TOKYO — Is a brand new Lexus LX price a four-year wait?
Plenty of consumers in Japan apparently assume so.
With supply delays stretching that lengthy within the residence market, Toyota Motor Corp.’s premium model suspended new orders for the flagship massive SUV this month. Otherwise, the corporate is worried automobiles ordered at present will not even arrive earlier than the following mannequin replace is deliberate.
Lexus has additionally pulled the plug on new orders for the NX compact crossover in Japan for a similar motive. The wait has grown past one 12 months, mother or father firm Toyota mentioned.
The redesigned LX went on sale in Japan solely in January, and the NX landed right here final November.
“LX is very popular not only in Japan but also around the world, and we have received orders that greatly exceed our production capacity,” Lexus mentioned in an apology on its Japanese web site.
In the U.S., Lexus continues to be taking orders for each nameplates, however availability is restricted by crimped output. The LX is manufactured in Japan; the NX in Japan and Canada.
“For the U.S. market, we are getting some global allocation preference. This is still not enough, but we don’t have a four-year wait,” Toyota Motor North America spokesman Scott Vazin mentioned.
Lexus has a “significant sold order bank,” particularly for the LX, he added.
In the U.S., Lexus has only some days’ provide of automobiles. Sales there of the LX fell 21 % by means of June; NX gross sales — a mixture of imports and home builds — slumped 39 %.
Overall Lexus U.S. gross sales declined 17 % within the six-month interval.
Toyota additionally suspended orders for the just-redesigned Land Cruiser. In January, Toyota warned clients in Japan the anticipate a Land Cruiser 300 Series was 4 years.
Demand for the favored utility automobiles has merely outstripped Toyota’s capability to supply them because the Japanese carmaker grapples with provide chain disruptions.
Toyota has misplaced manufacturing of about 400,000 automobiles worldwide within the fiscal 12 months that began April 1, on the again of semiconductor shortages and pandemic slowdowns. Toyota’s newest dial-down got here June 22, when it lower its world manufacturing plan for July by 50,000 automobiles to 800,000.
Through May, output in Japan was down 16 %, however it was up 3.3 % exterior the nation.
Source: www.autonews.com
