Production Lexus NX small CUV headed for Geneva

Fri, 06 Dec 2013

Just five months ago, our spy photographers caught what appeared to be a mule for the forthcoming Lexus NX crossover with the body of a CT 200h for disguise. Then the LF-NX Concept CUV debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show (it showed up at the Tokyo Motor Show as well) with a massive spindle grille and an extreme version of Lexus' sharp-edged new styling language on full display. Now Auto Express reports that a production version of the LF-NX concept will grace the Geneva Motor Show next March and go on sale next summer. If the names that Lexus trademarked a while back are any indication, it'll come in two trims, NX 200t and NX 300h.

Concept vehicles often look outrageously bold, with more extroverted styling than what eventually makes it into the production version. But Lexus reportedly will leave much of the LF-NX concept's styling alone for the production version, citing its customers' changing tastes.

"What we're finding is that these days customers want to be more expressive, so a lot of the concept's inherent design will come out in the finished car," says Paul Van der Burgh, Lexus' European director. "Why would you want something that looked like everything else in the segment?"

Rumors of a brand-new 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine have been floating around since those first test mules were spotted, and they were seemingly confirmed when the LF-NX concept was displayed at the Tokyo Motor Show with the new engine. That'll be the NX 200t model, and the NX 300h model is expected to be a hybrid model with the 2.5-liter four and electric motor found in the IS300h and GS300h.

By Damon Lowney