Lexus LBX small crossover focuses on European buyers

MILAN – When Lexus five years ago began to investigate launching a smaller model designed to appeal to urban European buyers, one thing was clear from first market research: It would need to be a small crossover with a gasoline full-hybrid powertrain.

The result is the LBX, an Audi Q2 and Mini Countryman rival that European customers can start to configure on the Lexus website starting June 5. Orders will be taken from October, when prices will be announced. Average transaction prices are expected in the 35,000 to 37,000 euro ($37,500 to $39,500) range, Lexus executives said. Deliveries will begin in early 2024.

Europe is expected to get about 2,000 LBXs a month out of a 3,500-unit monthly total, Lexus International President Takashi Watanabe told Automotive News Europe in an interview last week.

About 1,200 units a month will be sold in Japan, where the LBX will be built, with the remaining 300 destined mainly for Australia and other Southeast Asian markers, he said. Lexus is not planning to sell the LBX in China and the United States.

The LBX is based on Toyota’s TNGA-B architecture, also used by the Toyota Yaris Cross small crossover, but with extensive modifications after a jump start in its design genesis.

"We failed miserably on the first run," admits Simon Humphries, who as chief branding officer at Lexus parent Toyota Motor. He oversees design for the Lexus and Toyota brands.

He said that when executives gathered to review the first full-size LBX design proposal, "it dawned on us ... we had fallen into the trap of making a small car with small car proportions," he said.

The project went back to the drawing board, with extensive engineering work on the platform. As a result the wheelbase was extended by 20 mm compared with the Yaris Cross but its overhangs were reduced to keep its length at 4190 mm.

“The big tires, the broad shoulders, the ratio between the body and cabin are calculated to give the car an air of confidence and strength well above its dimensions,” Humphries said.

In Europe, the LBX will be offered only with a 1.5-liter three-cylinder gasoline engine producing 136 hp coupled with an electronic continuous variable transmission (eCVT). The full-hybrid powertrain has a two kilowatt-hour battery. Lexus announced very few performance or fuel consumption figures. Although it did say the small SUV will accelerated from of 0 to 100 kph (0-62 mph) in 9.2 seconds.

The standard LBX is front-wheel-drive, while -- as in the Yaris Cross -- a second, small electric motor can be added to the real axle to increase traction on slippery surfaces.

The LBX comes with an array of active safety systems and has a more horizontal than vertical range of trim levels. Normally, trim levels start with a basic one, with the upper steps adding features and cost. Instead, said Dimitris Tripospitis, the head of Lexus Europe, the LBX’s four trim levels – Elegant, Relax, Emotion and Cool – have only minor price differences, mainly due to the different materials used for interior finish.

Nevertheless, the potential combinations of four seat materials, four seat belt colors, 15 seat stitching colors and two door embroidery styles -- with nine one-tone and seven two-tone exterior colors -- take the LBX to a custom level not seen in small vehicles, Tripospitis said.

He expects the LBX to add about 25,000 units to Lexus’ sales in Europe next year, about a third more than the brand’s 70,000 units expected to sell this year, he said.

The Audi Q2 sold about 17,300 units through April, while the Mini Countryman was not far behind with about 16,100 sales, according to Dataforce.