Lexus Records One Million Sales in Europe

Lexus has reached the milestone of one million vehicle sales in Europe*, the cumulative total breaking through seven figures in September. It’s a timely achievement, coinciding with the 30^th anniversary of Lexus’s arrival in the region.

The achievement comes at the start of a new era in the brand’s history with the introduction of the UX 300e all-electric urban SUV, its first battery electric vehicle. The new model is available to order now in the UK, with deliveries starting in March 2021.

The UK has contributed more than a quarter of the sales total and remains Lexus’s largest Western European market.

In 1990, just a few months after the brand’s global debut in the US, Lexus arrived in Europe with a single model, the LS 400, and amassed 1,158 sales. It may have been a modest beginning, but it signalled the start of a transformation of the premium car market with the LS redefining what a luxury car should be in terms of performance, efficiency and advanced equipment features.

At the same time, Lexus introduced a new approach to customer care and service that has constantly set the standards for the international auto industry. Following the traditional Japanese principles of omotenashi – treating a customer with same care and courtesy as a guest in your home – Lexus has kept service excellence at the heart of its brand.

From the outset, Lexus has charted its own course rather than follow the established norms of the market, not least in taking leadership in the development of self-charging hybrid electric power. It introduced the world’s first luxury hybrid vehicle, the RX 400h SUV, in 2005, and has since continued to develop the technology to achieve even greater performance, fuel and emissions efficiency and driver rewards.

Of the one million vehicles Lexus has put on the road in Europe, 45 per cent have been hybrid electric models, while today hybrids account for 96 per cent of all the brand’s new car sales in Western Europe. In the UK the proportion is 99.7 per cent.

Lexus has also closely followed the changing needs and preferences of customers, developing new models that are well in tune with market trends. This has brought a focus on SUV crossover models. Such is their popularity, they account for more than half Lexus’s total sales so far and 80 per cent of its current sales volume. Today the line-up features the RX, the model which effectively originated the luxury SUV market, the purpose-designed seven-seat RX L; the mid-size NX; and, launched in 2019, the compact UX urban crossover, which has quickly become the brand’s best-seller in Europe. In Russia and other Eastern markets, Lexus also sells the full-size LX and the rugged GX models.

The importance of driver rewards has not been neglected, witnessed in a series of performance-focused models bearing the Lexus “F” designation, including the hand-built, ultra-exclusive LFA V10 supercar and the RC F coupe, which today competes in international GT racing. The spirit of these special models feeds directly into the standard model ranges in the form of the sports-styled and engineered F Sport versions.

Lexus has also evolved as a luxury brand beyond the automotive world, promoting excellence in craftsmanship, supporting exciting emerging design talent through the international Lexus Design Award and helping its customers discover and enjoy amazing experiences.

*Lexus Europe sales include Western Europe (European Union countries, UK, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland), as well as the following eastern markets: Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Caucasus region, Turkey and Israel.

ENDS