New Lexus Crossover to Get Brand’s First-Ever 2.0L Turbo Engine

BMW and Audi’s success in the small crossover segment has luxury automakers of all stripes rushing to field their own entrants. The latest is Lexus.

Automotive News has uncovered patent filings revealing that the Japanese automaker will actually kill two birds with one stone — not only is it working on a compact crossover, it will also feature its first-ever 2.0L, four-cylinder turbocharged engine in said crossover. In fact, the new engine initiate both Lexus and Toyota’s participation in the brewing 2.0L turbo race.

Why is the automotive industry all of the sudden so crazy about turbos? The answer is simple — turbocharged engines can offer levels of power and torque on a par with larger engines, saving weight without necessarily sacrificing fuel economy.

Said to be named the NX 200t, the crossover will go on sale at the end of 2014 or early 2015. The engine will likely proliferate across Lexus’ lineup, possibly replacing the 2.5-liter V6 as the entry-level engine in the Lexus IS sedan lineup. It will also be offered in the Toyota RAV4.

Unsurprisingly, Lexus will offer a hybrid version of the new crossover, calling it the NX 300h.

courtesy of autotribute.com

Lexus LS Flagship Luxury Sedan Leads Industry in J.D. Power and Associates 2013 Initial Quality Study

The Lexus LS flagship luxury sedan receives the highest score among all models in the industryin the 2013 J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study (IQS) with 59 problems per 100 vehicles (PP100).  This is the sixth year in a row the LS has had the highest score in the industry.

The LS was redesigned for the 2013 model year with dynamic, fresh styling that gives it a greater road presence and stronger brand identity while heralding a significant improvement in driving dynamics, responsiveness and handling.  The most technologically advanced vehicle in the Lexus lineup, the LS features an array of safety features, including the industry’s most advanced Pre-Collision Safety System (A-PCS).  The LS had May 2013 sales of 996 units, up 117.9 percent on both a volume and DSR basis compared to the same period last year.

Production Facilities Received High Honors
The Lexus production facilities also took Plant Assembly Line Quality Awards.  The Yoshiwara, Japan plant (LX 570) was honored with the Gold Plant Assembly Line Quality Award, while the Kyushu 2, Japan plant (IS line, ES line, RX line) received a Silver Plant Assembly Line Quality Award.

Lexus Delivery and Technology Specialists Continue to Elevate the Customer Experience
In today’s fast-paced, connected world, customers demand the latest and greatest advanced technology features in their vehicles.  This has challenged all automakers to make these features as safe and user-friendly as possible.  In 2012, Lexus made a major proactive move to stay ahead of the technology education game with the establishment two new dealership positions - Lexus Delivery Specialists and Lexus Technology Specialists.  Lexus Delivery Specialists customize new car deliveries according to the wants, needs and time preferences of the new owner.  Lexus Technology Specialists have no sales responsibilities and are dedicated to helping Lexus guests get the most out of their on-board technology.  Lexus Technology Specialists are available by appointment or walk-in at Lexus dealerships nationwide.

courtesy of toyotanewsroom.com

Lexus IS Launch Spots Encourage Consumers to Blend Out

To launch the entirely new 2014 Lexus IS sport sedan, the automaker today debuts three new television spots comprised of iconic, stylized visuals designed to be provocative. The strikingly different IS, which will arrive in showrooms this July, is the latest vehicle in the Lexus lineup to showcase the brand’s commitment to bold and dynamic design. Like the new IS, the supporting TV spots are a deliberately defiant departure from the status quo.

“This third-generation IS features the bold new styling and dynamic driving characteristics now inherent in the Lexus lineup and the new ads reflect that excitement,” said Brian Smith, vice president of marketing for Lexus. “The TV spots capture the emotion engineered into the IS and challenge customers with ‘It’s Your Move.’”

Celebrating the independent spirit of the IS, two new general market spots, created by Lexus’ agency of record, Team One, use music, fashion, and contrasting colors to make a purposeful statement. Emotions in the two spots are polarizingly different as they showcase the serious yet playful faces of the IS.

In “Crowd,” a vast throng, dressed head-to-toe in black, pulses to a steady, anthemic song at an open-air concert. An attractive man and woman, both dressed in white, catch the other’s glance and push through the crowd until they meet. They join hands and, together, move against the current of the crowd. The bold, distinctive spindle grille of a white IS F SPORT is revealed as the couple reach the car and climb in. Donned in white, the three are destined to escape the sameness of the pack. The IS F SPORT peels away and heads to the open desert, the antithesis of the crowd, where complete freedom and independence reign. The spot emphasizes that things designed to draw a crowd are good, but leaving the crowd behind is more rewarding.

