Lexus expects the supply struggles that held it back in 2022 to ease as we move into the second half of 2023.
“Looking to the year ahead we see a much brighter future for supply, more concentrated in the second half [of 2023],” Lexus Australia chief executive John Pappas told media.
“While it remains too difficult to give you a full year prediction at this stage, I am confident our deliveries will be tracking well north of the 2021 running rate before year’s end,” he said.
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The in-demand Lexus NX350h -
The brand delivered 7089 cars in 2022, a drop of 23.7 per cent compared to the year prior.
If the brand is to top its 2021 sales as foreshadowed by Mr Pappas, it’ll need to deliver at least 9290 vehicles this year.
Mr Pappas told CarExpert wait times for the NX hybrid and plug-in hybrid currently stretch to two years, although the average wait for “most models” elsewhere in the range is between two and 10 months.
“It’s an evolving situation with supply… but we’re hopeful that things will improve, particularly in the second half of the year,” he said.
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Waits for the NX450h+ stretch to two years -
“We are very, very strongly trying to communicate with our dealer network on how we’re going and what’s going on, on the production side. And they’re doing a really good job trying to keep customers informed,” Mr Pappas told CarExpert.
Lexus has recently started offering customers who’ve been waiting for more than five months for their cars access to some parts of the Encore owner benefits package as a way to make the wait more palatable.
“It’s only a recent initiative,” Mr Pappas said, as part of a plan to give soon-to-be owners a taste of what life is like as an owner.
“Even though they haven’t got their car yet, let them start experiencing what Lexus is about so they can start to have access to things people can have access to if they’re owning a Lexus.”
