End of an Era? The Lexus IS 500 Ultimate Edition Hints at the Model's Farewell
The Lexus IS 500 F SPORT Performance Ultimate Edition is here with special features and the same V8 engine. Limited to just 500 units, it could be the last IS.
Lexus is making an already wonderful V8 sports sedan more appealing with a final iteration
The naturally-aspirated V8-powered Lexus IS 500 isn't the quickest sports sedan around, but there are few that look and sound this good. You might be sad to hear that with the introduction of the IS 500 F Sport Performance Ultimate Edition, Lexus could be signaling the end of the road for the venerable IS. The Ultimate Edition retains the IS 500's naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V8 engine, producing 472 horsepower, unchanged from stock. While Lexus hasn't officially confirmed the IS's discontinuation, the limited-run nature of this model and its debut as a 2025 model year vehicle suggest there may not be a 2026 IS.
How is the IS 500 Ultimate Edition different?
2025 Lexus IS 500 Ultimate Edition
Mechanically, the Ultimate Edition is unchanged from the standard IS 500, retaining the powerful V8 paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission and rear-wheel drive only. The Ultimate Edition retains the handsome body and sporty interior but adds some special touches. It gets a special exterior paint color called Wind, a metallic light gray finish that's probably better looking in person than in photos, where it appears as a variation on the model's Ultra White paint. It also gets 19-inch matte-black BBS wheels, red brake calipers, and special IS 500 Ultimate Edition badging. The cabin features a two-tone red and black colorway, complemented by racy red seatbelts, a numbered 1-of-500 plaque, and unique door scuff plates that signify its special designation.
2025 Lexus IS 500 Ultimate Edition
The IS 500 F Sport Performance Premium is a beast in itself
2025 Lexus IS 500 Ultimate Edition —
Source: Lexus
The 472-horsepower V8 sports sedan will launch to 60 mph from a standstill in the mid-fours, which is properly quick, about the same as the Genesis G70 3.3T. The top trim IS 500 F Sport Performance Premium, gets a 14-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay & Android Auto, voice command, configurable gauge cluster, a panoramic view monitor, and a 17-speaker Mark Levinson premium surround sound system with QuantumLogic surround technology. The upholstery features NuLuxe faux leather wrapped over heated and ventilated front seats (19-way power adjustable for the driver), a power moonroof, embossed door trim, and numerous physical controls for audio and climate. One vestige of the previous IS that we could do without is the wonky touchpad, which unfortunately remains in the IS 500.
2022 Lexus IS 500 F Sport Performance
When it comes to safety, the IS 500 Sport Performance comes standard with Lexus Safety System+ 2.5 and includes features like pre-collision warning with pedestrian detection, lane tracing assist, adaptive cruise control, and blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert. The IS 500 also boasts a five-star overall safety rating from the NHTSA.
2025 Lexus IS
2025 Lexus IS
Pricing for the 2025 IS 500 F Sport Performance Ultimate Edition has not yet been announced, but the stock IS 500 F SPORT Performance starts at $60,595, while the F SPORT Performance Premium variant begins at $65,095. The Ultimate Edition will, no doubt, exceed that price point. Too bad it won't be offered in some of our favorite colors from the IS 500's palette history, like Flare Yellow and Molten Pearl.
Final thoughts
We don't care if the IS 500 F Sport Performance Ultimate Edition isn't the quickest, most tractable sports sedan around. The IS 500's naturally aspirated V8 offers a refreshing and nostalgic driving experience, as well as an absolutely intoxicating sound, appealing to enthusiasts who love sport and luxury. The Ultimate Edition will be totally worth the extra money, especially since the V8 will likely disappear from the Lexus stable in the next few years.
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A 2024 study concluded that sodium-ion batteries can help the world avoid excessive mining and possible depletion of critical raw materials, but that the production process generates similar volumes of greenhouse gas emissions to lithium-ion cells. As these batteries are still being developed, "their production processes, lifespans and energy density can all be improved", says Zhang Shan, the study's lead author and a researcher at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. "Their impact on the climate may be lower than that of lithium-ion batteries in the future." Fuelling four-wheelers Two of the earliest electric cars powered by sodium batteries rolled off the assembly lines in December 2023. So far, all available models have been "microcars", officially classified as A00 in China. But their sales only made up a tiny number of the tens of millions of EVs sold in 2024 in China, says Xing Lei, an independent analyst of the Chinese auto industry (one report found just 204 were sold in 2024). A big downside of sodium-ion batteries is their low energy density: a 2020 study found it is at least 30% lower than their lithium counterparts. This means cars using them typically cannot travel very far on a single charge, Zhang says. "And range is a big deciding factor for people when they buy an EV." Sodium-ion batteries have yet to achieve mass production and currently "cannot compete with lithium-ion batteries on price or performance" in four-wheelers, making large-scale use in the next two or three years difficult, says Chen Shan, a Shanghai-based analyst on battery markets at Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy. The uptake of sodium scooters across China has been gradual but encouraging. A spokesperson from Yadea – which sold more than 13 million electric bikes and mopeds globally in 2024 – told the BBC that the sales of its sodium two-wheelers reached nearly 1,000 in the first three months of 2025. The company intends to build around 1,000 fast-charging pillars specifically designed for sodium-ion batteries this year in Hangzhou enabling commuters to find a station every 2km (1.2 miles), Zhou said at the talk show. Yadea is not alone in its sodium push. Another Chinese scooter