Lexus IS back! 2025 Lexus IS to return as electric car with a wagon variant, so should you hold off on that Tesla Model 3 or Polestar 2 order?

If you’re keen to break the SUV trend and opt for a wagon in the age of the electric car, the Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo might no longer be your only option thanks to Lexus.

Reports from Japan say the company is working on the next generation of its IS sedan, set to become an electric car and, importantly, to come with a wagon (or shooting brake) body style variant.

So far details are scarce, but reliable Japanese outlet Best Car has come through with the scoop, noting that we should expect to see the IS go EV by 2025. 

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And we will see it here in Australia, even though we don’t get the current IS. We’ll come back to that.

Signposted in early 2022 by the aptly named (if unimaginative) Lexus Electrified Sedan concept, the next IS will take on the likes of the Tesla Model 3, Polestar 2 and inbound Hyundai Ioniq 6, and it’ll do so with an extra option.

The shooting brake version of the next IS marks a departure from the very traditional style Lexus’ model range has taken, though now follows in the footsteps of other premium models like the Genesis G70 Shooting Brake or the Volkswagen Arteon Shooting Brake.

Set to be built, according to Best Car, on the successor platform to Toyota’s e-TNGA, the IS will come with an AWD option, though we’d expect to see a rear-wheel drive version too if Lexus expects to keep traditionalists - a core audience for the brand - happy.

Without knowing the exact details of the platform on which the next IS will be built, it’s hard to estimate its specifications, but Best Car has provided some predictions.

The next IS could take on the shape of Lexus Electrified Sedan concept.

The publication expects to see the next IS weigh around 1900kg, and be relatively standard in following the IS’s dimensions: 4770mm long, 1850mm wide, 1437mm tall, and with a wheelbase of 2850mm, just slightly longer than its current base.

Don’t expect huge power, however, instead expect to see outputs around the 265kW mark for the main variants.

The Lexus IS isn’t currently on sale in Australia due to regulations called ADRs, or Australian Design Rules, which dictate standards a car must meet to be eligible for our market.

The new IS is set to be build on Toyota’s e-TNGA platform.

A relatively major (in terms of impact) new addition called ADR 85 focuses on side impact protection, and knocked out several models from Australian showrooms including the Nissan R35 GT-R, the Alpine A110, and a few Lexus models including the IS.

Similar rules are set to be introduced in other markets eventually, but Australia’s early call on the matter means manufacturers will have to wait until their next versions of each car if they hope to sell them here (or eventually anywhere) again.

Given the importance of the IS to the Lexus brand, it’s unlikely they’d develop a new model without taking this new (or imminent, in other markets) rule into account.