Gotta Wear Shades: 2016 Looks Bright for Lexus

By adpock - February 1, 2016

15-04-01-lexus-rx-2016-press-release

You know what one of the biggest problems is with the business world these days? Nobody ever takes time to focus on the wins, because they’re always off working on next year’s wins. Take Lexus for example, you’d think after such a stellar year as 2015, they’d be happy to talk about it for a while. But no, they’re already talking about how great 2016 is going to be.

According to a recent WardsAuto interview with Lexus International’s exec VP, Mark Templin, our favorite marque is expecting even more success than last year. “We’re not trying to be greedy, we’re not trying to grow too much, but we’ll have some growth year over year,” said Templin.

Of course, if you’re not growing, you’re dying. But still, topping last year’s global sales record of 652,000 units in 2015 won’t be easy. Even if Lexus did a heckuva job surpassing 2014’s impressive 582,000 units.

Perhaps to ease expectations a bit, for employees and shareholders alike (presumably), Templin is forecasting roughly 3% global growth, as opposed to the 12% jump last year. A lot of that has to do with the volatility of Asian markets, particularly in China and Thailand.

However, Templin foresees growth in every other market in the world, including continued success in Europe, where 2015 was a banner year.

As far as new business goes, Lexus still has the Germans in their sites. “Right now we’re in 93 markets around the world (and) the Germans on average are in 140, so there’s a lot of markets where we have potential to go in,” said Templin.

Templin also notes that Lexus is planning on entering four new markets in the next two or three years. Odds are good that Mexico will be one of those markets. But as with the rest of the forecasting, we’ll just have to wait and see.