Lexus Australia continues to target modest growth in electric vehicles as the Japanese luxury brand continues its measured roll-out of its zero emissions vehicles, starting with the heavily-updated RZ medium SUV to be followed by an all-new ES luxury sedan.

Newly-appointed Lexus Australia CEO Jack Hobbs told assembled media – including Whichcar by Wheels – at the recent launch of the brand’s updated RZ mid-size electric SUV that he expected sales of “well over 300”.

If Lexus does achieve that conservative sales target, it will eclipse the pre-updated RZ which accounted for just 256 sales over a two-year period from 2024-25.

1

While not explicitly stated, its lacklustre sales can be attributed – at least in part – to the pre-updated model’s high pricing in a segment dominated by far cheaper medium SUVs from a host of challenger brands from China and the dominance of Tesla Model Y.

In response, Lexus has slashed the pricing of its updated RZ for the 2026 model year, now priced from $84,500 before on-road costs, a massive reduction of $36,559 over the older model.

That’s been driven by two factors, according to Hobbs, who told Whichcar by Wheels that consumer sentiment and the rapid advancements in EV manufacturing contributed to the price reduction.

1

“There’s a combination of the factors,” Hobbs said “Both of those come into play. Certainly, the technology and efficiency in battery manufacturing is moving fast. And that does help us with that repositioning, but also … the market’s also moving very fast.

“We need to position ourselves in that space to make sure that we’ve put an appropriate offering that still gives the technology, the craftsmanship, et cetera, that we’ve enjoyed. So, I’m pretty sure, I think we’ve settled on a pretty good mark.”

Hobbs added that early customer interest for the updated RZ remained good and that he would continue to work with Lexus in Japan to ensure a steady supply of the new model into Australia.

2

“I’m not sure we’d get thousands,” he said. “We will definitely see how things go. The early signal is there’s some quite good interest out there. So we’ll take it as we go, month by month, and see how it builds. 

“Production [is] still relatively tight. We think that there’ll be good demand for the product. And we will continue to work with our team in Japan to try and get as many as we can.

“We don’t tend to focus too much on numbers, and we do have another BEV product coming later this year in a couple of months, which is the ES [mid-size sedan]. Those two together, we think, can swell our numbers of pure BEV sales this year.”

A Lexus Australia spokesperson confirmed to Whichcar by Wheels that it was projecting battery-electric vehicles sales to reach five per cent of total Lexus sales by the end of the year, with regular hybrid accounting for 60 per cent, plug-in hybrid 22 per cent, with traditional internal combustion making up the balance of 13 per cent.

1

The updated Lexus RZ medium SUV will be joined in the brand’s line-up of BEVs by a new generation ES luxury sedan which will be available in both regular hybrid, and for the first time, battery electric variants. Technical details and pricing are still to be confirmed but it’s expected to hit local showrooms in the second half of 2026.