Lexus will have another very good year in 2019. Sales have risen strongly in China, and in Europe too, while the brand is gaining ground in Japan. The US remains easily the number one market but whereas hybrids do well in most other countries, that’s no longer the case there. Toyota is therefore planning a multi-powertrain strategy for Lexus, offering different choices for different regions.
Cars
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A long-delayed model to replace the CT is likely to be offered as both a hatchback and a 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 the sedan bodystyle, that is not available with the current CT 200h. Expect the turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol engine from the NX 300 to also be offered in the next CT. There could well be a fully electric variant aimed at the Tesla Model 3 too. Market release timing and other details can be found in PLDB (see link below).
Due to potential sales in European markets, there may be a return to offering a wagon bodystyle for the fourth generation IS. A five-door hatchback to challenge the Audi A5 Sportback is another possibility. Toyota may instead go with a direct replacement, keeping the next IS as a sedan.
Job #1 was set for July 2020, sources claimed in 2017. The following year however, rumours began to circulate that the IS replacement programme might be axed, the logic being that the ES could gain all-wheel drive and so cater for those who buy the existing IS for its RWD layout. In the North American region, this model could be one of the first for the brand’s entry to the Mexican market, should the programme still be active.
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By GlobalDataThe latest ES shares its TNGA-K architecture with the Toyota Camry and Avalon. It is built – in front-wheel drive four-cylinder hybrid and V6 forms – at the same US factory as the two Toyota sedans, although on a different line. Kyushu in Japan manufactures the hybrid as well as the V6 and four-cylinder variants.
The ES’ world debut was in April 2018 at AutoChina, the bienniel Beijing motor show. The range should be facelifted in 2021 and replaced in 2024.
Lexus had been expected to drop the GS due to the car’s low sales worldwide. However, there have been rumours that a development programme – 300B – was restarted and that this big sedan will be reinvented with the look of a four-door coupe, in the style of the Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class.
The 720A series RC has been in production since 2014. A facelift was announced by Toyota in August 2018 some five weeks ahead of the model’s first public appearance at the Paris motor show. The updated RC F didn’t appear until this year’s Detroit auto show. The facelifted F also lost weight and had it suspension retuned while the engine’s outputs rose to 472 horsepower (+5hp) and 395 pound feet of torque (+6 lb ft). The RC F Track Edition was another world premiere at the January 2019 motor show. This variant has carbon fibre body panels.
As a way of leveraging their ever closer ties, Toyota could theoretically base a next generation RC on Mazda’s forthcoming rear-wheel drive platform. The car would therefore also make use of the company’s forthcoming inline six-cylinder engine. Expect its debut to be in 2021 or 2022. That timeline may prove to be too soon for the potential platform and powertrain sharing with Mazda, in which case Toyota would instead leverage the GA-L platform from the LS.
The brand’s largest two-door car is the LC, production of which commenced in October 2016. There should therefore be a facelift in 2020.
An open-top model was previewed by the LC Convertible concept, this prototype premiering at the Detroit auto show in January before being driven up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed six months later. TMC used this appearance to tell the media that the LC roadster would be put into production in 2020. The production model premiered at the LA auto show a few weeks ago. For the moment, the convertible has only been announced in LC 500 form. Production starts in May.
MPV
Toyota revealed the Lexus LM as an addition to its model range for the Chinese and Taiwanese markets at Auto Shanghai in April. Sales are due to commence in the first quarter of next year.
There are two versions of this large, luxurious MPV, the LM 350 (powered by a 3.5-litre petrol V6) and a hybrid, the LM 300h. Each will be available in four- or seven-seat forms and the only exterior colours will be white or black.
Production will take place at Toyota Auto Body’s Inabe plant in Japan. The LM 350 will be closely related to the Toyota Alphard and the LM 300h to the Alphard Hybrid. For this reason, the LM’s life cycle is not expected to be more than a few years as the Toyota originals date to 2015. The second generation LM will use the TNGA-K architecture.
Crossovers & SUVs
Revealed at the 2018 Geneva motor show, the UX (‘Urban Explorer’) is closely related to the Toyota CH-R but is 15cm longer (they share a wheelbase dimension). As well as the petrol-powered UX 200, there is a 2.0-litre petrol-electric one, the UX 250h. Both FWD and AWD versions of the UX Hybrid are available.
