With sales up 36% in *April, and 35% for the year to date, Lexus is surging up the sales charts in Britain, and has even overtaken Mitsubishi Motors. The latest CT 200h is leading the charge as premium segment buyers have at last begun to embrace hybrid cars.
Lexus Europe boasts that at a European level, its sales are now stronger than those for Jaguar. Having examined the latest ACEA statistics, the claim stands up: in *April, the Japanese brand’s numbers totalled 2,085 units (+37% YoY) versus 1,907 (+12%), but for the year to date, Jaguar is still ahead – 10,778 (+5%) compared to Lexus’ 9,625 (+33%). It’s certainly good to see that after years of backing a technology – petrol-electric hybrid drive – which few Europeans seemed taken by, the vision of an ever-growing niche is finally being realised.
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What makes the newly refreshed CT 200h so interesting to company car users in particular is the performance/economy mix. All variants achieve a sub-100g/km CO2 number, while under the British tax system, the Benefit-In-Kind number is just 11%, with a VED band of A. Insurance is highly competitive too, with the GBP 26,745 CT 200h S model grade rated at 20E (its CO2 average is just 87g/km). There is no annual road use fee and London’s daily tax is also waived.
The car’s powertrain wasn’t altered much at the time of the mid-life update. The power output of the 1,798cc four-cylinder petrol engine is 73kW (98bhp), with an additional 60kW (81bhp) provided by the electric motor. Torque numbers are 142Nm and 207Nm respectively.
Lexus quotes the official Combined average as being 68.9mpg, though hybrids do seem to perform exceedingly well in the EC’s tests. I saw a still excellent 50.8mpg in the real world mix of high-speed motorway miles and some in-town traffic jams – the latter is where the CT 200h seems to excel as you’re on electric power for most of the time. Depending on how lightly you depress the throttle, the car will run in EV mode for just over a mile at up to 28mph.
This model has been a real slow-burn for Lexus Europe. It was clearly developed for this region, the car having had its global debut at the Geneva motor show in March 2010 as the hybrid-only CT 200h. Toyota Motor Kyushu began manufacturing it in late 2010, with the launch in Japan following from January 2011. Sales commenced in Europe, the US, Canada and Australia/NZ two months later. The North American-spec car (2012MY) premiered at the New York motor show in March 2011.
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By GlobalDataAfter a couple of solid years of production and no sign of additional variants, a facelifted model had its world premiere at the Guangzhou motor show last November. North America’s 2014 CT 200h was then announced in November 2013: it was the restyled car. Toyota Motor Europe began selling the updated vehicle from this spring, with the regional debut taking place at the Geneva show in March.
Toyota doesn’t officially acknowledge this fact but Lexus’ smallest model is based on the first generation Auris Hybrid. The first clue was the appearance of the LF-Ch, a concept which was exhibited at the Frankfurt motor show in September 2009. This design study used the same 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and electric motor powertrain as the Auris Hybrid. The production model also has this system.
The best way to describe what it’s like to drive it would be relaxed even though in F-Sport trim it looks far sportier than it is. That enormous grille and star-pattern wheels give the 200h a far more aggressive look than the pre-facelift model and that’s a good thing. The development team, led by TMC’s first female chief engineer, firmed up the suspension, lowered NVH levels even further and tackled the one main problem area – the whiny-noisy CVT. It’s much improved. Whereas on the old car flooring the right pedal up a hill meant lots of frantic humming but not a lot of progress, now things are much smoother. It’s still not as good as the eight-speed automatic in rivals such as the BMW 1 Series, but it’s much better than it had been.
The interior continues to be perhaps where most sales will be lost and won. The styling is loved by many, but others are less keen on its mix of shapes, surfaces, colours and features. There is nothing else like it in the C-premium segment and that’s no bad thing but for many, the Audi A3 Sportback is the default car and its interior is one of the main reasons why it sells so well both in Britain and across Europe.
Lexus is getting there – the latest CT is better attuned to the tastes of the region – but your first impression, the key, is made from shiny plastic, something you won’t find with the German competition. Other things such as the window switches look as though they will last forever but there’s not much flair in their design – those in a Golf, for example, look and feel better. Let’s hope Jaguar has people who are making sure this level of detail is not overlooked for its forthcoming XE saloon: the standard in this class is sky high and non-establishment players are judged by the smallest detail.
I don’t mean to be hard on the little Lexus. It’s a strong entrant in the segment and is finding ever more converts to its hybrid-only cause. Still, the main problem is the brand’s insistence on offering just the one powertrain, which is a shame. CT sales would surely take off if there were also small capacity petrol and diesel engines.
While Toyota has always insisted that there are no plans for a non-hybrid CT, there might instead be a plug-in hybrid variant in the works. It wouldn’t be as simple as using the Prius PHEV’s powertrain but it would be surprising if there wasn’t at least a serious R&D project underway to investigate a CT PHEV. Watch this space, but such a model might well have to wait for the arrival of the second generation vehicle.
The current CT might have a further 2-3 years of production but already, the first details of the next model have begun to emerge. The successor car should be offered as both a five-door hatchback and a four-door sedan. The latter is considered to be needed in the US, and should also be useful for the Chinese market. A non-hybrid powertrain might also be offered – something, like a sedan bodystyle, that is not available with the current model. Suppliers have also been hinting since last year that Toyota is at least investigating the possibility of making a diesel hybrid available in selected (mostly European) markets. This year we should see Lexus Europe finally reaching 30,000 sales for the first time – the addition of the NX crossover will be a major boost. Who knows, by the time the next CT arrives, this could be a brand selling 50,000 or more vehicles a year in the region.
*at the time of publishing this review on 3 June, no sales statistics for the month of May had been released by either the SMMT or ACEA