The second spot, “Color Shift,” shows it’s more fun and exciting to blend out than blend in. A white IS F SPORT speeds through a graphic white background, passing a series of tableaus: A woman dressed in white twirls a white umbrella with confidence, a man wearing a white top hat jams on a white guitar, and chic white clocks, turntables and bicycles pepper the environment. The spot cuts to a black IS 250 driving through a similar black background with parallel stylized moments. Dressed head-to-toe in their respective world’s color, two women give each other a confident high five as they, alongside the IS vehicles, dramatically cross into the contrasting world. Both the women and the cars are beautiful when they blend in, but exquisitely stand out when they dare to be different.

Original music from Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh punctuates the hyperstylized, rock & roll look and feel of the spot. It punches and pops. The cars become characters themselves, equal to the people living in the contrasting worlds, and demonstrate the elevated experience of driving the new IS. The injection of culture in both spots comes to life through the lens of renowned Swedish film and music video director Jonas Åkerlund. His wife, B Åkerlund, brings a sophisticated level of styling to the spots, creating angular, iconic looks with contemporary yet timeless clothing and accessories.

Two additional spots, created by Lexus’ multicultural agency, Walton Isaacson, are part of the broadcast campaign as well. “This is Your Move” is geared to the African-American audience. Set in an industrial environment, the spot features Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp as he searches for something that matches his ambitious and driven personality. He finds the 2014 IS 350 F SPORT and takes it on an aggressive drive as the spot intercuts with an attractive woman dancing with her IS 250. The quick cuts, seductive imagery and pulsing music portray the IS as an item of desire. “Intense” is targeted to the Hispanic audience and follows a young couple as they experience the thrills of driving the redesigned IS 250. Their enthusiasm from the moment they slide into the car illustrates that the IS offers an intense driving experience like no other.

“Crowd,” “Color Shift” and “This is Your Move” will air on NBC during this year’s U.S. Open Championship. “Crowd” will also be running in cinema beginning June 21, with “Intense” and additional Lexus IS marketing campaign elements launching in the coming months.

courtesy of pressroom.toyota.com

Two giants of exploration—and eco-activism—join Lexus for a chat. The topic? Saving the world.

It was January of 1986. Robert Swan was 33 years old when he and two colleagues completed the longest unassisted trek ever made to the South Pole—a 900-mile journey that inspired Swan to spend the following decades devising creative, adventurous ways to protect the polar wilderness.


David de Rothschild was also in his early 30s when, in 2010, he completed a trans-Pacific journey in a catamaran made out of reclaimed plastic bottles. His boat, the Plastiki, roughly retraced explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 Kon-Tiki raft route. The goal: draw attention to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a zone of refuse on the water’s surface twice the size of Texas.

These days, Swan and de Rothschild continue to transform big action into big awareness. Swan’s 2041 organization highlights eco-issues via expeditions around the world, while de Rothschild’s Sculpt the Future Foundation backs people and groups that pursue meaningful, de Rothschild-style eco-awareness.

Both share a mission: enlighten and engage the world about creating an environmentally sustainable future. Lexus spoke with them about past adventures, future undertakings, and the challenges of protecting planet Earth.

Lexus: Both of you tackle extreme exploration to draw attention to your causes. Is that what it takes to change the world these days?
Robert Swan: Well, the last great exploration on Earth isn’t actually some lunatic like me walking to the north and south poles. No, the future heroes and heroines of exploration are not people like me. I think they are people in industry and business, developing renewable technology.

Lexus: We have to ask—why do you call yourself a lunatic?
RS: On my trek to the South Pole, the team carried no radio communication. No GPS. We used a sextant and the sun. If something went wrong, it was game over. We even knew that, in order to reach the poles, we were going to have to starve a little bit because we could pull only 360 pounds on our sleds, just enough to make it—just.

Lexus: David, for the Plastiki expedition, you crossed the ocean on a boat made from 12,500 plastic bottles and used glue made from cashew husks and sugarcane. Did you or others ever question your sanity when gauging how the venture would stand up to the rigors of the high seas?
David de Rothschild: We did ask that question as a starting point: can we even build a boat made entirely of plastic bottles to sail across the Pacific? But because the question itself was so absurd, it disarmed people. Whatever question we asked after that wasn’t dumb anymore. It was freedom. Using that discovery of an adventure as the foundation for the exploration of innovation is really exciting.
RS: David, plastic bottles are obviously something you know a thing or two about. What is your view on the new, renewable sugarcane bottles now being made by some of the big beverage companies?
DDR: I guess it’s a start of a conversation. At least the big bottling companies are acknowledging that there is a plastic issue. But I don’t think it’s solving the problem as much as salving the conscience. To the uninitiated, people may think sugarcane bottles make sense. But there are a lot of issues with the process of actually reclaiming those bottles, because there are not a lot of facilities that can accept them—so they can end up in the trash.

Lexus: Robert, in November of 2015, you’ll be returning to the South Pole to walk the 883-mile return journey. But this time, much like David’s Plastiki voyage, the expedition will be powered entirely by renewable, clean technology.
RS: Yes, but it will be very, very hard. No one has made a journey like that in the Arctic or the Antarctic. Using fossil fuels is the easiest way to make a polar journey. If we were to do it tomorrow, relying only on wind and solar, we would not make it.

