The Lexus UX300e has reached the end of the road in Australia, where the small electric SUV has been discontinued less than two years after it received a substantial update.
“The UX300e will no longer be available in Australia due to production restrictions on selected parts,” a company spokesperson confirmed to CarExpert following the disappearance of the UX300e from the Lexus Australia website.
When asked whether it will reintroduce the pint-size battery-powered luxury SUV should these production restrictions end, Lexus Australia confirmed there are no plans at this stage to do so.
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“However, Lexus Australia remains committed to electrification, with close to 80 per cent of deliveries so far this year being with an electrified powertrain,” said the spokesperson.
“Lexus has just introduced a plug-in hybrid option for RX [the brand’s large SUV] as it continues its leadership with industry-leading hybrids, and will soon add the updated all-electric RZ [mid-size electric SUV] to its lineup.”
To the end of April this year, Lexus has delivered only 28 examples of the compact UX300e, which is priced north of $80,000, compared with 614 hybrid UXs and 54 RZs.
Last year, it sold 92 UX300e vehicles, accounting for 10 per cent of total UX sales. That saw it outsold by not only the larger and more expensive RZ (215), but also direct rivals like the BMW iX1 (2618), Volvo EX30 (2129) and Mercedes-Benz EQA (1044).
Lexus Australia launched an updated UX300e late in 2023, bringing a larger 72.8kWh lithium-ion battery that boosted WLTP electric driving range by 135km to 450km.
It also received a larger 12.3-inch touchscreen running Lexus’ new-generation infotainment system.
Power continued to come from a 150kW/300Nm front-mounted electric motor, with no dual-motor all-wheel drive version available, unlike key rivals.
The Lexus UX first entered production in 2018, and was initially available only with petrol or hybrid powertrains before an all-electric option was added later and the base petrol UX200 was discontinued.
It served as a more premium counterpart to the Toyota C-HR, which entered production in 20216, though it wears completely different styling inside and out.
Given Toyota has now launched a new C-HR, and revealed a small electric SUV called the C-HR+, a new-generation Lexus UX should theoretically be around the corner. However, no prototypes have been spied testing as yet.
The demise of the UX300e in Australia leaves Lexus with just one electric vehicle (EV).
That’s in stark contrast with rivals, which offer multiple. BMW, for instance, has seven, while Mercedes-Benz also has seven (excluding vans and people movers), Audi has four and Genesis has three. Cadillac also has only one, but has confirmed it will release two more electric model lines for Australia in 2026.
Once the RX450h+ arrives, Lexus will have two plug-in hybrid (PHEV) models, matching Audi and surpassing both Genesis and Cadillac (none yet), as well as Mercedes-Benz (one), but falling short of BMW (four).
But the Toyota-owned premium Japanese brand has them all beat when it comes to conventional hybrids, offering eight in total.
MORE: Everything Lexus UX