Toyota's luxury division Lexus is enduring its first sales slump in eight years but the carmaker says recovery is around the corner.
Lexus enjoyed a staggering 211 per cent growth in sales between 2001 and 2008 but has found 2009 tough going, with its sales tally so far this year slashed by one third.
"We will be back on track very shortly," said the boss of Lexus Australia, John Roca, at the launch of the new RX hybrid softroader this week (more here).
"Our decline has been driven by a couple of factors: the economy and the change over from the old to the new RX models."
The RX softroader accounts for half of all Lexus sales in Australia. The company had to run-out the previous model earlier this year and was left short of stock while it waited for the new model to arrive.
"We made a pretty good transition, but when you're in run-out, sales of that model slows in the lead up to a new model. Then we had the slight gap of waiting for the new cars to arrive."
Roca said demand for the new RX was strong, and the hybrid version, due in showrooms in August, is sold out for the first two months' allocation.
"We expect to do about 6000 sales this year on the back of 8200 last year, but next year should be strong for us, we should return to normal then," he said.
"We will have good momentum and good supply of RX, plus we will have some activity on the IS sedan as well as the arrival of the IS convertible later this year."
The IS250 sedan and RX softroader combined account for more than 80 per cent of Lexus sales locally.
The IS250 model range is due to again be revised slightly, with an equipment change on the base model and a minor price cut to go with it expected about October.
The IS250 is selling "reasonably well" in its recently facelifted guise, Roca said, pointing out that it had outsold the new Audi A4 in May.
Meanwhile the IS F sports sedan (more here) has proven to be a bigger hit than Lexus had expected. Lexus planned to sell 12 a month, but the car is selling at twice that rate despite a price rise last month to $132,500 plus on-road and dealer delivery costs.
"It's going gang busters," Roca said. "We could comfortably sell 25 a month but we can't get enough supply. We've requested more cars but it is pretty popular globally and we just can't get them."
Roca said executives from a company in Brisbane recently bought six IS Fs at once "and that was that dealer's allocation for the year".
"We've even let the dealers sell the cars on display. Some dealers are waiting three months for a car."
Roca said the IS F has proven to be the right car at the right time for Lexus, in terms of enhancing the brand's image.
"The blokes who buy them love them and they've become brand ambassadors for us," he said. "Plus people who've owned AMGs and M3s are hearing about by word of mouth."
He said the deal-maker for many customers was the price.
"They like the price. The fact the gap is big it seems to be making it hard for buyers to justify the price premium on the [German] cars."
Roca said he believes Lexus is considering plans for other F models in the Lexus range.
"They won't confirm anything but the positive customer reaction to the car has got to be a good sign for any future models."
Look out for the Carsales Network’s launch review of the new RX450h soon.
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