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Ahead of a Beijing Auto Show reveal later this month, Lexus has teased the next-generation ES midsize sedan with a close-up of the car’s controversial spindle grille. It’s not a lot, but what we can see definitely resembles the front end we saw making its swirly-camouflaged way around Kentucky back in February.
And yes, for the haters among you laying down Predator jokes in the comments as we speak, Lexus is sticking with the polarizing grilles. Many of the company’s paying customers actually like the things, you know.
Anywho, expect the new ES to share a platform with the Toyota Camry just like its predecessor. This time around, however, it’ll likely use the parent company’s New Global Architecture K platform that, in addition to the sporty new Camry, also underpins the latest Avalon and RAV4.
With news of the upmarket, rear-drive GS getting the axe in Europe, rumors have swirled of the historically front-drive ES being reworked to take its place. While Lexus has since stated to The Drive that the GS will continue to be sold in the U.S., we’re not completely convinced given word that this new ES will apparently get a sportier, all-wheel-drive F-Sport model according to an alleged Lexus employee posting to Reddit. We wouldn’t be surprised if the new ES becomes some kind of ES/GS halfway-house sedan similar to how Acura merged the TSX and TL nameplates into the TLX back in 2014. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
The current ES starts at $38,950. The 2019 Lexus ES will debut in full April 25 in Beijing.