Lexus: How will you close that innovation gap by 2015?
RS: We’ll be testing new technologies right on the edge of survival, such as solar panels on the sled that help melt a container of snow as we travel, for drinking and cooking water. Heating the melted water for cooking is our greatest challenge right now. Our expedition is really a symbol of where the world is at the moment as far as renewable technologies go. The technology is out there. We just need to develop it. If it can work on the polar plateau at minus 50, it can work anywhere.
DDR: What is the magic in Antarctica that keeps drawing you back? How can you take somewhere so remote to so many people, and make your mission feel relevant to people who will never have a chance to feel that magic?
RS: For me, it’s now about taking everyday people along on an extraordinary journey. Nowadays, I seek out and take great people from amazing nations who normally wouldn’t go to Antarctica—like taking a girl from Saudi Arabia, or Kuwait, or India. When they bring their experience home, it engages people because the messenger is from an everyday background.
DDR: How about global governance on these environmental issues, like Earth Summits. Do you think they work or does it just result in all-talk-but-no-action outcomes, which we’ve seen before?

RS: Having visited three Earth Summits, I would agree with you. Global governance does not seem to carry enough weight. However, industry and business, for all their mistakes, are stepping up to the plate more than I expected them to do. Maybe the success of the Antarctic Treaty, signed in 1959, will help. That was a hugely successful agreement that has worked so far. I’m hopeful Antarctica could be an example of global governance working.
DDR: The meetings can be a little like an anticlimactic New Year’s Eve party. Everyone turns up, but it can be a letdown. But it’s always that spontaneous moment, something that isn’t planned, that is the best part of these convenings. It’s less about a global agenda and more about allowing a platform for the actionists—the people who don’t have an authorized position to talk at those forums—to sit in the back and get great things planned.

Lexus: That’s a great term—actionists. People who get things done, not unlike you and Robert. Thank you for your time, gentlemen.

courtesy of drivers.lexus.com

The Lexus LC-CC Concept & New IS F SPORT Together

As part of their sponsorship of the Australian International Design Awards, Lexus Australia has released a stunning collection of photos featuring the LF-CC concept and the new IS F SPORT together.


The similarities between the two cars are dramatic, despite the difference in doors — even still, the Lexus Australia press release provides an interesting perspective:

Although concept in design, the LF-CC provides much of the inspiration for the forthcoming, all-new IS Line and provides a hint of a future two-door mid-size coupe scheduled for production.

Lexus Australia chief executive Sean Hanley said that the LF-CC brings with it renewed focus on design and driving dynamics.

“The LF-CC signals a new Lexus, one buoyed by confidence and a desire to deliver vehicles that are visually and dynamically appealing,” Mr Hanley said.
“LF-CC is more than a concept, it is a promise from Lexus to deliver an engaging and exciting two-door coupe – in fact, its impact is already evident in the forthcoming IS Line.

“The beauty of LF-CC is more than skin deep, with its innovative petrol-electric drivetrain and on-board features, the LF-CC and in fact the LF-LC coupe concept are graphic demonstrations of what’s to come from Lexus,” Mr Hanley said.

 courtesy of lexusenthusiast.com

Toyota Remains No. 1 Sales Retail Brand; Lexus Makes Biggest Monthly Gain of Any Luxury Brand

Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc. reported monthly sales of 207,952 units in May 2013, up 2.5 percent on both an unadjusted raw volume and daily selling rate (DSR) basis. In fact, company sales through May were up 5.2 percent ahead of the same period last year.

"New vehicle sales are heating up along with the weather, and solid May results coupled with an excellent Memorial Day weekend provide great momentum as we move into the summer selling season," said Bill Fay, group vice president and general manager of Toyota Division.  "The five-year high in consumer confidence translated into especially strong retail sales and as the industry leader last month, we're well-positioned to provide the vehicles customers want."

With sales of 185,723 units, the Toyota Division again snagged the No. 1 spot among retail brands.  Avalon sales were up more than 250 percent over last May. With sales of 23,522 units, Prius had its best month in more than a year; it also accounts for about half of all hybrid car sales in the United States. RAV4 set a new May record with sales topping 20,000 units for its best month in more than three years. Scion reported May sales of 6,586 units, up 8.9 percent over May 2012.

Lexus posted sales of 22,229 units for May, up 3.6 percent over the same period last year and up 23 percent over April 2013. The ES and LS continue to perform well, with calendar-year-to-date sales up 92 percent and 78 percent, respectively.

“The other big news for us in May was Lexus earning the No. 1 brand ranking from Consumer Reports magazine, including a recommendation for 100 percent of our lineup,” said Lexus Group Vice President and General Manager Jeff Bracken. 

courtesy of toyotanewsroom.com