Speaking to reporters at the Shanghai auto show in April, the then Lexus International president Yoshihiro Sawa (he will be replaced by Koji Sato on 1 January) confirmed that at least one EV was planned but would not give any details. Seven months later, the brand’s first electric model was revealed at the Guangzhou motor show. This is the UX 300e, which is for China, Europe and Japan, although it will not go on sale in the last of these three markets until 2021.
The UX 300e has a 54.3kWh battery pack, while its motor’s outputs are 150kW and 300Nm. The maximum NEDC range is 400km.
The follow up to the NX is due to enter production at Toyota Motor Kyushu’s Miyata plant next July. Its architecture will be GA-C. There should again be four-cylinder gasoline and gasoline-electric powertrains, as well as front- and all-wheel drive variants. Toyota will build the second generation model in Canada too, the company stated in April. See the link to PLDB below for details of the vehicle which will succeed the NX 300h.
The fifth generation RX should again be built in Canada and Japan. There will be standard and long-wheelbase bodies, and there will probably also be a plug-in hybrid or even a fully electric variant in addition to or in place of a petrol-electric hybrid.
The GX is Lexus’ second oldest model, this body-on-frame four-by-four having been in production since January 2009 (the LX has been built since December 2007). There have been several facelifts, the most recent of which was announced in June.
The next generation GX has reportedly been delayed until 2022. It should be based on Toyota’s new frame platform. There could well be a hybrid variant too. As with the current generation, the US, Canada, Russia and markets in the Middle East should be the main places where this model is available.
The next generation of the LX will again be twinned with the replacement for the Toyota Land Cruiser. The biggest Lexus SUV sells well in the US, the Middle East and Russia and to a lesser extent, in Australia. Both petrol and diesel V8 engines are expected. Toyota has applied to register LX 600 as a trademark in the USA, it was discovered in October.
There will also be an electrified version as per this media statement:
By around 2030, Toyota aims to have sales of more than 5.5 million electrified vehicles, including more than 1 million zero-emission vehicles (BEVs, FCEVs).
Additionally, by around 2025, every model in the Toyota and Lexus line-up around the world will be available either as a dedicated electrified model or have an electrified option. This will be achieved by increasing the number of dedicated HEV, PHEV, BEV, and FCEV models and by generalizing the availability of HEV, PHEV and/or BEV options to all its models.
As a result, the number of models developed without an electrified version will be zero.
Zero-emission Vehicles
Toyota will accelerate the popularization of BEVs with more than 10 BEV models to be available worldwide by the early 2020s, starting in China, before entering other markets – the gradual introduction to Japan, India, United States and Europe is expected.
The FCEV line-up will be expanded for both passenger and commercial vehicles in the 2020s.
It would be breaking with the current naming convention for its crossovers and SUVs but Toyota is said to be planning a Lexus called ‘LQ‘. Such a model would be a large crossover in the style of the Audi Q8.
The brand’s intentions to enter this segment were signalled by the debut of the LF-1 Limitless concept at the 2018 Detroit auto show. Even though ‘KX’ or ‘MX’ would be a more logical name given the presumed positioning just above or below the next generation LX, LQ is the hot tip. This, after Toyota USA applied for a trademark for those letters in May 2018. The likely market release would be in 2021.
The platform to be used by the proposed LQ is not yet known. It could be either GA-K, which is front- and all-wheel drive or GA-L, which is rear- and all-wheel drive. There will also be some form of electrified version; either a hybrid or a plug-in hybrid.
Hydrogen
TMC is expected to build a version of the Lexus LS powered by a fuel cell, as previewed by the LF-FC concept. Even though this concept did not have hydrogen power, the LS+ from the 2017 Tokyo motor show is said to have offered a preview of what an LS fuel cell car may look like.
In May 2018, TMC told the media that it would increase annual production of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles ten-fold, making some 30,000 a year “post-2020”. The company did not name any additional models but it did reveal that of the total, around 10,000 would be delivered annually in Japan.
Reports for many other manufacturers’ future models are grouped in the OEM product strategy summaries section of just-auto.com.
Future product program intelligence
More detail on past, current and forthcoming models can be found in PLDB, the future vehicles database which is part of QUBE. That includes the Lexus models which were not discussed in the above report.
This was the third of three features in a series which examined the current and future models of Toyota Motor Corporation’s passenger vehicle brands. The initial one looked at the Toyota brand, while Perodua and Daihatsu were the topic of the second report. The next OEM to be looked at will be Tesla Motors.
