Having debuted last year, the announcement that the Lexus LF-Xh concept would be at the Paris Auto Show didn’t really elicit a reaction from me — that is, until I saw this stunning photo released by Lexus Europe to mark the occasion:

(Be sure to click on the image to get the full version, it’s very impressive. I made sure to post it for anyone wanting to use it as a desktop wallpaper.)

Huge fan of the matte black paint, which we saw earlier this year when it was displayed at the Toyota MegaWeb in Tokyo. I’m of the opinion that Lexus should offer this as a standard color, as least on the IS-F. (The Five Axis IS-F surely proved that.)

Today, we have some seriously short video clips of the Lexus GS 450h currently racing around the Targa Newfoundland course. There’s quite a few on Youtube, but these two here are the best indication of the speed and conditions:

As far as the race itself, Team Lexus had a great showing yesterday:

Results for Day One were finally posted and Team Lexus has now officially finished a day at Targa Newfoundland with a perfect score of zero penalty points, along with thirteen other teams. So we can say we led the overall standings at Targa – an honour shared with a baker’s dozen of other teams – for a day.

Realistically, this perfect score might very likely soon become a memory to cherish for some of the teams, because things will get more difficult for everyone today. They certainly will for us, as we tackle two tight stages to start the day. With the weight of our trusty Gs450h, these are typically the most difficult in conditions that reward great agility and fierce acceleration.

The race-modified Lexus GS 450h has returned to the Targa Newfoundland race after competing last year. Running from September 13-20, the team behind the hybrid racer is keeping a great blog over at Autonet. Here’s an excerpt from yesterday’s post, after completion of the Prologue stage:

And for our first pass through the much tighter and trickier Torbay stage, I promptly forgot to deactivate the systems before taking off at the start. Cars running before us had spewed quite a bit of sand and gravel on the course, so the VDIM system beeped merrily several times while jerking the car back on what its silicon chip brain considers the best trajectory. The car felt tighter and more stable but the ‘electronic nannies’ as enthusiasts often call these systems, still made the handling feel somewhat disjointed and unsynchronized.

The third run, over the same course but with the VDIM duly shut off, was the charm. Everything flowed together nicely. For the first time at Targa, I was able to pick what I considered the best line through the sections covered with sand and gravel, give it some throttle and keep the car’s attitude consistent. I even - lo and behold - COUNTERSTEERED for the very first time at Targa – ever so slightly – through one of the liberally peppered corners.

Alan also zoomed up to command center to find out about our starting position for tomorrow (Monday) morning. There, even though these numbers don’t count, we discovered that we had racked up the 6th best composite times out of the 65 cars entered in the Targa competition this year, 3rd best in Modern.

It’s great fun reading about the experience of racing in Lexus’ sport sedan, and the writing is fantastic. Great to see them doing so well, more on this as the race progresses.

There isn’t much in the way of new information in Motor Trend’s article about the upcoming Lexus hybrid, but it did include this beauty of a mockup sketch:

There were a few new points covered, though they seem entirely speculative:

The difference between the Lexus variant and the Prius itself — as is generally the case for Lexus models with Toyota underpinnings — is not expected to be much more than skin deep. The as-yet-unnamed Lexus will have its own body panels and may get a convertible variant, but both vehicles will be fitted with roof-mounted solar panels and nickel-metal hydride batteries upon launch.

I have to say, if the new Lexus hybrid looks anything like this sketch, it’s going to be hugely successful. There’s certainly a hint of Prius in the shape, but the more aggressive front-end and huge wheels remind me of the new VW Scirocco, only bigger and with two more doors. And that’s no bad thing.

Although no exact numbers are mentioned, The Auto Channel is reporting that Lexus RX 400h sales have increased in the UK by 28% over last July, which is especially impressive given the current SUV climate in the country:

That [28%] growth stands in stark contrast to the fortunes of rival luxury brands, which suffered an average decline of 30 per cent in SUV sales.

And for some famous names, new registrations have tumbled by as much as 50 per cent.

Lexus attributes the strong showing to the hybrid engine, which sneaks the RX 400h into a lower tax band.

Commenting on the results, Belinda Poole, Lexus GB Director, said: “The RX 400h is the first and remains the only hybrid SUV on the market.

“In what is a tough market overall, this gives our Lexus Centres a great advantage in being able to offer the type of car customers want, but without the penalties in running costs they would incur with models from rival brands.”

I would have thought that the hybrid RX was simply cannabilizing sales from its conventional petrol-engine twin, but the RX 400h was dominating in 2007, making up 86% of all RX model sales in Europe.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the upcoming RX redesign affects the momentum, but it’s clear the hybrid crossover is already the brand’s #1 model in Europe.

[Source The Auto Channel]

UK Magazine AutoCar claims to have the inside scoop on the oft-mentioned Lexus hybrid debuting at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show:

The new model is known internally as SAI but will be renamed before it goes on sale and will be based on the next generation Prius, also being shown for the first time in Detroit. The Lexus though will be a plusher, more comfort orientated model with unique and sleeker styling.

According to company sources it will bear some similarities to Toyota’s Concept X shown at the Geneva motor show last March. Most commentators wrongly believed this heralded the design of the next Prius but our sources indicated that it was really designed to showcase themes for the junior Lexus hybrid.

The SAI is likely to get a more powerful version of the Prius’ hybrid powertrain, which will be mated to either a 2.0 or 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine. At launch it will probably have a nickel-hydride battery, but be upgraded to lithium-ion technology by the end of 2010.

I’m not sure I see the logic in Toyota to mixing concepts with Lexus, especially when it concerns the Prius. Really, that’s what I find so confusing with the idea of a Lexus “Prius” — the hybrid is practically a brand all on its own, why risk diluting it?

Lexus may be on the verge of releasing a Prius-sized sedan using an identical powertrain, but I have strong doubts there will be any more than a slight resemblance between the two cars.