June 9th - 2021 Lexus IS

[rayaans]

June 9th is the official release date. Came out of nowhere. lexus has confirmed it remains rwd

Here's the teaser 

And a brightened one 

[DanD]

that's great news. Looking forward to more details. How on earth did they manage to keep this quiet!?

Is it confirmed for the UK?

[rayaans]

42 minutes ago, DanD said:

that's great news. Looking forward to more details. How on earth did they manage to keep this quiet!?

Is it confirmed for the UK?

No idea but I presume they've been testing it behind closed doors or under a Toyota Avalon body I think 

[NemesisUK]

The IS 500 (not IS-F)

https://www.thedrive.com/news/33539/2021-lexus-is-500-will-get-lexus-last-naturally-aspirated-v8-report

[Mincey]

Excitement Mode: Engaged!

[Guest]

Would imagine USA only as it would affect the new 95g/km fleet average too much for UK/EU ?

The reason the Focus RS is no more.

[rayaans]

Apparently the Lexus IS isn't coming to Europe or the UK according to an Autocar. They say the ES is outselling the IS 2:1. 

The issue I have with that argument is they're essentially comparing a 2013 vehicle to a brand new one so surely the figures are going to be slightly skewed

Id welcome a new IS tbh, the small executive saloon market is still alive. 

[LexIS200Sport]

I really hope Lexus UK soldiers on with the 4IS.

It's bad enough that the ES is being stretched to accommodate the GS sphere, it would be tragic if they stretched it even further to accommodate the IS's.

Also, why isn't the IS500 an IS-F? For the media to not draw parallels with M3 and C-AMG?

 

[ghost_killer]

Shame Autocar stated the 4IS isn't coming to UK / Europe, they say down to SUV's and the ES outselling it - just hope they decide last minute to bring it here !! After all 3 series, C-class alike still sell quite well !!

And I thought the idea of the original IS200 was designed for Europe in mind more than anywhere else and to compete against 3 series and C-class at the time ? I mean the US didn't get the 1gen IS till 2001 !! Since the 2 and 3 gen IS they seemed to appealed more to america than here

[mpls]

Time for the IS to be a PHEV, self chargug does not cut it anymore, every other make has PHEV. in its lineup/

 

looking at the rear, the shape looks like the rear of the current facelifted IS with the rear lights joined together. no bad thing imho.

 

having just read autocar piece. i think it would be a bad idea to not have this in the UK/

[rich1068]

Oh well. That's a shame.

Plenty of lovely second hand cars out there though...

[200h]

i have been told a while ago from a lexus dealership that the is no 4th gen IS

but there are some exciting releases planned

[mpls]

I think that if they dont release the new model IS, it'll come back in the future as  an EV or Fuel cell ( if it ever takes off)

[LordByronUK]

I find the news about the refreshed IS being cancelled in the UK market very strange indeed. My dealership tells me they sell quite a lot of IS300h still and there are thousands of people with existing IS300h that are waiting for an update like this. I mean they'll all be built in Japan most likely on the same production line, so why just chop out the UK market, it just doesn't make much sense to me. I rarely ever see any ES300h on the road, but loads of IS, and it's quite a different customer to honest. I asked about the IS just a few days ago at the dealership while taking our NX in for a service, and they were quite positive that a refresh was probably on the way.

Dunno, maybe I'm just in denial, just don't want to see Lexus become a boring SUV company here in UK/Europe... I also don't want to leave Lexus either, but if no more IS, then I might have to think about BMW/Tesla in a few years time for my rear-wheel drive passion... Makes me sad 😞

[ColinBarber]

I doubt they would chop out just the UK, it is Lexus Europe's biggest market - more likely the whole of Europe - that way they don't have to go through homologation for the region, no NCAP, no emissions/economy testing, creating manual language translations etc. etc.

They only sold 1,226 IS vehicles in 2019, and only 216 this year to end April (ES at 389), but as rayanns pointed out, it is a seven year old design and sales always fall away with age.

 

[mpls]

3 hours ago, ColinBarber said:

I doubt they would chop out just the UK, it is Lexus Europe's biggest market - more likely the whole of Europe - that way they don't have to go through homologation for the region, no NCAP, no emissions/economy testing, creating manual language translations etc. etc.

They only sold 1,226 IS vehicles in 2019, and only 216 this year to end April (ES at 389), but as rayanns pointed out, it is a seven year old design and sales always fall away with age.

 

I think the next IS is more of a refresh (with lighting changes etc,,) that tides them over in the US markets.. My feeling is that lexus is stuck in a hard place.  they don;t really wnat to release an  IS that is plug in Hybrid, i think it'll come back as afull EV ( with solid state batteries) or FC ( if it ever takes off which i doubt).

Lexus has seriously missed the boat on PHEV, something they should be dominating in,, if you look at the likes of BMW/Merc/Polestar... even lesser brands have plug in hybrids , that can claim performance and headline grabbing economy that beats Lexus/Toyota,. As a lexus owner(on 2nd one)  the only thing going for lexus is looks, reliibility, refinement and dealership service..

