The Lexus LBX is the Lexus that answered a simple question — how much car can this badge carry? — with 67 kW from Petrol engine. It was built from 2023, in the decade the industry is turning electric.
How it came about
The Lexus LBX (Japanese: レクサス・LBX, Hepburn: Rekusasu LBX) is a subcompact luxury crossover SUV (B-segment) marketed by Lexus, a luxury division of Toyota. Primarily developed for Europe and Japan, it was introduced in June 2023 in Milan, Italy, as the smallest crossover model in Lexus' lineup, slotting below the C-segment UX. It is also the first Lexus model based on the Toyota TNGA-B platform, which is shared with the XP210 series Toyota Yaris Cross and the XP210 series Toyota Yaris.
It entered production by the end of 2023 and went on sale in Europe along with additional markets in early 2024. According to Lexus, the "LBX" name stands for "Lexus Breakthrough X(cross)-over". It is the second Lexus model with a three-letter name, following the LFA which was released in 2011. It is named LBX instead of BX to avoid trademark conflicts with Citroën which produced the BX in Europe from 1982 to 1994.
The hardware
The engine is Petrol engine; the output is 67 kW; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. On the scales it comes to 1280 –. That is roughly 52 horsepower per tonne: unhurried — enough for the job, not for the bragging. Drive goes through a Continuously variable transmission / eCVT (hybrid models) / 6-speed Toyota E transmission#EA67F / EA67F Manual transmission / manual (Morizo RR) / 8-speed "GR-DAT" Automatic transm. The wheelbase is 2580 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
In the Lexus line-up the Lexus LBX has a clear place: the factory was Kanegasaki, Iwate (TMEJ), Japan. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Kia EV6, the JAC Group JAC Yiwei 3, the Proton S70. Its Lexus stablemates include the Lexus ES (V20) and the Lexus GS 450h.