2021 Lexus IS set for debut next week

Did you forget about the Lexus IS? You'd be forgiven if you did. The current sedan's been around in largely the same form since 2013 and received a nip-tuck four years ago. But sedan faithful can take solace knowing a next-generation IS will bow next week.

On Monday, Lexus provided a single teaser image of the 2021 IS and said we'll see the covers come off the car on June 9. The brand provided zero additional information on anything else for the moment, so we're in the dark just like the teaser.

The car will apparently take on Lexus' latest lighting element design as the teaser shows a light bar that spans the rear. The UX sports a similar look, and the company teased the future design with its LF-1 Limitless SUV concept at the North American International Auto Show back in 2018. The design should be a big change since the current IS is seven years old.

The luxury sports sedan should also migrate to a new architecture, as parent automaker Toyota continues to consolidate vehicle platforms to make more cars fit on fewer architectures. The IS' current platform has already been replaced. In any case, the IS will still be rear-wheel drive, so no need to worry about that.

We can only speculate about what'll be under the hood, but some sort of turbo-four seems like a given, and it would be silly to rule out some form of electrification. Keep your fingers crossed Lexus has a reborn IS F in the cards, since the performance model died off when the current-generation car debuted. The original IS F packed a 5.0-liter V8 and 417 horsepower. With Toyota hell bent on bringing fun back to Lexus, maybe the F badge will return.