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The Toyota Prado's luxury GX sibling is seeing more "inflow from competitors" than other Lexus models in Australia.
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The Lexus luxury twin to the Toyota LandCruiser Prado is attracting more "inflow from competitors" than any of the Japanese brand's more established nameplates in Australia.
Launched in 2024, the GX – a new nameplate for Australia, but offered overseas as a Toyota Prado relation since 2002 – has been "very well adopted," according to Lexus Australia chief executive Jack Hobbs.
The top executive said the off-road large SUV, exclusively offered with a 3.4-litre twin-turbocharged, non-hybrid V6 petrol engine, "probably is still our longest wait time vehicle at the moment, sitting at about eight-plus months".
While Hobbs couldn't be drawn to comment on what vehicles GX customers are upgrading from, product planning and development manager Julian Meldrum added "we're seeing it drive a lot of inflow from competitors compared to some of the other, more established [Lexus] nameplates".
"I can't really speculate on where they're coming from, but I can tell you that GX has been very well adopted in Australia, and it continues to be very popular," Hobbs said.
"It's had a very strong adoption, which we're really happy with. I think it's a beautiful car and certainly looks good, and it does appeal not only to our regional buyers, but also to our metro buyers a lot."
Lexus Australia said it continues to evaluate a petrol-electric 'performance hybrid' version, the GX550h, which has "a number of product compromises" compared with the petrol-only V6 GX550 model.
"There have been sort of evaluations of what that would mean," Meldrum said.
"There are a number of product compromises from introducing that, so we continue to study based on future regulations and all of that. There has been no decision made at this time."
The GX550h is currently only on sale in China, where it features the same 2.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine matched to an electric motor as overseas examples of the Toyota Prado 250 Series.
Lexus Australia did not elaborate on the "product compromises" of the GX550h, but if overseas specifications are a guide, it is likely a combination of battery packaging, a reduced towing capacity and less power compared with the GX550.
Similar to the Toyota Prado in Australia, which is fitted with a '48-volt' mild-hybrid system, the full-hybrid GX appears to introduce a raised boot area to accommodate its battery pack, a compromise that is more pronounced in seven-seat examples.
It also has a circa-2.7-tonne braked towing capacity, instead of 3.5 tonnes for Australian-market GX550 examples with factory-fitted 18- or 20-inch alloy wheels (standard for Luxury and Overtrail, no-cost option for Sports Luxury).
The 2.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder hybrid system develops 243kW and 630Nm, down from 260kW and 650Nm for the 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 – though combined fuel consumption would almost certainly be improved from the GX550's 12.3L/100km.
Australian new-car sales data shows 292 examples of the Lexus GX have been reported as sold year-to-date, ahead of the larger, Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series-based LX (231).
While the GX is categorised in Australia as an Upper Large SUV Over $120,000, it is closer in size and positioning to one-size-down Large SUVs Over $80,000, led by the Land Rover Defender (1218), BMW X5 (1078), Mercedes-Benz GLE (829) and the road-focused Lexus RX five-seater (728).
The GX has so far also been outsold by the Denza B5 (729) and B8 (394) off-road plug-in hybrid large SUVs from China, along with its more-affordable Toyota Prado four-cylinder diesel sibling (6385).
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Jordan is a motoring journalist based in Melbourne with a lifelong passion for cars. He has been surrounded by classic Fords and Holdens, brand-new cars, and everything in between from birth, with his parents’ owning an automotive workshop in regional Victoria. Jordan started writing about cars in 2021, and joined the Drive team in 2024.
