Lexus's move into the compact luxury SUV segment with its NX range has been eagerly awaited and it appears the Japanese luxury brand is on a winner. But it may steal sales from big brother.
Speaking at the Australian launch of the Lexus NX 300h hybrid, Lexus Australia Chief Executive Officer Sean Hanley said that "judging on pre-launch interest, the leakage from RX models to the new NX is around 12 per cent", though he added that a 25 per cent leakage factor was "planned for".
Released to the market on 27 October, Hanley told motoring.com.au, "We have over 400 pre orders for NX 300h, with over 300 of those being private or business buyers."
Impressively, over half those orders have come from parties not currently driving a Lexus.
"Around 60 per cent of the interest has come from people outside the brand, and 82 per cent of online enquiries for NX have been from people new to Lexus."
Despite the front-wheel drive Luxury variant being the cheapest entry point to NX ownership at $55,000 (plus on-road costs), Hanley added that the current order split is around 80:20 in favour of the all-wheel drive variants, including F Sport and Sport Luxury.
A turbocharged NX 200t will come on-stream in the first quarter of 2015, and is "expected to account for around 60 per cent of NX sales," according to Hanley.
Why the delay on turbo?
"Being an in-house development, we wanted to take the time to perfect it," he explained.
Rumours of supply issues were also addressed by Hanley.
"In the first eight weeks there may be some delay to NX 300h deliveries, but it should smooth out from that point... at this stage we see no delays with the turbo variant.
"In the markets where NX has already been released, there has been demand outstripping internal sales projections," Hanley said of the possible delay.
Although Hanley didn't divulge projected sales expectations for the NX, he indicated the prestige importer expects it to be the best-seller in the Lexus SUV portfolio.