Lexus CT, IS and RC DROPPED as Lexus focusses on SUVs

Lexus is dropping the CT Hatch, IS Saloon and RC Coupe in the UK and Europe to concentrate on ever-growing sales of Hybrid SUVs.

The world and his dog are obsessed with driving high-riding SUVs and Crossovers, and saloons and Hatches are starting to look like an endangered species.

Ford has all but given up on saloon cars, although its small hatches survive, and now Lexus is heading down the same route by dropping a trio of non-SUV models from the UK and Europe.

Heading for the bin, as soon as existing stocks are sold, are the IS Saloon, the RC Coupe and the CT Hatch, leaving the core range – and best-selling models – as the bulk of the Lexus range.

You can’t really blame Lexus for going this route as the top-selling cars it has are, in descending order, the UK, NX and RX – all SUVs – although there are a few exceptions to the cull of more traditional Lexus models.

The range-topping Lexus LS will remain as a flagship – despite selling fewer than 60 so far this year in Europe – the RC F will stay as a performance halo model, and the recently introduced ES (in the UK) will stay to mop up any sales which would have gone to the IS and the already defunct GS.