's Toyota's first production twin-turbo V8.
• Output: at least 650 PS (about 641 hp) and 850 Nm (about 627 lb-ft).
• Gearbox: a new eight-speed automatic at the rear axle, with a clutch instead of a torque converter and a mechanical limited-slip differential, linked to the engine by a carbon fiber tube.
• Weight and balance: 1,750 kg (about 3,858 lb) or less, with 45% of the weight on the front wheels.
• Top speed: at least 320 km/h (about 199 mph).
• Size: 4,820 mm long, 2,000 mm wide and 1,195 mm tall. The LFA is 130 mm shorter and 40 mm wider on the same wheelbase.
• Hardware: forged aluminum double wishbones, Brembo carbon brake discs and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, 265/35ZR20 front and 325/30ZR20 rear.

Toyota says aerodynamics came first in the design, with aero engineers from its World Endurance Championship race program involved, and that the car was tested at its Shimoyama proving ground, Fuji Speedway, the Nürburgring and on public roads. Pro drivers Tatsuya Kataoka, Hiroaki Ishiura and Naoya Gamou worked on it, along with Toyoda as "Morizo." The GR GT3 race car is lower and wider (4,785 mm long, 2,050 mm wide, 1,090 mm tall) and built for FIA GT3 racing. Toyota's target for the road car is "around 2027" (Toyota GR GT release).

Toyota hasn't set a price. GR GT project manager Takashi Doi told The Drive the car won't be limited in number because Toyoda didn't like that the LFA was "out of reach of so many," and that the LFA's roughly $375K price was a big barrier. The Drive says hints pointed to about $225K, and that Toyota wouldn't say where the car will be built (The Drive).

Electric hardware: what's known about motors, sound and shifting

Lexus hasn't said how many motors the LFA has or what they produce. The Drive reports that because the car uses the GR GT's frame rather than a flat EV platform, the battery could be T-shaped, sitting up front, in the center tunnel and where the GR GT's gearbox goes (The Drive).

The cabin gives some clues. Lexus says the steering wheel is designed so you never have to move your hands around it and the switches can be used without looking (Lexus USA newsroom). When the interior first appeared at the Japan Mobility Show, Road & Track noted a large "3" over an "M" on the display, shift paddles behind the wheel, a battery temperature readout and a "Boost Map" setting, plus a small drone docked on the roof (Road & Track).

Toyota has worked on fake gears for years. In 2023 Car and Driver drove a Lexus UX 300e prototype with a six-speed shifter and a clutch pedal wired only to software. It could stall, mimic engine braking and let you match revs, and Toyota engineers talked about downloadable "modes," even an LFA mode (Car and Driver). A paddle-shift version called Interactive Manual Drive arrived on the updated Lexus RZ 550e F Sport, revealed in March 2025, simulating an eight-speed gearbox (Lexus Europe). In October 2026 Motor1 reported a newer Toyota patent application that cuts and restores motor torque to copy the jolt of a sequential race gearbox, with sport and race settings. Lexus hasn't said it's going on the LFA (Motor1).

Sound is the open question. Doi told The Drive at the premiere that the sound hadn't been decided (The Drive). In July, LFA project general manager Yukihiro Yukita told Autocar: "We're not just wanting to replicate the sound of the engine: we want to redesign the sound itself." He called weak demand for expensive electric sports cars "our biggest challenge" (Autocar).

Goodwood and the test program

The LFA Concept was booked for static display at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July 2026, but Lexus then ran a camouflaged car up the hill, its first public drive. Lexus and Toyota's drivers that weekend included Elfyn Evans, Kazuki Nakajima, Hiroaki Ishiura, Sho Tsuboi, Yuichi Nakayama and Uwe Kleen. Lexus called it the LFA's return to Goodwood 17 years after the original appeared there (Lexus Europe; Toyota Europe).

This next-generation LFA is a car that provides an immersive experience like no other, imitating nothing else.

— Yukihiro Yukita, Lexus LFA project general manager, Jul 2026

Lexus later released photos and video from the weekend (Lexus Europe; Lexus on YouTube).

Evo spotted changes from the show car on the Goodwood prototype: revised airflow fins on the front splitter and side skirts, a rear wing on two supports instead of one, different lights, and BBS wheels like those on the original LFA Nürburgring Package (evo). Drive in Australia noted regular mirrors instead of cameras and a covered rear window area (Drive).

The newest photos, published by Motor1 on Oct 22, 2026 and credited to an Instagram spotter, show the car in a tight camouflage wrap with its active wing raised (Motor1). The Supercar Blog reported the same day that a camouflaged LFA EV was seen in Spain, describing a slim LED taillight, a built-in diffuser, black wheels and a fixed side window with a small sliding section (The Supercar Blog). One older sighting is often confused with this car: the camouflaged mules seen at the Nürburgring in October 2024 were reported as GR GT relatives with a hybrid V8, not the electric LFA (Car and Driver).

