The flagship salon in the Lexus’s line-up is the LS. The car will be stepping into its fifth generation and has been caught testing ahead of its global debut at the 2017 Detroit Motor Show.
Lexus dropped a teaser of the LS’s underpinning a few days back. The test mule spotted testing is heavily cladded with little to give away of what the new flagship saloon would look like. But we expect the car to bear resemblance to the LF-LC four-door concept showcased at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show. The new LS is also expected to be wearing the brand’s new ‘spindle grille’ as the front fascia.
The flagship saloon seemed to have grown in size than its predecessor and that’s fitting for the competition it will be facing. The Japanese automaker’s flagship sedan will make use of Toyota’s all-new platform called the Global Architecture-Luxury, or GA-L for short which currently underpins the Lexus LC500h, and will be the base for the future front engine, rear-wheel drive cars from the manufacturer.
Powering the sedan could be a 3.5-litre V6 hybrid powertrain or the 5.0-litre V8 scrounged from the LC500h and LC500 respectively. Transmission could be a 10-speed automatic. The Japanese manufacturer is likely to even offer this LS with a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain in future.
The next-gen LS squarely rivals the BMW 7 Series, Mercedes S-Class and Audi A8. It would be evenly matched with these lavish barges in terms of features, safety and luxury. We’ll have to wait for the Detroit debut for further details on this car. As far as the Indian launch is concerned, the debut of the Lexus brand in India could hopefully bring the new LS on to the Indian shores.