Does Geneva-Bound Lexus UX Mark Tailfin's Return?
CARS.COM — If tailfins stage a 21st-century comeback, you might credit a sliver of that to an unlikely player: Lexus. Toyota’s luxury division released a teaser image today of its new UX, an SUV set to debut March 6 at the 2018 Geneva International Motor Show — and at each corner of the width-spanning taillights are, indeed, ever-so-slight tailfins.
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Now before you go all 1959 Cadillac Eldorado and declare the Return of the Fin, these units are nubs at best. Lexus’ darkened image suggests they’re just three-dimensional outcroppings at the edges of the taillights, not full tailfins — or the upswept units that arched through the C-pillars in the brand’s aggressive UX Concept, for that matter.
Stay tuned to see how close the rest of the production UX comes to the concept. In a U.S. press release, Lexus called the UX an “all-new compact crossover,” noting that it heralds “the fifth member of the brand’s extensive lineup of luxury utility vehicles.”
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Today’s news has been a year in the making: The UX Concept showed up on the auto-show circuit a year ago, and Lexus officials reportedly said in March 2017 that it was “not so far away” from production. Automotive News expects the production UX to share a platform with Toyota’s C-HR, a micro-sized crossover that only comes with front-wheel drive in the U.S., though all-wheel drive is available overseas.
Indeed, the UX Concept’s dimensions (namely, 173.2 inches’ length on a 103.9-inch wheelbase) fit closer to the C-HR than the brand’s current small SUV, the NX. But the latter is closer in size to compact luxury SUVs like the Audi A5, BMW X3 and Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class than it is to their smaller, subcompact peers — think Audi Q3, BMW X1 and Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class.
How will the UX compare? Stay tuned for more.
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