manufacturer, Tailg, has been selling sodium-powered models since 2023. FinDreams, the battery arm of EV major BYD, is building a plant in east China's Xuzhou to make sodium batteries in partnership with Huaihai Group, a manufacturer of two and three-wheelers, according to local media. Although lead-acid batteries will continue to dominate this industry, the market share of sodium-ion batteries has been projected to grow rapidly over the next five years. By 2030, 15% of China's electric scooters will be powered by them, compared to 0.04% in 2023, according to an analysis by the Shenzhen-based Starting Point Research Institute, which assesses China's battery industry. Greening the grid In fact, a bigger market for sodium-ion batteries may be energy storage stations, which absorb power produced at one time so it can be used later. When they are installed in fixed locations, the disadvantages of using sodium-ion batteries in vehicles disappear. "You can just make a slightly bigger energy storage plant. It's not moving anywhere. The weight [of the batteries] doesn't matter," Combs says. Energy storage is expected to be an enormous and a rapidly growing market as countries across the globe aim to reach their climate goals. The world's grid-scale energy storage capacity will need to grow nearly 35-fold between 2022 and 2030 if it is to achieve net-zero by 2050, according to International Energy Agency (IEA). "This is going to be a really important market in the future, especially as renewables become more present on the grid. You'll have more need for storage systems to balance out the variability in electricity generation, " says Ilaria Mazzocco, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington DC-based non-profit. Using sodium-ion batteries in energy storage stations also means that these facilities are not competing with auto companies for batteries, she notes. China, which has seen breakneck growth of wind and solar power plants, leads the world in using energy storage to support renewables. In May 2024, it switched on its first energy storage station powered by sodium-ion batteries. Situated in southern China's Guangxi, the plant can hold 10 megawatt-hours of power in one go, equivalent to the daily electricity needs of 1,500 households, according to Chinese state media. It is the first phase of a sodium-ion energy storage station 10 times its size. The Guangxi project was quickly followed by another sodium-ion energy storage site in central China's Hubei province. In fact, roughly one-fifth of the capacity of all energy storage projects planned by China's state-run companies last year used sodium technology, according to Chinese outlet Beijixing, which tracks the power industry. But for sodium-ion batteries to succeed in mass production the main question is whether companies can make them cheaper than lithium-ion cells, according to Zheng Jiayue, a consultant with research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie who specialises in the energy storage supply chain. Currently, the unit price of sodium-ion batteries for energy storage is about 60% higher than that of lithium-ion ones, but the gap is projected to narrow, China Central Television reported, citing analysis by the China Energy Storage Alliance, a Beijing-based non-profit. China to lead the charge Some entrepreneurs and researchers believe that sodium is a shortcut for other countries to reduce their battery dependence on China. But it is Chinese companies that are poised to lead global production if the technology breaks into the mass market. Major Chinese battery makers have included it in their strategies to stay competitive in the long run, says Combs, meaning sodium-ion batteries are no longer a way to bypass their stronghold. The "biggest difference" between companies in China and other countries is that the former can bring a technology from the lab to mass production much faster, Zheng says. And because of the similarities between the two types of cells, says Logan, existing manufacturing infrastructure for lithium-ion batteries can be adapted to produce sodium-ion batteries, reducing the time and cost for commercialisation in China. "The same synergies don't necessarily hold true for other battery chemistries," however, she adds. One example is the all-solid-state batteries, which do not use liquid electrolyte to transport ions, the principle driving the current generation of batteries, says Mo Ke, founder and chief analyst of Beijing-based battery-research firm, RealLi Research. Therefore, it will have less reliance on the current industrial chain, Mo says. A fleet of large factories devoted to making sodium-ion cells are now being built in China, some already in operation. In 2024, Chinese manufacturers announced plans to build 27 sodium-ion battery plants with a combined capacity of 180 GWh, according to Chinese thinktank Gaogong Industrial Research, including BYD's upcoming 30GWh plant in Xuzhou. The planned global sodium-ion battery capacity will exceed 500 GWh by 2033, and China is projected to account for more than 90% of that, Zheng says, citing Wood Mackenzie analysis. Outside China, Natron Energy in the US and Faradion in the UK are forerunners. But it typically takes foreign companies much longer to build production lines and it will be hard for their capacities to compete with China's, Zheng says. In 2023 alone, Chinese firms collectively spent more than 55 billion yuan (£5.7bn, $7.6bn) on the research and development of sodium-ion batteries, according to Alicia García Herrero, an economist and senior fellow at Brussels-based think tank Bruegel. This beats the $4.5bn (£3.4bn, $4.5bn) raised by all US battery start-ups cumulatively by 2023 on non-lithium battery solutions, she says. Chinese companies' incentive is simple, according to Combs: "Don't lose market share, and future markets are included." Yadea is already expanding operations in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa, where electric scooters are also popular, Zhou said in the talk show. Yadea's goal is clear: to mass-produce sodium-ion batteries and improve scooter charging infrastructure, according to Zhou, "so as to enable hundreds of millions of people to enjoy green transport". -- For more science, technology, environment and health stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
