Lexus customers in the U.S. may soon be presented with another model option, a big three-row, unibody SUV that will reportedly be called the TX. A competitor to the Mercedes-Benz GLS and the BMW X7, the SUV is said to be larger than the Lexus RX L. Unnamed sources told Autonews that the three-row SUV will be based on the same platform as the upcoming Toyota Grand Highlander, an extended version of the Highlander, which they said would go on sale in U.S. showrooms in mid-2023. The TX will arrive about six months later.
Although neither vehicle has been formally
announced yet, Toyota, which owns Lexus, has committed $803 million to update
its Princeton, Indiana assembly plant, where the sources said the two SUVs will
be built. When Toyota announced the investment in the plant last year, it said
that the two vehicles produced there would feature “a semi-automated driving
system which will allow for hands-free driving in certain conditions, a remote
parking system allowing the driver to park and unpark from outside the vehicle
using a smartphone, and a digital key that turns a user’s smartphone into their
key and allows them to share it digitally.”
It also added that the vehicles produced
at the plant would be able to accommodate up to eight passengers. Toyota’s
electrification plans also make it likely that these SUVs will feature hybrid
powertrains. According to John Iacono, the chairman of the Lexus National
Dealer Advisory Council who spoke to AN, the brand’s dealers have long wanted
an SUV that was larger than the RX L that does not require buyers to buy a
body-on-frame SUV like the GX and LX SUVs.
