Ahead of a March debut at the Geneva Motor Show, Lexus has released the first official photo of its new UX compact crossover.
Apparently billed as an "urban crossover," the UX has little off-road pretense other than some dark plastic fenders. The Toyota luxury arm even boasts a low center of gravity for better handling. We always thought the whole point of a crossover was to sit its driver further away from the pavement but here we are.
Lexus goes on to position the UX as a "gateway model," presumably luring young, reasonably affluent buyers into bigger and better Lexi later in life.
Design-wise, the UX looks pretty much how you'd expect a compact Lexus crossover to look: like a baby RX. Unashamedly sporting that car's aggressively chiseled surfaces, the new mini-Lex also features one of the better applications of the brand's signature, somewhat controversial spindle grille. To my eyes, the UX actually looks quite good from the front. Around the back, a previous teaser revealed a one-piece, Millennium Falcon-style taillight design while the UX's interior can be glimpsed for the first time in a new video.
Set to do battle against lifted luxury hatchbacks such as the BMW X1, Audi Q3, Mercedes GLA, and Infiniti QX30, Lexus will reveal its new crossover in full at Geneva on March 6. We've reached out to the company for further details and will update this story if we hear back.
UPDATE: In an email to The Drive, a Lexus spokesperson says more UX details will be released at its reveal in Geneva next week.