Lexus UX 2021: hybrid sales share nears 50 per cent as buyers flock towards electrification

John Law

Contributor

Lexus Australia has surpassed 30,000 total hybrid sales since the first RX 400h model debuted in Australia back in 2006.

Lexus hybrid vehicles accounted for 30 per cent of the marque’s Australian sales in 2020.

The UX 250h was the strongest selling hybrid model in 2020 with 608 total sales, accounting for 43 per cent of all UX sales. That’s seriously impressive in the luxury small SUV segment.

Lexus Hybrid 2021 Socials — With an extensive hybrid line-up it was the UX small SUV that sold the best in 2020.

The second biggest-selling electrified Lexus was the hybrid-only ES 300h, the model accumulated 586 total sales.

Hybrids have been a real strength for both Lexus and parent company Toyota in Australia, with vehicles like the Rav4 hybrid topping the overall sales charts in Australia within the last 12 months.

Lexus’ NX medium SUV has also performed strongly for the brand in petrol and hybrid variations, becoming the fastest model from the Japanese carmaker to exceed 20,000 sales, taking only six years to hit the milestone.

Lexus Hybrid line-up 2021 Front — Lexus offers a hybrid powertrain on all but one of the models in the range.

Currently, Lexus sells at least one hybrid variant of all models that come to Australia except for the LX570 full-size SUV, which runs a 5.7-litre petrol V8 exclusively.

Despite a total sales downturn of 13.8 per cent – reflecting the global pandemic’s impact last year – Lexus increased hybrid sales by 11.8 per cent for a total of 2,859 hybrid vehicles.

That number sees Lexus’ hybrid deliveries in 2020 nearly lineball with the total number of BMWs sold in Australia.

Lexus Hybrid line-up 2021 Luxury — Even the marque’s most opulent luxury vehicles can be had with a hybrid system.

This shows that Australians are indeed open to change in terms of automotive propulsion method, with traditional Lexus buyers eager to adopt emerging technology.

Initially, Lexus decided to skip plug-in hybrid technology favouring full electrification in the battery-electric UX 300e. The small battery-powered SUV will arrive in November this year.

Lexus Hybrid line-up 2021 Rear — A broad range of hybrid vehicles will be accompanied by pure EVs shortly.

However, Lexus’ future vision will take in all levels of electrification.

Australian CEO Scott Thompson confirmed that Lexus “will continue to broaden our response by developing more self-charging hybrid vehicles as well as plug-in hybrid, battery-electric and fuel-cell electric vehicle technologies”.

For now though, Lexus will continue with their current mixed lineup of series-parallel hybrids and petrol combustion engines, with the electric UX 300e arriving soon as the sole pure EV.