GR-lavished LBX 'Morizo' shown
/Impending small city sports utility envisaged as petite power player.
Read MoreImpending small city sports utility envisaged as petite power player.
Read MoreLexus baby now the cheapest buy - but only when the entry edition is considered.
Read MoreFront and all-wheel-drive editions with plenty of upmarket pizzazz could be the ticket for sub-UX offer landing in March.
Read MoreConcept for imminent mobility show in Tokyo a start-again for brand’s electric ambition.
Read MoreToyota confirms front-drive ‘Pure’ and all-wheel-drive ‘Motion’.
Read MoreA baby Lexus has been teased, a big one is hinted as a Prado and Toyota has announced yet another strategy to go electric - starting with another platform.
Read MoreBigger battery for compact Lexus electric tops list of 2023 changes.
Read MoreToyota New Zealand’s sales boss describes how covid has reshaped a business in which battery-assistance has become vital.
Read MorePowerful styling isn’t the only ace card being played by the RZ 450e.
Read More‘Japan-only’ status for GRMN’s impressive wild child not necessarily a closed door.
Read MoreLexus here is sending its first battery car into a territory that’s historically been its parent brand’s preserve.
Read MoreA big brother to the Lexus UX300e might be just a year away.
Read MoreLexus’ local boss believes next year’s orthodox diesel LX will resonate yet wouldn’t say no to the big boy going petrol-electric.
Read MoreIt was to have been out this week – instead, customers have been told the new 300-Series will be here “early next year”.
Read MoreThe first all-electric Lexus has priced $100 below the demarcation for qualifying for Government’s largest clean car discount.
Read MoreIt’s the new Lexus NX. Only hybrids, plug-in and ‘self charging’, are coming to this market at year-end.
Read MoreAN end-of-2021 local market arrival timing has been announced for the UX 300e, the first Lexus to be wholly reliant on battery-fed electric power.
Confirmation of the small SUV’s local availability comes more than a year after the local arm expressed interest and almost two years since its global debut at a motor show in China.
Read MoreTHEY call it LF-Z Electrified and, officially, it’s just a preview of what a Lexus designed from the ground up to be all-electric could look like.
With Toyota’s premium brand also announcing overnight intent to introduce 20 all-new or redesigned vehicles globally by 2025, at least half of which executives say will be all-electric or electrified hybrid models, there’s growing speculation this apparently fully operational four-seater SUV crossover here will be heading into production as a next step beyond its only current electric offer, the NX300e.
With a cab-rearward design that is unusual for an SUV, the LF-Z Electrified features many of the company’s signature design elements such as the ‘big tick’ headlights and spindle grill, but with new, more modern interpretations.
The interior features a somewhat minimalist design aside from driver-centric cockpit screens. It’s a driver-focused layout, with a mixture of switches on the steering wheel and a head-up display. The rear of the cabin features two bucket seats.
Lexus already has an electric car and it is expected in New Zealand later this year. But it’s a version of the NX, which was designed for combustion engines. LF-Z goes the next step; there’s no sign it will have an ICE powertrain.
The brand says the car sits on a bespoke electric platform, which is almost certain to be e-TNGA, the EV-specific underpinnings on which Toyota will base its upcoming BZ series of models. The first BZ is set to be unveiled within days.
At 4880mm long and 1600mm tall, the LF-Z Electrified is just 10mm shorter than Lexus’s most popular SUV here, the RX, but the roofline is obviously lower, by 80mm according to the maker. The EV’s wheelbase is 160mm longer, too.
The LF-Z features Lexus’s DIRECT4 four-wheel-drive system and an electric motor set-up producing a total of 400kW and 700Nm of torque – enough to take the LF-Z Electrified from 0-100kmh in three seconds.
Lexus says the battery is a 90kWh lithium-ion unit, and that the LF-Z can travel for up to 600km between recharges. Its maximum recharging speed is 150kW.
Lexus president, Koji Sato, has announced that the brand’s product refresh will kick in before the end of 2021.
“Starting with two new models to be released this year,” he said.
“We will continue to develop innovative products that will add colour to the diversifying lifestyles of our customers.”
