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Lexus Wraps 2025 with Momentum—and a Clear Runway to 2026

As 2025 fades into the rearview mirror, Lexus isn’t coasting. It’s accelerating. The brand closes the year with a sharpened design language, a broader electrified lineup, and the kind of confidence that comes from knowing exactly where it’s headed next.

This was the year Lexus turned incremental progress into visible momentum—proof that its long game of electrification, performance polish, and lifestyle relevance is finally clicking into place.

The ES Grows Up—and Plugs In

The headline act is the all-new 2026 Lexus ES, now in its eighth generation and more ambitious than ever. For the first time, Lexus’s longtime midsize luxury staple isn’t just hybrid—it’s fully electric, too. The ES BEV marks a significant philosophical shift for a nameplate traditionally defined by comfort-first conservatism.

Visually, it’s a departure as well. Drawing heavily from the LF-ZC concept, the new ES introduces a cleaner, more futuristic design language that signals where Lexus styling is headed in the EV era. If this is the template, expect fewer visual gimmicks and more quiet confidence.

RZ: More Power, More Range, More Attitude

Lexus didn’t stop at adding another EV badge. The 2026 RZ receives meaningful hardware upgrades, including a redesigned battery-electric system that boosts motor output, extends EPA-estimated range, and trims charging times—under ideal conditions, anyway.

The real enthusiast bait is the new RZ 550e F SPORT AWD. With higher-output motors front and rear, it finally gives the RZ lineup a version that prioritizes punch over politeness. It’s not a track weapon, but it’s a step toward making Lexus EVs feel less like rolling tech demos and more like driver-focused machines.

EV Ownership, Minus the Headaches

As the BEV lineup expands, Lexus is trying to smooth out the ownership experience. A significantly larger DC fast-charging network, Plug & Charge functionality, Apple Maps EV routing via CarPlay, and complimentary charging adapters for existing RZ owners all point to a brand that understands EV friction isn’t just about range—it’s about convenience.

LX Goes Hybrid—and Leans Into It

At the opposite end of the spectrum sits the first-ever LX 700h, a hybrid flagship SUV that blends old-school luxury with modern electrification. For 2026, the F SPORT Appearance Package is now exclusive to the LX 700h F SPORT Handling model, underscoring Lexus’s push to make electrification synonymous with performance, not compromise.

It’s a subtle message, but a clear one: hybrids aren’t the side dish anymore—they’re the main course.

Electrification, Everywhere

With electrified versions of the NX, RX, TX, UX, ES, RZ, and LX, Lexus is methodically covering the luxury landscape—from compact crossovers to full-size SUVs. The strategy isn’t about forcing buyers into EVs; it’s about giving them options that fit their lives, whether that means hybrid convenience or full battery power.

Special Editions for the Faithful

Lexus didn’t forget its loyalists. For 2026, the LC coupe and convertible return with Inspiration Series editions—limited, striking, and unapologetically emotional in a lineup increasingly dominated by efficiency metrics.

Then there’s the LS AWD Heritage Edition, limited to just 250 U.S. units. Finished in Ninety Noir with a Rioja Red interior, it’s a tasteful nod to the sedan that launched the brand—and a reminder that Lexus still knows how to do understated drama.

The IS Gets Its Swagger Back

The 2026 IS 350 also emerged from the shadows with a visual refresh that finally gives the compact sport sedan the presence it’s been missing. Its first public showing at Motul Petit Le Mans was no accident—Lexus clearly wants the IS associated with motorsport energy, not just suburban driveways.

Lifestyle, Loud and Clear

Beyond the metal, Lexus doubled down on cultural relevance. Culinary Masters, the World Surf League, fashion collaborations, and even movie tie-ins may sound like marketing fluff—but they reinforce a broader point: Lexus is actively shaping a lifestyle identity, not just selling transportation.

Racing Still Matters

And then there’s motorsport—the brand’s credibility check. The Lexus Vasser Sullivan team delivered once again, landing on the podium at Petit Le Mans and marking their fifth podium finish there in six years. In a sport defined by margins, that kind of consistency matters.

It was a season built on precision, pressure, and persistence—the same traits Lexus is leaning on as it transitions into its next era.

The Bottom Line

2025 wasn’t about one breakout car or a single headline-grabbing reveal. It was about alignment. Design, electrification, performance, and brand identity are finally pulling in the same direction.

If this year was about proving Lexus is ready for the future, 2026 looks like the year it plans to own it.

Source: Lexus

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Renault Filante Concept Proves 600-Plus Miles Is Possible at Highway Speeds

If you want to make an electric car go far, the traditional recipe is simple: add battery, slow way down, and celebrate the spreadsheet win. Renault did the opposite—and still rewrote the rulebook.

The brand’s radical Filante concept has just covered 626 miles in 10 hours at an average speed of 63 mph, sipping electrons at a remarkable 8 miles per kilowatt-hour. That’s not a hypermiling stunt carried out at bicycle speeds, either. Renault is keen to point out that this was meant to resemble real motorway use, not a science fair record run.

