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Toyota offered $146.5 million to build Lexus ES in Kentucky

Toyota posted a media advisory yesterday saying that Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota, and Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota North America, would be making a production announcement tomorrow in New York City, and Automotive News reports that the automaker will be announcing a plan to domestically produce the Lexus ES. According to the report, numerous plants are competing to build the ES in North America, and the State of Kentucky has offered the automaker up to $146.5 million to build the luxury sedan at the Georgetown, KY assembly plant.
If Georgetown gets the ES, which has been built in Japan since its debut in 1989, it would be built alongside the Toyota Camry, which is somewhat ironic since in our review of the 2013 Lexus ES350, we wrote that this ES finally says "goodbye to its Camry roots." In order to get the whole amount offered, the article states that Toyota would have to invest $531.2 million and hire 570 full-time workers at the plant, which doesn't sound all that unreasonable since the plant would require an additional 50,000 units of annual production, not to mention the fact that the Georgetown facility is already at its capacity for building the Camry.

Lexus NX begins production in Japan [w/videos]

Lexus entered new territory this past April when it revealed the new NX compact luxury crossover at the Beijing Motor Show, but it wasn't until now that the Toyota luxury division actually started building them. The first production examples started rolling off the assembly line last week at the Miyata plant in Japan, with the accompanying turbo engines built at the adjacent Kanda plant.
The arrival of the NX marks both the first time that Lexus has produced a compact crossover - an increasingly important segment for luxury automakers - and the first time Lexus has offered a turbocharged engine, one of two options alongside the hybrid version. The NX builds on two previous competences exhibited by Toyota: one is the RAV4, which pioneered the compact crossover segment back in 1994, the other being the Lexus RX that was among the first luxury crossovers when it arrived in '97.
Lexus reports that it has already taken some 6,500 pre-orders in Japan alone, with many more coming in from markets around the world - including ours, where it is sure to be a key player for the Japanese automaker alongside the hot-selling RX. Watch the videos below to see the NX starting its production run in Japan.

Translogic 165: 2015 Lexus RC F Biometrics Test

A traditional vehicle review goes like this: Reviewer drives car, reviewer gathers thoughts, reviewer relays vehicle impressions to audience. But what if instead of explaining what it's like to drive a given car, the reviewer could simply show the audience their response to the vehicle? With advancements in wearable biometrics technology, it's now possible to replace car review adjectives with cold, hard data. Translogic host Jonathon Buckley heads to Palm Beach Raceway in Florida to gauge his physiological reaction to driving the all-new Lexus RC F, with a little help from biometrics experts at Emotiv and Hexoskin. From his brain, to his body, Jonathon's vitals are measured as he takes to the track in Lexus's latest sports coupe. Follow Translogic on Twitter and Facebook. Click here to subscribe to Translogic in iTunes. Click here to learn more about our host, Jonathon Buckley. Lexus Technology Gadgets Coupe Performance Translogic