Sources suggest that Lexus plans to follow Toyota into the hydrogen fuel cell car market by revealing a new luxury model that will hit the market in 2020.
This luxury FCV from Lexus will be on the lines of Toyota’s Mirai, the world’s first commercially available fuel cell car, but will highlight the performance and luxury lineage that the Lexus’ of today offer.
Alain Uyttenhoven, head of Lexus Europe, told reporters that Lexus is presently tweaking the hydrogen-fuelled technology, that’s developed by the parent company Toyota, for its upcoming FCVs. “The problem is packaging the technology into a normal sized car," he told us. "It will fit into an SUV. We just need to get the right level of performance for a premium car.”
It is apparent here that a significant bump up in power can be expected over what the hydrogen fuel cell powerplant in the Mirai makes. This car produces 152bhp from its electric motors which gets the car to hit 100kmph from standstill in 9.6sec, before going on to clock a top speed of 178kmph.
Lexus seems to be all set to excite future customers while it meets the stricter emission norms.