Hi, I have collected data from Lexus LC sales through the year. You can see how it sold worldwide split by year of production.

Luckily for the USA, we have official sales report from Lexus available HERE
Outside of the USA, Lexus give some informations but not as fully detailed, so for the other data, it is based on some other non official sources such as press articles or other websites. Real numbers may be slightly different but the worked I have done can show a good trend.

I have asked Lexus customer service in my country (France) to get some official informations on sales here. They did not provide me sales per year but they gave me the number of LC sold in France with the split by color and by version (Coupe V8 / Coupe V6 / Convertible)

It could be great if some of non US member here ask their Lexus customer service to get the information of sale in their country and the split V6/V8 so I could update this.

 

Very interesting how well the hybrid sells relative to the V8 in France. Excuse my ignorance, but is there an additional tax or penalty in EU or France for larger or less fuel efficient engines?

 

It is across much of europe but as I understand France is especially bad. It's based on several things such as HP total, gross weight, CO2 emissions, etc. makes owning the V8 extremely expensive

 

Hmm. Very interesting that USA contributes to 50% of global sales... Then 30% in their own home market, 10% from Europe, 3% in Canada.. Looks like American market probably understands / appreciates this car more than any other country (regardless of coupe, vert, V8 or hybrid)... May be that could be a reason why Lexus did not add 25% tariff so far!!

And there are countries with 1 or 2 LCs.. that is unique for the owner!!

 

And at an average price of 100K $ per car, it is 3 billion $ total sales over 8 years.. Not sure how much Lexus spent on developing the car but most likely they did not make much money from this model however they created a fan base that loves the car. I for one who bought the LC instead of RX450H+ (which is an unusual decision on my part but I do not regret).

 

One salesman told me Lexus made a 6% margin on the LC, and I believe him.
Part of the appeal of the LC is that it is made with pride, by craftsmen.

 

Lexus price was the same for V6 and V8 coupe, the difference in final price is government taxes. Taxes increased over the year as CO2 emission got harder to cope with and they also add a tax depending on the car weight. Plus if you used an hybrid as a company car you could avoid taxes that were due for non hybrid car so I know a lot of guy owning a business using LC 500h as company car. With electric car boom hybrid is not anymore allowed for these tax discounts, so sales dropped too.

For exemple my 2019 sport + LC 500 (similar to performance package) was priced at 120 000 € by the dealership then you add 1 900 € as registration fee and add again 11 500 € as CO2 tax = 133 850 €
For a 2019 LC 500h : dealership 120 000 € + 950 € as registration fee + 2010 € as CO2 tax = 122 960 €

taxes for Lexus LC500 (CO2 and weight) :
2017 : 10 000
2018 : 10 500
2019 : 11 500
2020 : 20 000
2021 : 30 000
2022 : 40 000
2023 : 60 000
2024 : 70 000 so for a new LC 500 it was 190 000 €

Similar taxes are applied in other european country (maybe not as hard) so that explain why LC was discontinued from Europe around mid 2024, you could get car on stock but it was not possible to get them from car configurator.

 

Europe has lost their minds with these ridiculous draconian taxing policies. The pendulum has to swing back in the sensible direction.

 

Fascinating - good work, thank you!

 

Registration and yearly road taxes aren't anything new. For example in Finland registration tax was first taken into use in 1958. It has changed about 100 times since then. On current setup tax percentage is based purely on CO2 and it varies from 0% for electrics to 50% for over 300g CO2. Actual tax is cars tax free price times % so for 100k car its 0-50k and then 25% VAT on top of tax free price and tax. What this means for LC500 is, only hybrid was even listed by local Lexus starting at 145k euros. V8 would be closer to 200k or even over it. No one would buy it. Importer is probably happy no one does so they don't have to learn to service one. Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and some old eastern block countries have somewhat similar registration tax setup. Many of these countries if any new LC's are sold they almost all are hybrids. LC is expensive in some countries but even more expensive Ferrari's easily outsell LC's in all of them I think. So its not just question of no one can afford LC's.

8 sold new in here are all LC500h. There is also 9th one imported as used car from Sweden few years ago. Registration tax for it was around 17k euros IIRR. When importing from inside EU there is no VAT for used cars. Early V8 coupes tax would be maybe 30k now. Once V8's are older few will eventually come in. At 12-15 years old tax starts to be more reasonable. Out of 9 in now three have been for sale over last few years. All around 70k euros asking price. So basically first owners lost 70k in 5-6 years on two out of three which were sold new in here. That is one very good reason not to buy new one in here. BMW 8-series etc, have very similar depreciation.

 

Swedish number 5 + 7 = 12 can't be right as used one imported into Finland was older than 2023, possibly 2019. Maybe it was originally from some other countries number.

I would expect early year having at least few cars sold there every year. They don't have any registration tax other than usual 25% VAT. Sweden is largest car market in Nordic and they do buy more exotic stuff than other Nordic countries combined. Unless there is some very specific reason like local importer just refusing to sell LC at all there should be more sold every year that other Nordic countries.

I also think numbers are missing LC500h's sold in China. Not sure at all how many at each year but I think just hybrid was available there and some were sold.

 

@928GTS
“Registration and yearly road taxes aren't anything new. For example in Finland registration tax was first taken into use in 1958. It has changed about 100 times since then. On current setup tax percentage is based purely on CO2 and it varies from 0% for electrics to 50% for over 300g CO2. Actual tax is cars tax free price times % so for 100k car its 0-50k and then 25% VAT on top of tax free price and tax. What this means for LC500 is, only hybrid was even listed by local Lexus starting at 145k euros. V8 would be closer to 200k or even over it. No one would buy it”

Thanks for the information. Here in the USA it seems California has adopted much of the European mindset with regard to policy. It’s as though European regulations is the template for California legislators.

 

As I said only green are Lexus officials number. For the other ones I don't know where the website got informations. Only asking Lexus in your country can provide the exact number. It would be nice if you could do it. I did it and provided my VIN number.

 

It is highly unlikely local Lexus in Finland giving anything at all out. There are other ways to dig same information and I already have it. That's basis for being able to say what is correct number or new cars sold each year. VIN info requires more data to get which isn't readily available. Basically license plate number for every car is needed. Even then getting VIN can be blocked for some cars depending on how strict protection each owner has requested for.

 

Link updated as the picture was not showing