Lexus to offer a new 3-row SUV, off-road halo model and infotainment, report says
The chairman of the Lexus National Dealer Advisory Council says big changes are coming, and soon.
Big things are coming for Lexus to help attract younger buyers.
Lexus isn't a company that we see jumping through hoops and chasing trends to offer the latest and greatest of anything. It's a company that offers solidly built vehicles that get incrementally better over time. Not many vehicle manufacturers could succeed with a product cycle like that, but because Lexus has an insane number of repeat buyers and a very strong dealer network, it continues to thrive.
Now, just because it's doing well doesn't mean that the company's dealer network doesn't want new product and, according to a report published on Wednesday by Automotive News (paywall), those dealers may be getting their wishes fulfilled.
The article, which features an interview with the Chairman of the Lexus Dealer Advisory Council, John Iacono, confirms that we can expect a new large three-row SUV from Lexus in the next model year or two. This would likely be something more akin to a luxury Sequoia , but Iacono also speculates that the company will be producing a low-volume off-road-focused halo vehicle. It would also likely serve as the replacement for the ancient Toyota Land Cruiser-based LX 570 .
It's not all vehicle talk, though. One area of Iacono's interview that has us interested is the rumor of an all-new infotainment system. Infotainment has indeed been one of our biggest and most consistent criticisms of Lexus vehicles for years. Things have gotten somewhat better recently with the addition of touchscreen capabilities to the LS 500 and other models.
This new infotainment system is allegedly meant to help bring younger buyers to the Lexus brand and get them hooked, so we'd expect to see it in something like the UX or IS models first and trickle up, much like Mercedes did with its MBUX system.
If Mr. Iacono is to be believed, we may be looking at a very different version of Lexus than we're used to, and that might be coming sooner than expected.
Lexus representatives declined to comment on future product.
Updated 2/12 at 12:31 p.m. PT: Added response from Lexus