Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp will be showcasing its latest crossover vehicle the Lexus NX at Beijing Motor Show to meet competition from German and American carmakers. As the first compact crossover from Toyota the production model will be positioned below its 15 year old model Rx in direct competition with luxury model Audi Q3 and Mercedes Benz GLA. To make the car more tech savvy and to fit into luxury segment occupied by these leaders Toyota will “jazz” up the Lexus NX a little more with addition of a designer to its team of developers designated for this car. The fact that a few more luxury additions will be made to existing production model of Lexus NX has also been accepted by Toyota’s President, which shows that the firm is pulling out all stops to make this model a success.
Lexus nx crossover
Last year both BMW and Audi outsold Toyota’s Lexus therefore Toyota is adopting all means at its disposal to win over customers of these luxury brands to Toyota. Since China presently is the largest market for luxury cars all large brands like Audi, BMW, Mercedes have set up production units to gain advantage over imported models. Therefore to make its latest Lexus NX a success in China, Toyota has to set up a factory in China as it hopes to sell more than two thousand units within first year of launch which will help it to capture 1.3 percent of premium car segment. Market researchers have predicted that NX’s sales will grow at a rapid pace due to design and pricing enabling Toyota to sell nearly 5000 units within 6- 7 years of launch.
According to Toyota’s spokesperson, the Lexus NX will be first Lexus model with turbocharged power and will be part of the firm’s global range of vehicles. Toyota will be introducing around 14 new engines to boost fuel efficiency and one of them will be this new turbocharged variant which is a first by Toyota’s standards which till now has believed in improving combustion power of engines instead of using turbochargers. Lexus has been among Toyota’s top selling brands and last fiscal it sold around 523000 units among which 50 percent of sales were to United States accounting for 273847 units and growth of 12 percent since last year.
Even though Toyota was world leader on basis of total sales, it lost out to BMW in terms of luxury car sales. With total sales of 1.66 million which was a record of sorts for this German carmaker, BMW was just a few million ahead of closest competitor Audi which sold 1.58 million followed by Mercedes at 1.46 million. The Toyota Lexus NX has been built on its LF-NX concept which has trapezoidal radiator grille extending from hood to bottom cutting through front bumper and containing eye shaped headlight cluster with LED daytime running lights. Its interiors will be outfitted with black and yellow leather upholstery and blue lighting on dashboard. Toyota has announced that this new Lexus NX will be shown to selective press members before official presentation at Beijing Auto Show on 23 April 2014.
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Tagged: Lexus NX Crossover
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