EVs have a built-in tendency to spontaneously combust – and now they’re fritzing out before they can spontaneously combust. The latest one to fritz out – that is, to be cancelled before it could spontaneously combust – is the Lexus LF-ZC. Whatever that’s supposed to mean. It looks like someone crumpled up a RAV4 and threw it in the trash. It sounds like the number of a government-subsidized apartment in the old Soviet Union.
That’s pretty close to the mark, when you think about it. Like a government apartment in the old Soviet Union, the LF-ZC was essentially government-mandated and – despite the desperate attempts made by Lexus designers to make it look different – it would have been very much the same as every other device.
Just more expensive.
Lexus used to be something more than just that. In fact, it established itself as a brand by being less than that. A brief summary: Back in the late 1980s, Toyota – which up to that point had been a mass market/economy car brand – decided to enter the luxury brand market. Lexus was to be that new luxury line and one of its first offerings was the LS sedan. It was a better-built luxury sedan and a much better value than the Mercedes luxury sedans it was specifically designed to best. And so it did. Lexus chewed into the luxury sedan market like that great white shark chomped down on Captain Quint in Jaws. Things were never the same afterward.
Lexus became what Mercedes used to be: The pre-eminent luxury car brand.
Well, here we are about 40 years later and Lexus almost made the same mistake Mercedes did make. Benz didn’t just drink the EV Kool Aid. Benz picked up the punch bowl with both hands and guzzled the whole thing down – with results as predictable as what happened after the Kook Aid was drunk at Jonestown. The German luxury brands slew of battery powered devices – models such as the EQS and EQE – encountered hesitancy when they were brought out. Probably because there’s something not-exactly “luxurious” about camping out at a Sheetz or Wal-Mart waiting for your device’s battery to recover some charge. And also something worse. When Mercedes sent me an EQS to test drive one very cold December, it wasn’t just wasted time that was on the activity list. The car’s range plummeted rapidly in the bitter cold, which engendered something like that sinking feeling Titanic’s passengers must’ve felt once they realized the ship was going to sink. It’s not a good feeling. I remember looking at the range-remaining indicator and then the air temp (outside) indicator, which was something like 12 degrees and began to think that I would have been smart to bring along a heavy coat and gloves – because the car might not make it home.
Luckily, it did – but you see the point.
It’s one thing to have to deal with a marginally reliable old piece of crap; it is another thing to spend six figures on a marginally reliable piece of crap. Not just the fact that you can’t depend on the thing but that the thing is embarrassing. There’s less shame in having to hoof it because your $1,850 piece of shit left you stranded; it’s expected. But how embarrassing is it when you can afford to buy something very expensive and it leaves you stranded (or constantly threatens to). Calling someone to get you is mortifying because you know they’re laughing at you rather than sympathizing with you. One that – on top of everything else – has all the individuality and specialness of a shopping cart at Wal-Mart.
This is the foundational problem with EVs as luxury-brand vehicles. Other than what they cost, they are essentially the same as other EVs that cost a lot less. Buying one is like paying three times as much for a bottle of water that has a fancy label (and worse, really, because water is something everyone needs). There is an old story about the guy who transformed GM’s Pontiac division into GM’s hottest performance division back in the ’60s, beginning with the introduction of the 1964 GTO (widely considered the first mass-market muscle car). He is said to have said that while you can sell an old man a young man’s car, you can’t sell a young man an old an’s car (he meant the Pontiac lineup before the GTO).
Well, the same basic idea arguably applies to EVs. You can maybe sell a battery powered device as an appliance to epople looking for an appliance; that is, something to get them from A to B. But it’s harder to sell a battery powered appliance as something more than just another appliance. Benz – and it’s not just Benz – is learning this the hard way. Lexus is avoiding learning it, by cancelling the LF-ZC before it can fail.
Unsurprisingly, the press sees this as some sort of fail.