Lexus New Zealand has yet to explain how the impending model roll out will impact on its own operation, but chief executive Neeraj Lala has offered that: “The automotive industry both globally and in New Zealand are entering a period of once-in-a-century transformation.
“In addition to the growing imperative to achieve carbon neutrality for the betterment of the planet customers lifestyles and values are changing and diversifying at a speed previously unimagined.”
“Lexus will continue to lead the luxury market in New Zealand in reducing CO2 emissions and is looking at its future powertrain offerings. By 2025 Lexus plans to introduce 20 new or improved models, including more than 10 electrified models such as BEVs, PHEVs and HEVs, based on the concept of offering the right products in the right place at the right time.“
“Vehicle concepts like the LF-Z Electrified, excite the senses and give you a true feeling of what Lexus and Experience Amazing means,” says Lala.
Since the launch of the RX 400h – the world’s first luxury hybrid electric vehicle – in 2005, Lexus customers have purchased nearly two million electrified vehicles globally, as at the end of 2020. Lexus globally offers nine models of (HEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in approximately 90 countries and regions around the world.
“In New Zealand we have seen customers moving to Lexus Electrified product with a 38 percent increase year to date*,” says Andrew Davis, Lexus New Zealand general manager. “Seventy-one percent of these sales are hybrid-electric powertrains.”
By 2050, Lexus aims to achieve carbon neutrality throughout the lifecycle of its entire model lineup – from the manufacturing of materials, parts and vehicles to vehicle logistics, to the final disposal and recycling of older vehicles.
“Lexus has always pursued both performance and sustainability, and through the Lexus electrified vision, will continue to use technology to create a sustainable future while still embracing the enjoyment and pleasure that cars offer customers,” says Lala.
KIWI Lexus owners travelling, once conditions allow, into Australia might yet get a sweet deal set to be afforded their Aussie counterparts coming here – free use of a brand-new car from the make during their visit.
The opportunity for Lexus Australia customers subscribed to a generous support package they get (and Kiwis don’t) has elevated to allow them to make use of Lexus NZ cars as a complimentary booking service.
The just-announced opportunity is being spruiked by our neighbour as a way of supporting a travel bubble between our countries.
Lexus in NZ is looking at whether it can arrange a reciprocal arrangement, but it’s early days.
The ‘Lexus on Demand’ car-sharing opportunity is part of a pampering customer support programme called Encore Platinum that Australian owners sign into.
It’s an extension of another ownership programme, called Lexus Encore, and is offered as standard to Australian buyers of LC, LS, LX, RC F and GS F models.
Lexus New Zealand has no equivalent, general manager Andrew Davis says.
“NZ customers do not receive the same Encore Platinum benefits that Australian customers do as they receive a four year, unlimited km warranty, full maintenance service and Lexus Plus roadside assistance package.
“We always assess the benefits that we provide our customers so are reviewing the Encore Platinum offering against the benefits currently offered but there is no plan to change at this stage.”
The Aussie offer allows owners of Toyota’s flagship models to book, via an app, any vehicle in the Lexus range when travelling. It's been previously limited to interstate travel - NZ is the first international tilt.
It isn’t an open slather deal - users can take no more than four trips – but is generous nonetheless as each of those trips can last up to eight days. The journeys have to be undertaken over the three-year life of the membership programme.
The NZ aspect means Lexus owners can book and collect a loan car of their choosing from a variety of NZ airports, thereby skipping the typical rental car process.
In explaining the scheme, Lexus Australia boss Scott Thompson says: “Looking forward into 2021, there are some positive signs for the industry and for the economy, and with vaccines arriving now, we also have plans for the two-way travel bubble with New Zealand.
"Hopefully this will happen by the end of next month. We are anticipating that many Australian customers will be keen to experience international travel when the transtasman bubble opens.
“So coming later this year, we've decided to expand Encore Platinum to offer our Australian customers the luxury and convenience that is Lexus on Demand when they fly across the pitch.”
The company is yet to announce the specific airports where the service will be offered, as well as a line-up of specific models owners can access in New Zealand.
In Australia, the Lexus on Demand service typically offers owners access to a spread of multi-purpose vehicles, including the LS large limo for luxury touring, the RX and LX for utility and space and the LC and RC F for sportier drives.
