Lexus Australia sets new sales record

Lexus Australia has hit a new high watermark for sales, surpassing its 9027-year-end-unit tally from 2016 with just three weeks to go in the 2019.

November sales figures place Lexus at 8891 sales, up 9.4 per cent year to date, but the Japanese luxury brand has now sold another 136 units in early December to put it over the top and set a new record.

Where the brand will end up at the end of the year is still unclear, but at its current average monthly pace, Lexus Australia should finish around 9700 units.

The NX crossover sits atop Lexus’ sales tables, amassing 3227 sales to the end of November (-7.1%), while the RX large SUV is second on 1756 units (-5.7%) year to date.

The aforementioned UX rounds out the brand’s top three, cementing SUVs as Lexus’ most popular models.

With the Toyota LandCruiser-based LX contributing 396 sales (+6.2%) to the bottom line, SUVs make up 80 per cent of Lexus’ overall volume so far this year.

The best-selling passenger car for the brand is the IS sedan, which has accrued 760 sales, down 26.5 per cent, but the ES has surged 180.5 per cent this year to 519 units.

Meanwhile, the RC sports car has hit 236 units (-26%), the ageing CT200h hatchback has found 174 new homes (-69.2%), while Lexus has sold 29 units of the GS mid-sizer (-63.8%).

Finally, the flagship LS sedan and LC coupe has found 34 and 27 new homes respectively, down 60.5 and 69 per cent over the same period last year.

Lexus Australia boss Scott Thompson said the brand has focused on strong product and customer service to achieve the record result.

“Class-leading product and a dedication to benchmark ownership will help ensure that Lexus continues to welcome an increasing number of customers to the brand,” he said.

Compared to its German rivals though, Lexus Australia is still off the pace of Mercedes-Benz (28,990), BMW (21,741) and Audi (13,776), but easily surpasses Jaguar (2118), Volvo (7132) and the soon-to-be-defunct Infiniti (549).