EVs and hybrids make up almost half of Lexus’s Australian sales in 2022

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Lexus Australia says that nearly 50 percent of its sales in the first seven months of 2022 have consisted of electrified cars – meaning hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fully-electric vehicles.

The luxury brand has sold 4473 cars to Australians so far in 2022, and of this figure, 2133 have been either fully- or partially-electrified.

That result means that electrified cars currently make up 47.6 percent of Lexus sales. That number has grown significantly from the split across all of 2021 – last year, electrified Lexus cars made up 38.8 percent of the brand’s sales in Australia though this was across a larger base of 6167 vehicles.

Every vehicle Lexus currently offers in Australia is fitted with some form of electrification – aside from the Toyota Land Cruiser-based LX large SUV, but even that four-wheel drive is slated to receive a hybrid powertrain before the end of the decade.

The launch of the second-generation NX midsize SUV in December 2021 has sparked much of the increase in hybrid sales for Lexus.

Lexus sells the NX in Australia with a choice of a 2.5-litre petrol, 2.4-litre turbo-petrol, 2.5-litre series-parallel hybrid and 2.5-litre plug-in hybrid drivetrain options.

Hybrids have accounted for the majority of NX deliveries in Australia in 2021, with 53 percent of local buyers opting for either the NX350h hybrid or the NX450h plug-in hybrid. In total, 1065 NX hybrids have been sold in 2022.

The figures represent a steady increase over the 992 hybrid NX models sold in 2021, which primarily consisted of the outgoing first-generation model.

Even more buyers of the RX and RX L large SUV choose the hybrid option with 379 buyers, or 59 percent of Australian RX customers, opting for the RX450h engine – a V6 petrol-electric hybrid.

Lexus will soon launch its fifth-generation RX in Australia. The new model expands on the NX strategy, offering customers a 2.4-litre turbocharged engine along with a2.5-litre series-parallel hybrid, a 2.5-litre plug-in hybrid and a range-topping 2.4-litre turbocharged hybrid engine.

The fully-electric UX 300e small SUV has seen a slow start since its launch last year and has recorded just 55 sales from January to July this year, compared to the Mercedes-Benz EQA with ​​465 sales during that same period – though Lexus says it has a long list of customer orders for its EV.

Later still, Lexus is likely to launch its incoming RZ fully-electric midsize SUV in Australia. The RZ450e is understood to use dual electric motors with a 150kW motor at the front wheels and an 80kW motor at the rear – though more powerful options are expected to follow.