Lexus Moving ES Production To North America?

Toyota will continue to build core vehicles in North America as a hedge against currency fluctuation and consider moving production of more niche vehicles here from Japan if volume is high enough, said Jim Lentz, chief executive of Toyota Motor Sales.

The threshold is about 100,000 vehicles and could include some Lexus models, Lentz said following a presentation at the Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars here.

A candidate is the Lexus ES, currently built in Japan. The Lexus RX is made in Canada – the first location to make the luxury brand outside Japan.



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thetruth01 - 8/8/2012 1:45:44 PM

+2 Boost

Quality shouldn't suffer. The Candian RX is fine. As long as they stay away from US sourced accelerator pedals.

MorePower - 8/8/2012 4:07:20 PM

+1 Boost

The Camry is built in the United States, so why no build the ES there as well. Lexus neither markets the assembly of the ES as a differentiating factor nor is the that fact a major motivator for ES buyers to choose that model over one of many competitors in the market.

knowitall1985 - 8/8/2012 4:16:18 PM

+1 Boost

Employ Americans.....

enthusiastx11 - 8/8/2012 6:25:00 PM

-1 Boost

makes perfect business sense. RX has been produced in north america for a number of years. and the ES sells almost exclusively in the US--nobody in europe buys them.

enthusiastx11 - 8/9/2012 8:27:15 PM

-1 Boost

can you read english? nobody buys the ES in europe (or japan for that matter). what does that have to do with the 'made in north america' RX?

enthusiastx11 - 8/9/2012 8:27:50 PM

-1 Boost

so i can only assume you think it's a dumb move to produce a car near the market that buys it?