Lexus delivers more than 30,000 hybrids to Australian customers

In the 15 years since Lexus Australia introduced the RX 400h SUV in 2006, it reached the milestone of more than 30,000 hybrid deliveries to customers in December 2020.

Cumulative Lexus hybrid sales reached 30,229 vehicles in December 2020 with the technology offered on CT, ES, GS, IS, LC, LS, NX, RX and UX models.

The brand says that consumer demand for hybrid technology is accelerating.

It took nine years to deliver the first 15,000 hybrids as Lexus progressively expanded its range in Australia, yet it took fewer than six years to double the tally – including 371 vehicles last month for a new record in December 2020.

The best best-selling hybrids are the RX Line (8,775 vehicles since 2006), CT 200h (7,787 vehicles since 2011) and NX Line (6,151 vehicles since 2014 – the fastest selling rate of all Lexus hybrids).

In 2020, both the ES 300h (586 cars) and UX 250h (608) attracted record demand, helping to lift Lexus hybrid sales by 11.8% to 2,928 vehicles.

Hybrid sales represented almost one-third (33.1%) of the brand’s yearly total deliveries of 8,846 vehicles – its third-highest annual total in the brand’s history.

In November 2020 the brand announced that its first battery electric vehicle (BEV), the compact UX 300e SUV, will arrive in Australia by November 2021.

December and quarterly sales records
The hybrid milestone coincided with Lexus setting a new December sales record for its entire Australian line-up with 1,157 deliveries – 60.5% higher than for the same month in the previous year.

Outside the successes Lexus has seen in past June sales records, December was the bestselling month of 2020 and the third-best month after June 2020 (1560 sales) and June 2015 (1186).

Last month’s result propelled Lexus to 2,859 sales in the three months to December 31 – the highest tally for any quarter during its 30 years in the Australian market and an improvement of 14.1% over the corresponding quarter in 2019.

NX Line passes 20,000 sales
The luxury NX mid-size SUV has also achieved a sales milestone, passing 20,000 customer deliveries in just over six years – faster than any other Lexus model.

A December high of 475 sales enabled NX to break its fourth-quarter record with 1,125 deliveries, an increase of 17.8% over the same quarter in 2019.

The NX Line, including hybrid and turbo petrol variants, remains the best-selling model for Lexus with 3,518 sales last year, a rise of 1.4%.

Lexus Australia chief executive Scott Thompson says delivery of the 30,000th hybrid confirmed Lexus on the path to reducing tailpipe emissions.

“Through our ‘Lexus Electrified’ vision, we are adopting a portfolio approach that will meet the specific needs of individual luxury buyers as we move to a sustainable future,” Thompson says.

“In November, we will advance our leadership in electrification in Australia by launching our first all-electric vehicle, the UX 300e,” he says.

“We will continue to broaden our response by developing more hybrid vehicles as well as plug-in hybrid, battery-electric (BEV) and fuel-cell electric vehicle technologies,” he says.

“In tandem with these technologies, we will create a new era of luxury mobility with our industry-leading Encore owner benefits program and by harnessing the potential of electrification to create a new level of driving excitement that is unique to Lexus.

“Globally, we anticipate electrified versions of all Lexus models will be available by 2025 and that, even earlier, we will see the first Lexus plug-in hybrid and a new dedicated BEV platform.

“These are vehicles we will strongly consider for the Australian market as a natural portfolio expansion of our Lexus Electrified vision,” he says.

LEXUS HYBRID SALES 2006-2020