BRUSSELS – The warfare in Ukraine and sanctions imposed on Russia can have a robust affect on Lexus, which generated about 30 p.c of gross sales in its Europe area in these two nations, with Russia its largest European market total.

Lexus and guardian firm Toyota Motor embrace Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and a lot of different non-EU nations within the Europe area. Lexus stated it bought 72,441 items within the area in 2021, of which 19,638 had been in Russia and 1,881 in Ukraine.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, many overseas automakers halted gross sales and manufacturing in Russia. Toyota stated on March 2 that it will halt manufacturing at its Russian manufacturing facility, whereas additionally indefinitely stopping car imports into the nation.

“We stopped deliveries because the sanctions stepped in, so the merchandise that had been already in Russia are the gross sales we are able to rely on this yr,” Lexus Europe head Spiros Fortinos informed Automotive Information Europe on Tuesday at a press occasion in Brussels. 

By way of April, Lexus bought 1,738 automobiles in Russia, a decline of 76 p.c, based on Russian commerce group AEB. Complete European area complete gross sales stood at 17,142 items by April, Lexus stated.

Fortinos stated Lexus expects to maintain its European gross sales exterior Russia and Ukraine steady this yr at about 50,000 items. Final yr, the UK was the model’s second-largest European market after Russia, with 13,840 car gross sales, with Poland third at 6,081 gross sales and Spain fourth at 6,601 gross sales.

The corporate expects to return to gross sales progress later this yr, when the brand new era of its best-selling mannequin, the RX premium massive SUV, can be launched in Europe.

The RZ massive SUV, Lexus’ first battery-only mannequin, will arrive in Europe in January 2023, including about 6,000 items of annual gross sales.

Though SUVs presently account for 87 p.c of Lexus gross sales in Europe, the corporate doesn’t wish to turn out to be a SUV-only model, Fortinos stated.

“Buyer tastes are evolving; an SUV at present is sort of the default alternative, however we’ll proceed to supply options to SUVs,” he stated. Lexus continues to supply the ES and LS sedans, in addition to the RC F coupe and the LC coupe and convertible, in lots of European nations.