Earlier this month, Lexus offered a teaser for its vision of the future. Now, an Automotive News interview with the head of Lexus’s dealer advisory council, John Iacono, offers an inside look at where that future might be heading.
Iacono intimated that three new Lexus vehicles should be arriving in the near future, and dealers are “very, very excited” about what’s coming. Perhaps most excitingly, he referenced a niche, high-end “ultimate” off-roading SUV that will be a new flagship for the brand.
“From what I know of what that vehicle is, it’s going to be pretty cool,” Iacono said. “It’s one of those niche vehicles where I don’t think they’ll be looking so much at volume, but more of as a halo in that space. I think there’s a cool factor in having Lexus give us a vehicle, at low volume, but something that brand is not really known for.”
However, Iacono didn't provide any clarity about whether that will be a version of the new J300 Land Cruiser, or another vehicle entirely.
The second vehicle he mentioned is a three-row “people-mover” crossover that’s bigger than the stretched, three-row Lexus RX. Iacono says that that SUV should arrive at dealers relatively soon.
He also reiterated multiple times that it was a matter of when, not if, Lexus would be scoring an electric car. Toyota has told us two new EVs will hit the American market this year; one of those could be that Lexus.
All three new vehicles would make a ton of sense sense. The RX does a lot of heavy lifting in the Lexus SUV lineup; the UX and NX are too small for family use, and families that want something larger than an RX only have ancient, body-on-frame off-roaders to choose from. Offering both a range-topping SUV and a practical volume-seller make sense.
And the EV future is fast becoming the present, so Lexus needs one of those in the lineup to keep customers from wandering off to a Tesla showroom.
