Toyota Motor Europe believes that strengthening its dealer network, and making it more exclusive to the luxury marque will be key to improving Lexus sales in Europe to levels already seen in the UK. Adding diesel engines, but only at the bottom of the range, will also help, senior vice president of sales and after sales Thierry Dombreval said in an exclusive interview.
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Annual sales are around 20,000, with half of those in the UK alone.
“I’m more interested in what we are going to do about it [the low sales] than reasons why it is what it is,” Dombreval told just-auto.com deputy editor Graeme Roberts, nonetheless calling the UK results “a remarkable success”.
“We need to strengthen the dealer network keeping the Lexus philosophy of dedicated exclusive dealers with unique standards – that’s absolutely crucial… and upgrade in line with what’s been done in the UK where the Lexus dealer body is right in size.
“So we need to translate that [UK] know-how to other key markets and I could cite Germany, France, Spain and also, to a lesser degree, Italy.”
Dombreval said he was not talking of many more dealers but maybe, case by case, a smaller number but totally compliant with the Lexus philosophy and standards.
Which appears to signal the end of the Lexus-in-a-corner-of-the-Toyota-dealer approach sometimes seen in Europe.
“That does not serve the customer properly,” Dombreval said.
In parallel TME must grow the awareness of the brand, exploiting product news like the new RX300 and the hybrid variant “which may come some time late ‘04”, he added.
“Diesel is going to be the big thing,” Dombreval said. “This has been decided and it’s going to come in due time, not as early as we may wish.”
Pressed on the timing, Dombreval conceded: “Something in between ’05 and ’06 is realistic and this going to be state-of-the-art diesel.”
“It’s going to be very state-of-the-art in power, torque, driveability, emissions, it’s going to feel Lexus in refinement.
Surprisingly, in view of European rivals’ range-wide diesel engine offerings, Dombreval said the Lexus diesel would not necessarily be offered across the range.
“Although our mission is to treble volume from where we are in the medium to long term, we just cannot afford from an engineering resources point of view to have diesel in everything.
“So it’s going to be [an] accommodation in terms of powertrain strategy of state-of-the-art petrol, state-of-the-art hybrid, and diesel, with focus on performance.”
Diesel would “more likely” be offered at the bottom of the range, Dombreval added.
