Lexus pushes performance

Not content to live on luxury, Lexus is pursuing performance
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If you're a performance car enthusiast Lexus has you in its sights. Not content to live off its luxury-oriented lineup, the Toyota-owned top shelf marque is pushing performance as a key part of its growth strategy for the 20-teens.

With the arrival of the facelifted IS range Down Under, Lexus has launched its F Sport brand into the market. Offered as bespoke models in both IS250 and IS350 versions, the F Sports feature recalibrated steering and suspension as well as upgraded brakes, sports seats and exterior differentiation such as bigger wheels and bodykits -- including front and rear spoilers.

Priced midway between entry level Prestige and top of the range Sports Luxury models in their respective capacity segments, the F Sports approximate Audi's S line and BMW M Sport models.

And, say Lexus insiders, the similarity doesn't end there. Like the Germans, it's Lexus' plan to pursue a pyramid of performance with F Sport filling the role as the volume sporties and more aggressive F models above them. The limited edition LF-A supercar and its decedents will sit at the Lexus performance pyramid peak.

The new strategy was spelled out by local Lexus chief, Tony Cramb, at the IS350 launch in Tasmania this week. Though Cramb was careful not to reveal any formal details of future F model plans, he made it clear that the marque was serious about its commitment to a performance strategy.

He hinted strongly that F models above and beyond the existing IS F were a key part of the play.

"Performance is part of a global, long term, serious strategy," Cramb spelled out to the Carsales Network.

"This [F Sport] is a serious commitment... If we can launch more F models that will give F more credibility [as a serious performance sub-brand], this will flow on to F Sport."

Cramb says European and US Lexus execs are aligned with Lexus Australia on the importance of F and F Sport.

"Currently there is a whole lot of customers we can't service [with our current lineup]. We definitely need to broaden our range of vehicles. The local launch of the IS350 [gives us access to new performance oriented customers] but clearly there are other segments we aren't servicing. Over time we will expand the lineup," Cramb explained.

Cramb was tight lipped on the rollout or even the existence of confirmed F models or indeed new F Sports. Lexus' 5 series/E-Class competitor, the GS is the next vehicle due for renewal in Lexus' existing cycle plan. It's a car Cramb believes will make a good second F model and F Sport range addition.

"[The next GS] Would be a very suitable car, if we are looking to expand the F range. But it's not locked and loaded," he says.

According to Cramb, hybrid will still be an important part of Lexus DNA. That said, his comments suggest that perhaps Lexus' performance hybrid days are numbered.

The way forward for the brand may well be a two-pronged strategy of performance and hybrid. Performance injects passion into the Lexus 'family' and via hybrid the marque will address customers with an environmental bent or more urban focus.

The new CT200h is a case in point. Stung by criticism of the car at its European launch, Cramb says an F Sport version of the CT will still come to Australia. He says the focus will be on handling and agility rather than any power-up strategy. Equally he admits there may well be Lexus hybrids launched in the future that do not justify F Sport variants.

"Our consistent brand value is innovation. Why wouldn't we invest in technology and be able to connect with what the customer wants -- be it performance [or ecologically focussed vehicles].

"There's a vast number of [new] customers out there that want different [opposite] things. We are in a transition stage," Cramb opined.

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