Lexus is a successful luxury automaker that a lot of American car shoppers are familiar with, and like any successful automaker, this means that Lexus cars tend to sell well. The good news is that, by and large, the Lexus lineup is selling well, but the bad news is that it’s not selling that well right now. Here’s a look at how the Lexus brand is trending in the right direction when it comes to sales, but not by much.

Lexus is doing well as a brand, but just barely

GoodCarBadCar wrote that Lexus was one of the best-selling brands in America in July 2023, and that helped keep the Japanese company as one of the best-selling luxury automakers in America. In total, Lexus has sold over 174,000 units so far this year, which represents a good jump from last year. Compared to 2022, Lexus is selling 12.3% better right now.

That being said, that growth in sales is slowing down for the luxury automaker. In July 2023, Lexus sold about 24,850 units, which was about 850 units more than the company sold in July 2022. That’s only a 3.3% increase. If Lexus sales continue to slow down month-to-month, then it’s possible that the automaker’s year-over-year sales will be relatively flat. 

These are the Lexus models that are doing well, and the models that aren’t

A big reason for Lexus’ sales numbers is the RX, which is a midsize luxury SUV and the company’s most popular vehicle. So far this year, Lexus has sold over 66,000 units of the RX, which means that it accounted for almost 38% of the company’s sales.

Compared to last year, the RX saw a small 4.3% jump in sales. However, the RX’s sales in July 2023 were actually 8.9% worse than the SUV’s sales were in July 2022. 

Two other popular Lexus options, the ES and the GX, saw a similar pattern. The company sold 22,500 units of the ES this year, which represents a 12.6% decline from last year. The GX has sold 15,700 units this year, which is a 4.7% decline from last year. On the other hand, a few Lexus models have seen a growth in sales. The NX is a compact luxury SUV, and it’s the Japanese company’s second most popular option.

The NX has sold almost 40,000 units so far this year, and it saw a massive 66% jump in sales compared to last year. Its monthly sales numbers aren’t bad either, and its July 2023 sales were 34% better than its July 2022 sales. The IS sedan was more modest though. It’s sold 13,000 units so far this year, which was a 2.3% increase from last year. Its July sales numbers were 4.8% better than last year too. 

The performance of the Lexus brand isn’t that surprising

Luxury cars tend to be more expensive than normal cars, so naturally, luxury automakers don’t see huge sales numbers like Toyota or Ford get every year. That said, luxury brands still need to sell cars and experience sales growth or else they’ll lose market share and potentially even shut down. Despite the small sales growth though, Lexus is still doing well for a luxury automaker.

For example, Lexus was behind only BMW and Mercedes-Benz in terms of total luxury car sales in the second quarter of the year. And while the year-over-year sales growth of many luxury automakers grew more than Lexus did, a few companies did worse.

Lincoln, for example, has sold 45,000 units so far this year. That represents a 9% drop in sales compared to last year. As such, so long as Lexus continues growing, it should continue succeeding.