2024 Lexus GX: ‘Tight supply’ anticipated for Toyota Prado rival

The Lexus GX will land on Australian shores in the second half of this year yet the Japanese luxury brand already has plenty of interest in its new off-roader.

“We've already taken over 500 pre-orders on GX and we're getting 1500 units allocated for the first 12 months, so we think that it's going to be in tight supply”, Lexus Australia chief executive John Pappas told 4X4 Australia.

Although a larger vehicle, the LandCruiser 300 is similar in price and power to the GX. Last year, Toyota delivered 15,035 LandCruiser models (a combination of 300 and 76 Series heavily skewed towards the former) and 20,710 Prados.

Priced between $116,00 for the Luxury and $128,200 for the Sports Luxury (both before on-road costs), Pappas revealed that GX deposits are coming both from the Lexus faithful and out of the woodwork.

“We've got very high loyalty in our brand and we never take that for granted. But what we're finding at the moment with GX, the feedback we've been getting from dealers is that they're talking to new customers with GX.”

“We're very excited, the dealers are really pumped because of the new discussions they're having with existing owners as well as totally new buyers”, John added.

Naturally, current Lexus owners are keen on the GX as well – not least because the brand no longer offers a seven-seat RX in Australia – but also because the GX is a striking vehicle.

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The body-on-frame Toyota cousin will launch with a 260kW/650Nm 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged V6 petrol though a future petrol-electric hybrid is possible.

Mr Pappas noted higher-than-expected demand for the off-road focused Overtrail trim ($122,250 before on-road costs), “We expected the off-road grade – the Overtrail – to be at about 20% of the sales mix”, he said, before confirming it accounts for 30 per cent of current orders.

“It's going to be interesting to see how it shakes out in the first 12 months with GX but we're really excited by it because by the middle of this year, we're going to have a vehicle pretty much in every segment – obviously not the ute segment – that we want to”, said Mr Pappas.

As for whether the GX would affect LX sales, Pappas said that wasn’t the case right now and LX demand showed no sign of easing: “We used to sell 300 LXs a year”, or less than a third of the 982 examples registered last year – and the LX still has a 12-month wait.

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“We don’t see [LX and GX], at the moment, crossing over… LX is that bigger, more luxurious, spacious, more powerful SUV, whereas [GX] is more of an accessible seven-seater for that type of buyer”, Pappas added.

Once the GX is online, Lexus is confident in another bumper sales year lifting its ‘base’ expectation to 10K units. The brand registered a record 15,192 new vehicles in 2023 – more than double 2022’s figure – yet executives cautioned that last year was an anomaly.

With the collection of new models from LBX entry-level to LM people mover and GX off-roader, Lexus now covers a mighty broad share of luxury market segments in Australia. The brand is off to a flying start in 2024 already with 1882 sales – a 54.5% increase on 2022 – according to VFACTs.

The Lexus GX is due in June or July and will be available in three trim levels: Luxury seven-seat, Overtrail five-seat, and Sports Luxury seven-seat.