Lexus Australia close to putting supply woes behind it despite up to 18 month waiting list for some models

Lexus Australia says supply-related issues which have caused long waiting lists and languishing sales figures across its range are largely behind it as it hopes for a big final number in 2023.

Celebrating its best April on record, with 1274 units sold, Lexus Australia boss John Pappas explained that most of the brand's range would experience a “massive injection of stock” in the next 12 months.

“This will cover key models and particularly for hybrid,” he said. “Currently we’re looking at a four-eight month waiting time and for the [fully electric] UX300e, we’re looking at six-eight months nationally.”

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Pappas said this was a significant improvement for the 12-plus months customers were looking at previously, but warned for some models the wait was set to continue.

“LX is still experiencing a wait time of 18 months,” he said. “But we’ve secured several hundred more cars this year than last year.

“NX450h+ we’ve had to drop to expression of interest, and the NX350h is still delayed.”

To compensate customers waiting longer periods for models, the Japanese luxury marque is set to introduce a new Lexus Now subscription service, allowing waiting buyers to subscribe to a vehicle in the interim. As the program is new, details on pricing structure are yet to be revealed. The brand is also expanding parts of its Encore premium ownership program to buyers with waiting lists longer than five months.

The additional production for the Australian market is said to be thanks to downturns in demand in other markets across the globe, which do not require their original production volume.

Thankfully, Lexus’ representatives said, this has also meant a big uptick in availability of its increasingly popular hybrids.

Three models including the LM people mover will be joining Lexus' line up within the next 18 months.

In a presentation, the brand said the global share of Lexus models which were electrified across hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fully electric was roughly 36 per cent, but in Australia it was much higher at 46.3 per cent, with a high of 60.4 per cent electrified sales in April this year.

The brand is targeting 80 per cent electrified sales by 2025.

“If anything, that plan may be brought forward,” Pappas said. Lexus is planning to have a ‘zero emission line-up’ by 2035.

The RZ is an opportunity for the brand to test its mettle in the dedicated fully electric field, with 500 units allocated for Australia in the first 12 months on sale. Pappas said 150 of these vehicles are already spoken for with a further 1500 expressions of interest so far.

The brand has promised this will be followed up by three more models in the next 18 months, the first of which will be the somewhat unique LM people mover.