doge

they sell the Camry in Europe?

yowps3

In Russia and a few European countries the Camry competes with the C-class & 3 series

doge

lets take your Russia example

Camry starts at 965,000 for the base model (27k usd) per toyota.ru
320i starts at 1,635,000 for the base model (47kusd) per bmw.ru

so nice try spin it again...

Now the Russian market is more akin to the Asian market Simpy because its more eastern and hardly European...

Any other examples

spwolf

Russian market is more like US market.

As to Camry - analogy is wrong in the sense that it does not happen in Russia but sure, lower version of BMW's and Audi's do compete with mid level Avensis and Rav4's. In my area you get better price for mid spec X1 than Rav4. Same goes for Avensis vs 3 series.

1 series and A3 are significantly less expensive than CT200h too and in pricing are closer to mid spec Auris models.

A lot of "luxury" brand volume in Europe comes from cheaper vehicles that compete well with mid-specced vehicles from non-premium manufacturers. Lexus head recently said that 60% of luxury brand sales in Europe are under €40k Euros - base price for NX is €40k for poorly specced entry model.

TF109B

Over there they have Mercedes taxi's! Lots of their sales are lower end and diesel models. Lexus isnt counted as Toyota. Mercedes, BMW, Audi all have over half a century on Lexus in those countries. This is nothing but positive for Lexus. Up 24% is awesome. NX and RC will definitely bump those numbers.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

yeah, "soaring" is a bit much... 24K in 6 months. but glad to see it increasing!

spwolf

Most European Lexus distributors (Lexus Germany, Italy, Spain, etc), expect NX to actually double their sales, so we will see more of that with NX later on this year and in 2015.

But in reality, I dont see much happening over 100k, unless they actually release smaller SUV and smaller sedan - Q3/A3 sedan competitors. I guess they will be happy with that number (80k or so), as it lets their dealers breathe.

First year of NX will go up like crazy but it will level out after few years, thats how Europe goes with "exotic" brand.

Biggest "problem" for all of non-german brands in Europe - Jaguar, Volvo and Lexus, is that by far the biggest market is in Germany and that Germans buy only german vehicles.

Doesnt help that Germany is fleet country and most of the sales go to fleets. BMW 3 series is 3rd best selling car in Germany for 2013, and 82% of its sales went to fleets.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

interesting insight and stats spwolf, thanks.

nx intro causing lexus to double sales in europe seems very optimistic.

doge

+1, if anything the CT should have been the break through car

spwolf

those markets have low sales and their best seller has always been very expensive RX. So for NX, they expect good sales and have many pre-orders (some have already pre-sold allocation for this year).

Thing is - Toyota sells OK in Europe...>800k last year. And 157k of those were expensive hybrid models. Using USA's Toyota vs Lexus sales %, Lexus Europe should be doing better - some 110k a not 40k for 2013. Additionally, Rav4 sold 100k units in 2013 at pretty high prices, with model not really designed for Europe anymore.

So there is room to grow with right product mix for Europe.

whoster

the CT is a tough sell in a market saturated with efficient diesels.

Mr Bond

Sales in Europe has always suffered from very low accessibility. Lexus dealers and service centers are located in major cities. Since Lexus refuses to be a part of the more spread Toyota organization this situation will likely to remain.

Have spoken to many people inside Lexus and they don´t seem to care. They have no plans to expand and they have no intentions to bring diesels or more wagons to the market, which is needed to have high sales here. Toyota and BMW has an ongoing cooperation on diesles and hybrid systems for 2 or 3 years now. Many Toyota vehicles will be powered by the 1,6 and 2.0 liter diesels from BMW in a near future, but the Lexus brand is excluded from this deal.

So if the facts above doesn´t bother Lexus, why would it bother us

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

in britain and france at least, i witnessed a lot of CT's (relative to the almost total absence of any other lexus except RX) so i think it's helped lexus there.

the hybrid feature gives a break on london's daily 'congestion tax'.

LexFather

Agreed. Here is good news for Lexus and its bashed and berated lol. Typical sadly.

FYI, the CT did begin the sales rise and helped Euro sales back in 2012-2013. Sales fell off 40% last year but the new IS is picking up the slack. Lexus will stick to their hybrid strategy and I believe they hope to sell around 100k cars eventually in Europe. A drop in the bucket but REMEMBER these won't be bare bones, cloth, 4 cylinders and also fleet cars. The Germans do HUGE HUGE fleet numbers as they should on their turf.

The fact of the matter is in Europe, it will always be apples to oranges for the most part. Lexus will likely never have the diverse array of vehicles the Germans have and they seem to be fine with that.

So overall great news for Lexus in a very tough market.

http://lexusenthusiast.com/2013/01/2...sales-in-2012/

Links(2012 to show the CT success in Europe)

http://newsroom.toyota.eu/newsreleas...-15583&mid=154

doge

Its not a bash it is what is, with you there is no middle ground. Reminds me of that kid in the playground that would tell you "you're with me or against me". Let brand take some criticism once in a while..

My gripe isn't with lexus but the guy that wrote the sensationalist article.