The challenge in New Zealand might be having enough of those cars to provision – the LX, LS and LC in particular achieve just a handful of registrations per year.
Davis says: “We are looking to support the Lexus On Demand feature of Encore Platinum for Australian customers who visit NZ. The details are being worked through and timing and locations will be announced once confirmed.
“The offering in NZ will be the same as it is for customers travelling within Australia but we are looking to have a smaller number of practical models (e.g. RX) to better suit usage for those travelling to NZ. Once launched we will monitor usage and demand to assess the programme in NZ.”
“For Lexus NZ the commitment is in having cars available to Australian customers and working with Lexus Australia on managing bookings and the process with the highest levels of Omotenashi (a word that essentially translates to ‘Japanese hospitality’) in mind.”
As for them doing the same for us? Not at the moment.But they’re thinking about it.
“In regard to NZ offering our customers the same access in Australia? That is under consideration and the success of the Australia to NZ offering will be a guide for demand on this.”
Lexus Australia’s Encore programme also includes loan cars while a owner’s car is being serviced, access to exclusive events and upgrades at partner hotels.
NO chance: That’s the response in precis from Lexus New Zealand when asked about potential of the just-revealed flagship of its new IS compact luxury sedan line reaching this market.
The local distributor, operating as an adjunct to Toyota New Zealand, has reiterated a view expressed in other right-hand-drive locales: Namely, that the new car is only for North America. Specifically, the United States.
What Kiwis knew as the IS-F, ultimately in a sizzler Redline edition, until it was curtailed in 2014 is now called the IS500 F Sport Performance.
Power is from the 5.0-litre naturally-aspirated petrol V8 seen under the bonnet of the RC-F and GS F performance cars, but also involved with the IS-F since it was born in 2008.
In this latest application it develops 352kW of power at 7100rpm and 536Nm of torque, at 4800rpm. That’s a 41kW and 31Nm lift over the outputs cited for the last of the IS-Fs, which in its own right moved with astounding alacrity.
The extra wallop would certainly enhance the pedigree when measured against two of the best in the business, the BMW M3/M4 and Mercedes Benz C63.
Lexus claims a 4.5 second 0-100kmh time. Kerb weight is rated at 1765kg, up just 65kg over the most exciting model in the current NZ line-up, the rear-wheel-drive IS350 F Sport.
Under the skin, the 'standard' IS's 'Dynamic Handling Package' has been fitted as standard to the IS500 to help cope with the extra grunt, with additions including adaptive suspension, a Yamaha rear performance damper (designed to reduce body flex and increase rigidity), and a Torsen limited-slip rear differential.
19-inch Enkei alloy wheels fill the arches – which are said to be 2.7kg lighter in total versus the regular IS F Sport's 19-inch wheels – hiding larger 356mm two-piece front and 323mm rear sports brakes.
Styling upgrades over NZ-familiar IS F Sport models largely comprise a 51mm-taller bonnet to accommodate the V8 engine, "lengthened" front bumper and quarter panels, a new rear diffuser with the brand's signature stacked quad exhaust tips, black window surrounds, black badging and a black lip spoiler.
Inside, the standard model's 10.3-inch infotainment touchscreen and digital instrument cluster are carried over, with changes limited to F Sport Performance badging on the steering wheel, metallic pedals, unique illuminated door sill plates and an IS500-specific start-up animation for the instrument cluster.
The full Lexus Safety System Plus driver assistance suite carries over to the flagship.
By chance, in an interview given to MotoringNZ.co, just weeks ago – when the IS500 was still under wraps – the potential of there ever being another IS-F was discussed by Lexus NZ boss Andrew Davis.
At that time, he said he did not know of anything on the horizon, but added: “There is speculation on IS-F and I think this speculation just shows there is still market interest in those sorts of cars.”
Lexus has RC-F and has had GS-F, so there’s logic to think there might still be space for another IS-F, he said then. That the old model has established a cult following also weighed into it.
MotoringNZ reviews new cars and keeps readers up-to-date with the latest developments on the auto industry. All the major brands are represented. The site is owned and edited by New Zealand motoring journalist Richard Bosselman.