The new Lexus ES has been revealed ahead of the car's debut at the Beijing motor show.
Autocar understands that the ES will come to the UK as the replacement for the Lexus GS, which is to be discontinued this month.
The ES has been around since the Lexus brand's inception in 1989, but the seventh-generation model will be the first sold here. The car is 4.8 metres long, the same as the GS, and will serve as a rival to the BMW 5 Series.
The single image posted online today follows the confirmation of the new model earlier this month, when Lexus released a preview image of the car's nose and large front grille.
The ES's angular body panels and sharp lighting features mimic styling applied to the larger Lexus LS.
More details on the car are expected at Beijing show next week. The image was only accompanied by the words: "Engaging design, athletic performance, and renowned refinement transform Lexus’s most popular saloon."
Built on the underpinnings of parent company Toyota’s New Global Architecture (TNGA), the model will be offered with a range of hybrid powertrains, possibly taken from the GS. That car features hybrid systems containing four and six-cylinder petrol engines.
The new ES is expected to arrive on roads at the end of 2018. It will be tasked with drastically improving on the sales performance of the GS, which has been a leftfield choice against its predominantly German rivals.
Just 428 examples were sold in Britain last year, meaning the model achieved just 10% of the success of Lexus’s best-selling model here, the Lexus NX SUV.
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