They just messed up by pushing self charging hybrids for so long and milking it for too long,, The marketing team of lexus UK should all be fired for not reading the market and regulatory condidtions that have changed or evolved over last few years..

The CEO of BP gets chauffered around in a LS500H.,  the refinedment of petrol/Hybrids over deisels should have been  emphasised along long time ago in ads  such as depicting a CEO arriving in a rattling diesel  vs  arriving in a lexus hybrids.. I think they concentrated too much on fuel economny, it should have been on refinement, emmisions as well..

A long rant, but sad to see the state of as mentiooed by Toyta recently who sai  Lexus needs to change cadence, products and powertrain...

 

 

[ColinBarber]

10 hours ago, mpls said:

The marketing team of lexus UK should all be fired for not reading the market and regulatory condidtions that have changed or evolved over last few years..

Lexus GB get essentially no say in product development, the market is too small for a say in a worldwide vehicle

[mpls]

Lexus GB may not have direct inflence but feed back and reflection must have been lacking to HQ? If I'm not mistaken CO2 output based taxation for cars is only in few EU coutries, i think more prominantly UK, shows UK should have had a big influence. Whist as a whole the UK car market is huge possibly 2nd behind Germany,  leaving that aside, small market share is something that could have been worked on back between 2007 upto around few years ago. that goes back to my point, about marketing, pushing the advantages of petrol hybrids over diesel. The German branda have gotten away with selling more diesels that it deserves epescially in the light of dieselgate and now they have the producst to waft in with PHEVs and EVs.. The distinction of diesels Vs Hybrids  should have been maximised beyond just comparible fuel economny for most drivers especially when Lexus/Toyota gave up on develoment  of diesels back late 2000s. The way Lexus GB tnhinks ad  operates means Lexus here will only appeal to entusiastes with slow influences over new customers and remaining with a relatively  small market share. This small market share then becomes the excuse. On TV last night I'm still seeing the phrase self sharging, didn't one scandinavian country ban this phrase recently?

[mpls]

I've had further thoughts.. I think since the upcoming IS is more of a refresh rather than a redesgn,    rear lights tweaks  etc.. and with the csr msrket ina satte of flux at the moment, i hope they see sense and coe back with a 5th gen  with a strong PHEV and BEV..  and as ghost_killer says C-class/A4/£ series sell...

Who thinks the new BMW with its extened front grille doenwards looks like an IS F sport from the front.. whilst the rear looks like any of the ES/GS/IS  etc..?

[dutchie01]

10 hours ago, ColinBarber said:

Lexus GB get essentially no say in product development, the market is too small for a say in a worldwide vehicle

Lexus global sales 2019 is 765.330 units ( all models).

Lexus UK sales 2019 for the IS model 1226 units... ( yes it is long in the teeth but when it was a bestseller for lexus back in 2014 they shifted 3868 cars. For the full Year that is.  

To put it in perspective that is around the number of 3 series BMW sells per month.

       

[dutchie01]

i really hope it is more than a refresh with new bumpers lights and some new colors. The car itself is good enough to keep going for years on. Excellent rwd chassis and even the powertrain is sufficient in todays traffic although a little more oomph would always be welcome. The new Toyota RAV4 Hybrid is available with a new 300hp engine... Here is hoping!

I hope the interior will be completely new copying the LS//LC/UX. maybe a further upgrade in the premium department with different leathers textures/plastics.

my current car will have nother 1.5 years in it and i really hope to return to Lexus, maybe the "new" IS can do it for me.

 

 

 

 

    

[mpls]

Reading around..  it looks like the new IS is just a refresh.

I've had confirmation from Toyota GB Lexus division that the new IS will not come to UK/EU.

[doog442]

1 hour ago, mpls said:

Who thinks the new BMW with its extened front grille doenwards looks like an IS F sport from the front.. whilst the rear looks like any of the ES/GS/IS  etc..?

 

The new BMW 4 series pics just been released . 

[dutchie01]

30 minutes ago, mpls said:

Reading around..  it looks like the new IS is just a refresh.

I've had confirmation from Toyota GB Lexus division that the new IS will not come to UK/EU.

Lexus Netherlands also confirmed this today.

So thats the end of the IS then.....

[ganzoom]

BMW US sold 47k 3 series in 2019, Tesla sold 157k Model 3s in the same time period.

More importantly Germany has introduced a €6k EV discount, here in the UK EV BIK tax rates are around 0%.

We aren't replacing our IS300H anytime soon (it's too reliable), but the new car market is very clearly moving to EVs.

Apparently after incentives the base VW ID will come in at just €21k, and the new Mini E is cheaper than a petrol Mini Copper!! As EVs start to reach price parity with combustion cars sales are going to shift very quickly to EVs.

Toyota/Lexus are been very very slow in their EV offerings.