TOKYO — The Toyota Land Cruiser is big in Japan. In fact, demand for the do-all SUV is so big, Toyota Motor Corp. just notified customers that the wait for delivery has stretched to four years.
That is up from an already jaw-dropping two-year wait back in September.
On everyone’s wish list is the redesigned new-generation Land Cruiser 300 Series introduced last August. It rides on a new GA-F platform that also underpins the Lexus LX full-sized SUV.
The long lead time applies only to orders made in the home market, Toyota said.
And even though the Land Cruiser and LX are made in the same factory, the Yoshiwara assembly plant operated by Toyota affiliate Toyota Auto Body, the wait won’t apply to the LX, Toyota said. Americans will not be affected because Toyota has discontinued the Land Cruiser in the U.S.
The delay results from Toyota’s global allotment strategy for the new Land Cruiser — Japan is allotted only a fraction of global output, so when demand is high, there is a crunch.
The bulk of Land Cruiser output heads to the Middle East, which accounted for about two-thirds of global sales for the outgoing 200 Series. Japan only comprised 10 percent of worldwide volume.
In 2021, Toyota sold 144,313 units of the Land Cruiser 200 and 300, globally.
The Lexus LX, by contrast, booked only 17,306 units.
Toyota has been suspending output in Japan because of the ongoing semiconductor shortage and because of renewed outbreaks of COVID-19. The Yoshiwara plant was down Friday, for instance.
But Toyota spokeswoman Shiori Hashimoto said the four-year standby for the iconic Land Cruiser is unrelated to those short-term external factors.