The Filante is a single-seat, aero-obsessed EV concept built with one goal in mind: efficiency at speed. Crucially, it uses the same 87.0-kWh battery pack found in the Renault Scenic electric SUV. No trick chemistry. No oversized battery stuffed into a teardrop. Just ruthless attention to weight and airflow.

And it worked. When the 10-hour run ended at the UTAC test facility in Morocco, the Filante still had 11 percent charge remaining—enough, Renault says, for another 75 miles at more than 62 mph. Push harder and run it flat, and engineers estimate the total distance could have reached about 701 miles.

That context matters. If Renault simply wanted a headline-grabbing range number, it could have bolted in a massive battery or trundled around at 19 mph in full eco mode. Instead, engineers were given a tougher brief: average more than 68 mph, include pit stops, and crack the 1000-kilometer (620-mile) barrier in under 10 hours. Mission accomplished—barely, but convincingly.

To understand just how wild this is, consider the Scenic. With the same battery, Renault’s family-friendly SUV is rated for up to 379 miles. The Filante nearly doubled that, thanks largely to two advantages SUVs can only dream of: mass and drag. At just 1000 kg—roughly half the weight of the Scenic—and shaped more like an airplane fuselage than a car, the Filante wastes almost nothing pushing through the air.

Three drivers rotated through the run, logging a total of 239 laps of UTAC’s 2.5-mile circuit. No drama, no last-minute heroics—just relentless, quiet efficiency.

Of course, you’re not going to see a single-seat, canopy-covered Renault on your morning commute anytime soon. But that’s not the point. According to Renault, the Filante is less a moonshot than a rolling laboratory. Its aerodynamic tricks, lightweight thinking, and energy-management lessons are intended to feed directly into future road cars.

And that’s the real takeaway. This wasn’t about chasing an abstract distance record. It was about proving that long-range EV driving at sustained highway speeds isn’t fantasy—it’s physics, engineering, and discipline. If even a fraction of what the Filante demonstrates makes its way into production Renaults, the next generation of EVs could make range anxiety feel as outdated as a carburetor.

Efficiency, it turns out, is still the fastest way forward.

Source: Renault

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Jaguar’s Last Roar: The Final F-Pace Marks the End of an Era

Some endings are loud. Others happen with a quiet click as the factory lights dim and the line stops moving. Jaguar’s is a little of both.

The final Jaguar F-Pace has rolled off JLR’s Solihull production line, closing the book not just on the brand’s best-selling model, but on every combustion-powered Jaguar ever built. When that last SUV cleared the line, Jaguar didn’t merely discontinue a nameplate—it stepped fully out of the internal-combustion era.

Sales of the F-Pace ended in the UK last November, but production continued briefly for markets including the U.S., Australia, China, and mainland Europe. Now that run is finished too, leaving Jaguar in an unprecedented position: the brand currently sells no cars, anywhere, in the world.

That’s not a typo. Jaguar, one of Britain’s most storied marques, has gone completely dark as it prepares for reinvention.

The F-Pace’s exit is symbolically heavy. Launched in 2016, it was Jaguar’s first SUV and a commercial turning point for a company that had spent decades defining itself through sleek sedans and long-hood grand tourers. Traditionalists scoffed. Buyers didn’t. More than 300,000 F-Paces were sold worldwide, making it one of the most successful Jaguars of all time and, arguably, the car that kept the brand afloat during a turbulent decade.

If Jaguar had to go out on an ICE-powered note, at least it chose a loud one. The final F-Pace built was the range-topping SVR, complete with its supercharged V-8 and unapologetic performance bent. Finished in black—the same color worn by the final E-Type in 1974—it serves as a deliberate echo of Jaguar history. This one won’t end up in a collector’s garage or an auction catalog. Instead, it’s headed straight for preservation, joining the Jaguar Heritage Trust collection in Gaydon.

That decision feels right. The F-Pace wasn’t just another model; it was a pivot point.

And now comes the pause before the leap.

Jaguar’s future begins next year with the production version of the Type 00 concept, the first model in an all-electric lineup that will redefine what the brand stands for. Jaguar executives have been clear—this isn’t about replacing the XE with an electric XE or the F-Pace with a battery-powered equivalent. The reset is total. New platforms, new positioning, new customers.

Earlier this month, Autocar sampled the upcoming EV, offering the first hints of how radically different the next Jaguar will be. Details remain scarce, but the direction is unmistakable: less legacy luxury, more avant-garde design, and pricing that aims well north of where Jaguar traditionally played.

That makes the F-Pace’s farewell feel even more significant. It represents the last moment when Jaguar still tried to balance modern market demands with its historical identity. It was practical, fast, stylish enough, and—most importantly—profitable. In many ways, it was Jaguar’s most realistic car.

Now realism gives way to ambition.

Whether Jaguar’s all-electric gamble pays off remains an open question. The luxury EV space is crowded, competitive, and unforgiving. Reinvention is expensive, patience is thin, and nostalgia doesn’t pay the bills. But standing still would have been worse.

So the final F-Pace exits quietly, its V-8 cooling for the last time, its job done. It didn’t save Jaguar forever—but it bought the brand the chance to try again.

And in today’s car industry, that might be the most Jaguar thing of all.

Source: Jaguar Enthusiasts’ Club via Facebook

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