Toyota filed trademark applications for “LFR” and “Lexus LFR” in Europe. The company submitted the documents on October 14, 2022. Since that is the same date as the posting of this story, the European Union Intellectual Property Office is still processing the request. This procedure usually takes several months before the agency decides whether to grant the trademark.
What makes this submission interesting is that Lexus has a well-established naming scheme consisting of two letters and three numbers. Sometimes, there’s an “h” at the end denoting the hybrid powertrain. LFA supercars are an exception to this nomenclature.
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With this in mind, seeing the LFR trademark caught our interest because of the name’s similarity to LFA. Although, this app sometimes does nothing because the automaker thought that it might use the name but ended up making a different decision.
Another factor that makes this submission interesting is that Lexus may be working on a new supercar. The Electrified Sport concept (gallery above) originally debuted in December 2021 and made its public debut at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed. It was also on display during this year’s Monterey Car Week.
Lexus said that they plan to put the Electrified Sport concept into production. The goal was to create a vehicle with a range of more than 435 miles (700 kilometers) and capable of reaching 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour) in a little over 2.0 seconds. The exact powertrain specifics remain a mystery.
There are rumors that the production version of the Electrified Sport concept will use a simulated manual transmission. The technology allegedly limits the power output of the electric motor and makes the driver change “gears” to open more. However, the system is reportedly still in an experimental stage, so things could change.
Meanwhile, Lexus plans to build the Electrified Sport concept. The time to debut is still a mystery.
The first in the new Lexus EV family is the RZ 450e. It goes on sale in the US before the end of the year.
