Maybe Lexus starts bringing in bigger displacement engines with the reduction in the import tariff?
Not going to happen. Way too punishing. Maybe their plan was to not import anything with more than 400hp from the beginning. That market (not counting super cars) is quite small and three models (M3, C63, and Mustang) are enough to over-saturate it already.
The LX570 is doing the LX's thing: being the rich people's off-road toy. Their buyers don't give a fudge about its displacement and MPG. But everything else in their lineup aren't so lucky.
Same here. But I believe the difference is 12% in tax? Which is not so bad for a luxury car? I mean...last LS was 4.6L
The LS460 starts at ¥1.5M and barely sells triple digits (outsold by the S-Class 10-to-1). So I'd say it is very very bad for a luxury car. The lack of an engine update to the 4LS ruined the marque in China. The LS400s were quite popular, considered to be the second most prestigious car after the S-Class in the 90s/00s. But then the 4LS got completely screwed by the displacement tax while 3.0T-equipped German sedans became very affordable. The ES was almost screwed when the 350 was axed, but they responded quickly with the 200 and it came back to the top in just three years.
The lack of engine updates in the early 2010s impacted Lexus in many markets, but China is where they were hit the most. They should have their own 2.0T, 3.0T, and 4.0Ts ready to go but they were stuck with 2007 engines that are taking massive penalties. In the end they still managed to break sales record year after year with these outdated engines, but we all know that volume comes at the cost of profitability. They now have close to zero presence in the high end and majority of the sales are the ES200 and NX200. These are low quality sales.
Now the 5LS needs to fight an uphill battle to even surpass sales of the S-Class Maybach, and that is a ¥2M+ car. The 500h Executive has a better interior than the S400 'Poorman's Maybach' and is ¥600k cheaper, but the latter outsells the entire 5LS lineup 2-to-1.