2013 Lexus GS 450h Hybrid: LED Headlamps, Possible Plug-In Later2013 Lexus GS 450h Hybrid: LED Headlamps, Possible Plug-In Later

While Lexus unveiled its all-new 2013 GS 350 sports sedan at the recent Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, it showed off only the gasoline GS 350 model.
Details of the future hybrid version, the 2013 Lexus GS 450h, remain under cover until the company launches the car officially at next month’s Frankfurt Motor Show.
But now Lexus has revealed a single teaser image of the GS 450h–one that’s cropped just inboard of the headlamps.
That’s a shame, because the newest hybrid Lexus will be its first car to feature all-LED headlamps.
While Audi had claimed the title of “world’s first LED high and low beams” for its low-production R8 supercar, the GS is the first Lexus and one of very few cars in the world to sport durable, compact, lower-power, and very bright LED elements for both beams.
LED lamps come closest to the color spectrum of ordinary daylight, at a high temperature rating of 6000 Kelvin. Older halogen lamps, with their yellowish tone, can only manage 3200 K, and even xenon lights only reach 4100 K.
2013 Lexus GS 350
The 2013 Lexus GS 450h itself will most likely feature an uprated version of the 3.5-liter V-6, paired to a new generation of its adapted Hybrid Synergy Drive system. The outgoing GS 450h has a 292-horsepower rating for the combined engine and electric motor; the new model will likely improve on that figure.
It should also boost gas mileage, at least somewhat, from the current car’s underwhelming 22 mpg city, 25 mpg highway numbers, which produce a combined 23-mpg rating.
The upcoming GS 450h hybrid will be the best-performing and top-of-the-line GS model; the V-8 engine used in the most powerful current GS 460 model will not be carried over to the 2013 redesign.
The company may also introduce a later plug-in hybrid GS model, according to an interview with GS chief engineer Yoshihiko Kanamori. We’ll wait to see whether that car–potentially targeted at European cities with zero-emission city centers–arrives in the U.S. further down the road.
[Lexus via MotorAuthority]
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