“Lexus, which unveiled the LF-ZC concept in 2023 to genuine enthusiasm, now joins a growing list of automakers that promised a flagship electric future and have quietly walked it back. For enthusiasts who were watching the brand’s halo strategy closely, this is a significant step backward,” says MSNBC.
Italics added.
“Genuine enthusiasm”? From whom? Well, the press of course. It is composed chiefly of people who are enthusiastic about everything pushed rather than offered, to succeed or fail on its merits. “Enthusiasts”? Who are these, exactly? They are certainly not people who are enthusiastic about cars – and driving. Such people generally regard EVs with little, if any enthusiasm because EVs are as exciting as shopping carts at Wal-Mart.
“A significant step backwards”? How is that, exactly? Put another way, how is it a step backwards to cancel a model its maker knows is unwanted – and which is unwanted because it is objectively inferior to the models it was made to replace?
Never mind. But raise a glass in praise of common sense. Ding-dong, the LF-ZC is dead!
. . .
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[…] https://www.ericpetersautos.com/2026/06/03/another-ev-fritzes-out/ […]
Shame what has become of Lexus.
Seemingly reduced to a purveyor of crossovers – mostly the RX and NX nowadays.
GX seems relatively popular.
Soon to be as forgettable as Buick.
And whatever you do, don’t dare look at the sedans. That segment is being held afloat now by the dinosaur IS350 – which has been getting continued refreshes since 2014. Even worse, they discontinued the IS500 with the mighty 5.0.
LS is dead (RIP) along with LC.
And god only knows if the hideous new ES will sell. Doubt it.
Say whatever you wish about the Japanese, they are nothing if not pragmatic.
Toyota leadership realizes this would be spending resources they don’t have and won’t be governmentally reimbursed for this boondoggle.
Huzzah for Toyota/Lexus Common Sense and recognizing customer’s and free market demands!
I’m glad Lexus execs realized this butt-ugly appliance would never sell in enough numbers to recoup the government-mandated “investments” needed to put this glorified golf cart into production.
How Jaguar thinks that its bar of soup EV will sell is beyond me. A 3rd grader could design a better exterior for a luxury car than that bloated, combustible battery barge.
The problem the press have is that their world stops at the city limits. The press people are drawn to political power like moths to light and political power is concentrated in cities like LA, NY, DC, Chicago,etc. So yes, an EV makes perfect sense to them because of the geographical small area they live in. They completely ignore the vast areas that is considered “fly over” country. The press are also genuinely or deliberately ignorant of the fact that any economy such as ours runs on petroleum and there is no other substitute. Not to mention the fact that they are the product of modern indoctrinated “education”.
Where to start…The battery powered car was a response by automakers to the mandates of the oversized bloated unelected bureaucrats demand for a gas mileage mandate that is unattainable for the internal combustion engine. They would no longer have to buy credits for compliance from Tesla. It seems saner minds prevail.
I drove Lincolns for 25 years, they no longer offer a CAR, so when it was recently time to replace my MKz I opted for a Lexus sedan and I hope it lasts a long time due to the demands Govt is putting on new cars nowadays. The new design of the Lexus hybrid is god awful ugly, similar to the one pictured above, I would not buy one of the new models if that is all they offered.
By the way, if you’re paying six dollars for a bottle of Smart water…it aint workin.
Lügenpresse stenographers just keeping catapulting the propaganda:
‘Once you’ve decided to buy an electric vehicle, the exciting [sic] but tricky part is choosing which one to get.
‘For a growing number of car shoppers, an electric SUV makes the most sense for everyday life. The latest models have enough range to handle everyday driving and the occasional trek out of town without much [sic] of an issue. They’re also roomy for your family and have some innovative technology features.
‘But which one to get [the old A-B sales close]? That’s where the Tesla Model Y and Toyota bZ come in.’ — APe News
https://apnews.com/article/tesla-model-y-toyota-bz-suv-634c14e0e8129efe54b4f6ea8df91ae4
Who programs these bizarre lifeforms, spewing disinformation like a fire hose raining ammonia?
