Lexus doesn’t really have a styling identity as strong as, say, BMW with its unmistakable kidney grille. It has been rounding itself off as a unique manufacturer, but up until the latest generation of models, their offerings were really rather conservative looking.
Now, as the brand approaches its 25th anniversary, the head of its European division, Alain Uyttenhoven thinks they’ve reached “the end of puberty.” The epitome of their current vision is the pint-sized LF-SA concept (pictured), a study that’s more bold than it is beautiful, but at least it shows ambition and the desire to stand out from the crowd.
Uyttenhoven told Autocar that “what we’ve decided is that because we are the challenger, we have to be different. We have to be distinctive, be bold and produce cars that don’t look like the other offerings in the segment. What we know, from customer clinics, is that our design polarises at the moment. And we want that.”
What he’s basically saying is Lexus is not apologizing for its new flamboyant ways and in fact it will continue to pursue this more individual path.
Probably the best point made in the entire source article revolves around the idea that “for some brands, not displeasing people is becoming more important than really pleasing a smaller group of people. We’d like to think that’s to our advantage.”
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