Lexus has raised its U.S. 2013 sales expectations to between 260,000-270,000 units, due to strong demand for the new IS, ES, & LS — from Automotive News:
The new plan is a step up from Lexus’ April outlook of 260,000 units for 2013. Its upper range would mark an 11 percent increase over 244,166 vehicles sold in the United States last year.
Its U.S. sales climbed 10 percent to 118,415 units in the first six months of the year, putting Lexus on an annualized pace for 237,000 units. Market share was flat at 1.5 percent, and the luxury marque still trailed rivals Mercedes-Benz and BMW.
Lexus aims to sell 32,000 units of the IS in the United States this year — with 22,500 coming from the new 2014 model year. Last year, the long-in-the-tooth IS sold 27,708 units.
Plans for the new IS seem ambitious right now, but we have yet to see a full month of sales information — the picture will become much clearer when July’s sales data is released this week.
Also in the Automotive News article, Lexus International Executive Vice President Mark Templin restated that the IS 300h will not be coming to North America:
Lexus expects the gasoline-electric version of the IS to account for 55 percent of the nameplate’s sales in Japan. But that drivetrain option won’t be headed stateside.
Templin said the entry-level hybrid sedan segment is covered adequately already in the United States by hybrid versions of the ES and GS sedans. The slow-selling hybrid-only HS sedan was discontinued in the United States but is still sold in Japan.
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