Lexus LM is Coming to Europe

Set to be revealed later this month (18th April), the uber-luxurious people carrier is set to be the released for the European market for the first time ever.

Lexus has released some very sneaky photos of the new vehicle, but it doesn’t show us much unfortunately. All we can see is rear windows which follows the same design language as the current RX, albeit with less curves. It is unclear at the moment if this will be coming to the UK, but with it entering Europe, it may well come to the biggest market for their vehicles in this geography.

Who or what is an LM?

Good question, and you’d be excused for not knowing about this car/van. Whilst massively popular in Asia, they have never really made it over here – even when we had the craze for people carriers in the early to mid noughties. It is based on the Toyota Alphard which is broadly similar but features more seats and is aimed at families. The LM is essentially the same people carrier that is designed to only house two people in the rear, utilising the van-like space.

But it isn’t just two deck chairs nailed to the floor, the LM is extremely luxurious with high quality materials and leather everywhere. It is basically a first class cabin shoehorned into a van. The target audience are business execs who work in the bustling streets of cities who then want to be cocooned from the outside world after a long day of saying “you’re fired”.

The only time you’d ever see an LM or even an Alphard over here is by catching a glimpse of one that has been imported. They are starting to become more popular over here as the rate at which they are being imported is rising. Perhaps Toyota/Lexus has spotted that and wants a slice of the pie? Still, it is an interesting alternative to SUV.

If it does come to our shores, we can expect to get the LM300h variant which uses the same 2.5 litre mild hybrid set up found in the NX300h, ES300h, IS300h (RIP) and countless other Toyota vehicles. Unlikely to see an LM F, which would be cool.