In our grandparents’ day, so I’m told, most cities had competing morning and evening ‘papers’ — sometimes half a dozen of them in big cities! But most of them died. 🙁
Those papers died, its true. But they were consumed, incorporated, assimilated by ruthless sociopaths who recognized the evil black magic that is propaganda. They didn’t just die to give birth to younger ones as God and nature intended.
Hey boomer, guess what, you now have more access to information and differing viewpoints now than you ever had back in the newspaper days.
But sure – go ahead and weep for the newspapers.
EVs may have luxury car branding. They may have luxury car bells and whistles. They most certainly have luxury car price tags.
But all EVs have two inherent qualities that are not luxurious: Inconvenience and losses.
Even the most luxurious of EVs entails inconvenience—inconvenience of finding a close available and compatible charging station, waiting for a charge, paying with an app, and finding the next charging station—along with losses of time and money.
So thanks, but no thanks.
MSNBC’s Alina Moore reports from a planet that sounds a lot like ours, except for its weird obsession with EeeVees:
[The LF-ZC] was meant to be Lexus’s most credible answer to the growing field of electric flagship machines.
The timing stings. Ferrari just revealed its first electric model, the Luce, to widespread criticism, while the broader EV supercar conversation is louder than ever.‘
Electric flagship machines? A loud ‘EV supercar conversation’?
Man, they’ve got some strange lifeforms in that parallel solar system, where the sky is yellow and the sun is blue.
The stupidity of the EV “luxury model” fanbois is astounding. Why pay close to six figures for a vehicle/device with all the shortcomings everyone should know about by now, especially the range shrink in cold weather. My four cylinder Corolla keeps me toasty warm in single digit temperatures with no loss of range. Either these people drank a pitcher of kool-aid or they just love to virtue signal regardless of the cost.
These things are city cars. Not town cars -those wonderful old Lincolns that were basically a shortened limousine, but cars that are made for city dwellers. People who might hit 50 MPH on the expressway on Sunday morning but otherwise spend their driving day in mostly bumper to bumper traffic (because the sat-nav tells them to take the same route as everyone else). If you keep them under 40 MPH and drive 25 miles a day you can easily go for a week without charging… unless there’s abnormal weather like July and August heat or November through March northeast cold, which according to the new multi-culti weather “girl” is now abnormal.
But $80K city cars have a pretty limited market. Most of the people in cities rent or own condos, so getting chargers installed in their parking area is at best a committee decision or at worst an “asshole landlord” decision. Either way you’re going to have to convince someone with no skin in the game and instant veto power to spend some money on your new toy. Oh sure, there are subsidies, but even more work for the landlords who will never see the payback.
Meanwhile out in the sticks… Sure there are Tesla chargers around, there’s one about 2 miles away from where I’m typing this. And I even see a few recharging once in a while. It’s right next to a gas station/convenience store that’s got a nice greasy spoon restaurant attached. Or you can walk a block or two further and visit the pot shop/liquor store, but that’s a different topic. If you’re headed east you won’t see another Tesla charger station until you get to Denver but there are some off brand chargers in Glenwood Springs, Eagle and Vail. Better hope Vail pass is clear and open, because if you’re detoured up through Leadville you won’t make it to Denver on a charge. People do it, but I don’t need that level of excitement in my life.
This is a fantastic take on the overarching situation. Kudos
Good Lord was that one ugly car.
Sadly under President Newscum it will be coming back
Looks like Akio Toyoda was so furious he kicked its door in. (Ouch!)
Toyoda was just following in the footsteps of ol’ Josiah Wedgwood: as a notoriously exacting and perfectionist boss, Wedgwood would often walk the factory floor of his Etruria works carrying a cane, and smash any piece of pottery or ware that failed to meet his high standards, shouting “This will not do!” 🙂
We need more of that, but unfortunately he’d be sued into oblivion by some green-haired feminist Karen today. And the bureaucrats, lawyers, politicians, courts etc. would all go along with it. Social justice!
Re the green and purple haired femmunists- I’m starting to realize the wisdom of our ancestors in Salem…