Currently reading: Next-gen Lexus IS scooped

Next-generation Lexus IS will feature new chassis technology

Underneath this test mule purporting to be a convertible Lexus IS-F is actually the next-generation version of the firm’s new IS, due on sale next year.

Lexus has confirmed that an IS-F cabrio is not in the current product plan, and the car was acting as a test mule for another model.

US media who saw the mule up close at its test session at the Nürburgring last week report that there were a number of clues that gave away its identity. Chief among these were the aluminium lower control arms of the test car’s rear suspension. The current IS and IS-F use steel. The new GS, on which the next-gen IS will be substantially based, uses aluminium for the multi-link rear suspension and has the option of rear-wheel steer.

The next-gen IS and the current GS are understood to have been developed largely in parallel, so expect many of the innovations of Lexus’s latest 5-series rival to carry over to the smaller model.

Lexus’s former product planning chief, Karl Schlicht, said earlier this year: “The new GS leads to the new IS.”

Features of the new IS are expected to include a stiffer bodyshell, multi-link front suspension, wider tracks and a new look designed to give Lexus’s small saloon greater visual presence.

Don’t expect four-cylinder diesel power to make it into the new IS, however, as Lexus is adamant that hybrids offer similar benefits. The firm is known to be working on a new four-cylinder petrol-electric powertrain that could appear first in the IS.

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The Lexus IS is a sleek junior exec that makes for an interesting alternative but lacks a decent diesel option

Mark Tisshaw

mark-tisshaw-autocar
Title: Editor

Mark is a journalist with more than a decade of top-level experience in the automotive industry. He first joined Autocar in 2009, having previously worked in local newspapers. He has held several roles at Autocar, including news editor, deputy editor, digital editor and his current position of editor, one he has held since 2017.

From this position he oversees all of Autocar’s content across the print magazine, autocar.co.uk website, social media, video, and podcast channels, as well as our recent launch, Autocar Business. Mark regularly interviews the very top global executives in the automotive industry, telling their stories and holding them to account, meeting them at shows and events around the world.

Mark is a Car of the Year juror, a prestigious annual award that Autocar is one of the main sponsors of. He has made media appearances on the likes of the BBC, and contributed to titles including What Car?Move Electric and Pistonheads, and has written a column for The Sun.

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Flash Harry 28 July 2012

I think we might see a BMW

I think we might see a BMW diesel in the IS in a few years

Zedboy 27 July 2012

Poor market research

Gonna need to run on the black stuff Lexus... Sort it out please?!

J400uk 27 July 2012

Why do they keep making the same mistake?

Without a good diesel, it will not sell to the UK fleet market and will continue to be massively outsold by its superior German rivals.