500-Mile Range Lexus EV With Advanced Battery Tech Could Debut Next Month

At a recent Lexus Showcase event, the Japanese carmaker announced very exciting news about a "revolutionary" new EV. In 2026, the company plans to introduce an EV featuring the company's next-gen battery technology, a new modular platform, a new software platform, and completely new production methods.

The model will be unveiled for the first time next month at the Japan Mobility Show to drum up excitement. The company has been dropping hints at what its next major EV will be for a while now, and we have a feeling it's going to be a luxurious competitor to the Porsche Taycan.

During Toyota's 2022 financial recap meeting earlier this year, the company very briefly showed off images of a radical-looking Lexus EV. The four-door coupe shown is striking and features a Lexus badge on the C-pillar. It was only shown for a couple of slides, but it's hard not to think this is next in the EV pipeline.

Making a striking competitor to the likes of the Taycan, Audi e-Tron GT, and Tesla Model S is just the thing Lexus needs to capture the attention of affluent buyers. If that EV can then upstage most of them with killer performance, excellent range, and perhaps a manual transmission too, well, the company would be in a rather impressive position.

Toyota recently announced its future technology roadmap, and during that presentation, it announced impressive performance goals. We're talking 600 miles of range and 10-minute fast charging all thanks to solid-state battery technology set to arrive by 2027. Prior to that, the company says its EVs should be able to achieve 500 miles of range with a 20-minute charge just one year prior in 2026.

If this is the technology underpinning Lexus' upcoming EV, we're definitely in for something special. Of course, these numbers are entirely unverified as of now, and delays could definitely happen, but this would truly be the hump that revolutionizes the EV industry. Not many people will be able to complain about electric cars when they're cruising hundreds of more miles on a single charge and you're not stopping to fill up.

One would imagine this technology will make new EVs much more expensive, but Toyota asserts that some of the new batteries will be 20% cheaper than the old ones and others as much as 40% cheaper.

If significantly better range for less money sounds too good to be true, we're right there with you. We're excited to see what Lexus unveils in October, but it's going to be years before we're able to see if Toyota can live up to these claims.