The battery bet

Autocar reports that the LFA is "understood" to be the first production Lexus with solid-state batteries, which hold more energy in less space than today's packs. Lexus hasn't confirmed it (Autocar; Carscoops).

Toyota's own timeline fits. In 2023 it said it aimed to launch electric cars with all-solid-state batteries in 2027–28, working with oil refiner Idemitsu on the solid electrolyte (Toyota), and it set targets of about 20% more range and a 10–80% charge in 10 minutes or less (Toyota). Idemitsu approved a pilot plant in Chiba, Japan, in January 2026, due for completion in 2027 (Idemitsu). Sumitomo Metal Mining is developing the cathode material for the same 2027–28 target (Toyota).

There are mixed signals. In May 2026 Toyota scrapped the production version of the Lexus LF-ZC electric sedan, which the Japan Times reported had been due in mid-2027 with an all-solid-state battery (Japan Times). Toyota's chief technology officer said its technology will move to a successor model (Carscoops). Japan's Best Car magazine has published two reports. In February it predicted the LFA would bring solid-state batteries to market in 2028 (Best Car). In August it reported that Lexus was weighing a plug-in hybrid instead of a pure EV after the LF-ZC was canceled, while also hearing that the solid-state battery was on track (Best Car). Lexus hasn't commented on either report.

Meanwhile Lexus's regular EVs keep coming. The 2027 ES sedan is offered as an electric car with up to 307 miles of EPA-estimated range (Lexus USA newsroom), and Lexus revealed the three-row electric TZ SUV in May 2026 (Toyota global newsroom).

The original LFA, and what it's worth now

The first LFA took a decade. It started in 2000 as a Toyota research project under chief engineer Haruhiko Tanahashi, with Naruse and later Akio Toyoda on the team. The first prototype ran in 2003 and lapped the Nürburgring in 2004. Lexus then switched the body from aluminum to carbon fiber, a material it had to learn to make itself (Lexus Europe), including a carbon fiber loom built for the Motomachi plant (The Drive).

Its 4.8-liter V10, the 1LR-GUE, was co-developed with Yamaha (Yamaha) and made 552 hp at 8,700 rpm. Lexus quoted 0–60 mph in 3.6 seconds and a 202-mph top speed, and in the US the car was offered on a two-year lease at an MSRP of $375,000 (Lexus USA newsroom). Production ran from December 2010 to Dec 14, 2012, at up to 20 cars a month, for 500 cars total. Fifty got the Nürburgring Package, with 562 bhp, more aero and quicker shifts. One lapped the Nordschleife in 7:14.64 in August 2011 (Lexus Europe).

It sold slowly when new. Now it's a collector car:

• Bring a Trailer, Apr 29, 2026: a 748-mile 2012 LFA, number 487, sold for $1,810,000. Its window sticker was $383,900 (Bring a Trailer).
• RM Sotheby's Las Vegas 2023: a 2012 LFA Nürburgring Package sold for $1,875,000 (RM Sotheby's).
• RM Sotheby's Monterey 2021: a 2012 LFA Nürburgring Package sold for $1,600,000 (RM Sotheby's).
• RM Sotheby's Arizona 2019: a 2012 LFA Nürburgring Package sold for $885,000 (RM Sotheby's).
• Not every car sells: a Nürburgring Package at RM Sotheby's Miami 2024 went unsold against a $1,550,000–$1,950,000 estimate (RM Sotheby's), and a 2012 LFA at Mecum Monterey 2026 reached $1,250,000 without selling on the block (Mecum).

Where it fits among electric hypercars

The LFA arrives as some rivals step back from electric power. Rimac's Nevera set the benchmark at 1,914 hp, 258 mph and €2 million, with 150 built (Rimac). Lamborghini canceled the electric Lanzador in February 2026 and will make it a plug-in hybrid, with CEO Stephan Winkelmann saying buyer interest in EVs was "close to zero" (Car and Driver). Ferrari went the other way with its first EV, the Luce, which starts at $560,800 in the US (Car and Driver).

Analysis

Our take

Confirmed: the new LFA is electric, it's built on the GR GT's aluminum frame, it has run in public, and Lexus has published its size. Not confirmed: power, range, price, build numbers, the battery type and the launch date. The 2027 timing comes from Lexus staff speaking to the press, and one Japanese magazine still questions whether it stays a pure EV.

Toyota has staked the car on sound and feel, not top speed, which is the right fight given Lamborghini's retreat and Yukita's own worry about demand. The GR GT shows Toyota wants volume this time, not a 500-car run. For original LFA owners, an electric namesake doesn't change the V10's story, and recent sales near $1.8M suggest the market agrees. Watch for the production reveal, a power figure, a price and whether Lexus caps production.