Lexus is aiming to capture a share of the burgeoning premium crossover market with its smallest model to date, the new LBX.
The ‘Lexus Breakthrough Crossover’ is the first model the marque has designed specifically for the European market; sharing Toyota’s TNGA-B platform with the smash-hit Yaris Cross.
The LBX’s technical specification has been shaped by the demands of its target customers, of whom a “large majority” wanted a parallel-hybrid powertrain, according to Lexus Europe boss Dimitris Tripospitis.
The set-up comprises a 1.5-litre three-cylinder petrol engine and a single electric motor, which combine to send up to 134bhp and 136lb ft through the front wheels. It draws power from a new bipolar nickel-metal-hydride battery, first used in the larger Lexus RX that launched last year.
Chief engineer Kunihiko Endo said it offers much greater power density and throughput potential than traditional lithium-ion cells, reputedly allowing the LBX to provide off-the-mark acceleration comparable with battery-electric cars.
It dispatches the 0-62mph sprint in 9.2sec and, according to product manager Bart Eelen, provides class-leading fuel economy plus CO2 emissions “comfortably below” 120g/km. A dual-motor, four-wheel-drive variant is also inbound, said Eelen, but technical specifications are yet to be confirmed.
Imbuing the LBX with the refinement expected of a Lexus was “quite challenging”, Endo told Autocar, requiring an alternative approach to the conventional fitment of sound-insulating materials.
He said: “If you want to [remove] sound by using more and more sound absorbers it also leads to higher costs, right? So we tried to eliminate the sound itself so that we don’t have to use too much in order to achieve a more silent car.
One or two elements, as an example, would be the [engine] balance shaft, also the flex joints, were all ideas in order to reduce the sound itself.” Endo added that this was not a cost-cutting measure, but the most effective way to improve refinement.