A baby Lexus has been teased, a big one is hinted as a Prado and Toyota has announced yet another strategy to go electric - starting with another platform.

DOWNSIZING seems to be the theme for the smallest and least expensive car Lexus offers, with Toyota’s luxury arm today offering a sneak look at upcoming compact electric sports utility seemingly set to continue as a hybrid, rather than deep dive into full electric.

The make also confirmed the impending car, set to be fully unwrapped next month, will take a name it trademarked in 2020: LBX.

Set to site below the newly launched RZ EV, the new car effectively replaces the CT200h, a hybrid hatch that launched way back in 2011 and was based off the Toyota Prius before last.

LBX seems likely to base off the Toyota Yaris Cross, which means it will take a self-involving mild hybrid system, without capability of mains-replenishment. 

If that’s the case, the car is immediately on the back foot with New Zealand’s Clean Car scheme, which has recently withdrawn the rebate that applied to that technology. Changes enacting on July 1 withdraw rebates from almost all the Toyota and Lexus mild hybrids.

Lexus, of course, also now provisions the RZ, which utilises the e-TNGA architecture - a version of the TNGA underpinning used more broadly by Yaris, Corolla and RAV4 - that underpins the Toyota Bz4X and its twin the Subaru Solterra. The platforms are so close that TNGA and e-TNGA cars can roll down the same assembly line.

Suggestion the e-TNGA platform has been marked for an early retirement, seems to have been conceded in a fresh Toyota announcement from new chief executive Koji Sato. 

The latest news suggests Toyota will reassess that current electric car platform strategy. In a media call about Toyota’s financials - in healthy state, with $NZ35.4 billion in operating income  reported - he repeated comment made earlier this year that the company's current approach to EV architecture is too complex and not cost-effective for competing with the likes of Tesla.

Lexus/Toyota New Zealand has said nothing. 

Lexus here also steered clear of sending out the LBX teaser images; which had come from head office in Japan and shared to media in most other parts of the world, Australia included.

The teasers suggest a duckbill-like front end and a largely familiar Lexus design at the rear. 

The spotlight going onto LBX comes a week on from talk that the Lexus GX (below) revealed in North America, to fuel speculation this is the luxury twin-under the skin to the next generation of the ancient Toyota Land Cruiser Prado.

Talk that the Lexus edition might also come out in right hand drive, alongside the Toyota edition expected to arrive in 2024 - about 18 months behind schedule - was sparked when Lexus in Australia shared images of the GX with media there. They believe that wouldn’t have happened unless a release was planned.

GX has historically been closely related to Prado, though not so much in respect to styling. The upmarket marque puts a different front end on its model and delivers a more luxurious interior.

However, under the skin they are all but the same. The GX is expected to run a twin-turbo petrol V6; Prado might be expected to continue with a turbocharged four-cylinder diesel.

Atop of all this, Toyota has just held a media call to mark the end of its financial year - in which new chief executive and president, Koji Sato, offered yet another corporate explanation about how the company will switch to electric motoring. 

The brand has been through this exercise on several occasions over the past few years, and again the precis of the news is: Toyota will continue to concentrate on making hybrids in the immediate term, as the company still sees them as crucial to reducing CO2 emissions and giving buyers whose budgets don't stretch to an EV a start on the electric motoring ladder. 

It cites evidence from the United States that those who buy hybrids and plug-in hybrids are more likely to switch to an all-electric car, so Toyota hopes this trend continues.

Sato said: "In order to prevent cars from being commodified, we see our strength in hybrid technology as vital. 

“Moving forward, in what we believe to be growth sectors in emerging markets, hybrid technology serves a crucial dual role of underpinning our profit foundation and enabling us to produce ever-better cars specific to regional needs, while providing a means to reduce CO2 emissions.

"On the other hand, our 'multi-pathway' strategy emphasises the importance of not concentrating on any single domain, but rather aligning with regional needs to deliver the most appropriate solutions for each area.”

In respect to e-TNGA, he offered: “We believe it's important to make cars that embody our identity, extending not only to hybrids but BEVs as well. 

“We are in the midst of fervently exploring how to create BEVs that only a carmaker can provide. We aim to create a mobility solution within the BEV paradigm that goes beyond merely replacing the powertrain with electric. This goal is fundamental to our efforts as we establish a new organisational structure."

According to Reuters news agency, in spite of sharing parts with TNGA models, the e-TNGA platform has so far not brought the sort of cost-savings that Toyota would want, so it looks as if the Japanese car giant will embark on developing an EV-only platform instead.

Toyota revealed its plans to set up a new BEV factory to accelerate next-generation BEV development and business, embodying Toyota's distinct character as a car manufacturer.