Wait times coming down for most Lexus models

Lexus Australia is currently on a push to achieve yet another record-breaking sales year in 2024, with wait times for the majority of its models returning to “normal” by mid-year.

John Pappas, Lexus Australia CEO, told CarExpert this week that “90 per cent” of its models will have wait times of between two to four months by the middle of 2024.

This is a further improvement on Mr Pappas’ remarks earlier this year that the brand had already reduced wait times to two to four months on 70 per cent of its models.

“The cars that sort of fall out this [are] the L-series cars, particularly the LX and LM. The LC and the LS are built to order because there are such low volumes,” added Mr Pappas.

“Those four vehicles fall outside of the two-to-four month window.”

Lexus “used to have really long wait time[s] on LX”, said Mr Pappas, though it has “reduced significantly” now to “about 12 months now”.

Mr Pappas also noted there are almost 250 orders placed on the recently launched LM luxurious people mover, which means there’s already a 12-month waiting list.

“People are gravitating to the LM,” according to Mr Pappas, noting demand is coming from both commercial and private buyers.

With the Lexus LBX, the company’s latest and smallest vehicle ever, Mr Pappas said that “in the first 12 months supply will be a bit tight”.

“In the first four months we’re getting about 1500 LBXs. We’ve already had really good interest in the vehicle. We’ve currently got just over 300 customer orders right now, so we’re in a pretty good spot,” said Mr Pappas.

As a whole, Lexus Australia has “moved the dial” of its baseline annual vehicle sales figure to “well above 10,000”, according to Mr Pappas.

For context, Lexus sold a total of 15,192 vehicles last year and 7089 vehicles in 2022.

Mr Pappas claims this baseline annual vehicle sales figure of well over 10,000 is “not just huge, it’s very healthy, and it’s sustainable”.

Looking forward Lexus is launching the body-on-frame GX SUV locally mid-year. This is the first time the luxurious Toyota Prado rival has been offered in Australia.

Lexus Australia plans to reopen NX 450h+ plug-in hybrid (PHEV) orders by the end of the year following a lengthy order pause. The RX 450h+ PHEV will also be introduced locally in early 2025.