Lexus Killing Off RC Coupe as Passenger Car Ranks Continue to Dwindle

Lexus is giving its RC and RC F sports coupes a “sonorous swan song,” finishing their run at the end of 2025. While the Japanese luxury brand does retain some passenger car models it mirrors the broader industry’s ongoing move to abandon passenger vehicles in favor of SUVs, CUVs and pickups.

Despite growing sales last year, Lexus has decided to pull the plug on the RC coupe and the sportier RC F package. They will vanish from the automaker’s line-up at the end of the year.

It’s just the latest in an ongoing trend that has left potential U.S. buyers with only a handful of coupes and a rapidly declining selection of sedans and sports cars. Where it offered just a single utility vehicle, the RX, not all that long ago, Lexus has added an assortment of models, from the little UX to the lavish, full-size LX.

Lexus is by no means the only automaker to make such a move. In fact, some brands have abandoned passenger cars entirely, Lincoln amongst them in the luxury segment. Others continue phasing out sedans and coupes in the face of dwindling sales.

Phasing out the RC

First launched during the 2015 model year, the Lexus RC is a compact sports model, its name standing for “Radical Coupe,” according to Lexus. It’s similar in size to the Lexus IS — albeit with a shorter wheelbase. It’s offered in both base and F Sport trim, and in either rear or all-wheel-drive. Buyers have had a choice of two powertrains: a 241 hp 2.0-liter inline-four and a 311 hp 3.5-liter V-6.

There’s also an RC F model with a 5.0-liter V-8 paired with a DCT gearbox making 472 hp.

For the final year of its run, the automaker will offer both the base RC and a limited-run RC F Final Edition, starting at $94,000. It will get exterior features such as folding mirrors, carbon fiber roof, active rear wing, red brake calipers, 19-inch BBS alloy wheels, a front spoiler, and a rear diffuser. The interior will include a 10.3-inch touchscreen, the Mark Levinson premium audio system, bespoke black and red leather/Ultrasuede upholstery, and a carbon fiber Final Edition emblem.

Increasing sales didn’t help

Lexus decided to end the RC’s run despite the fact that it actually delivered a 5.8% increase in U.S. sales in 2024, with total demand of 1,854 of the coupes.

Worldwide, the RC line topped 90,000 sales in 2024, Lexus reported.

But that was a fraction of the automaker’s total demand – overall sales reaching 345, 669 in the U.S. last year, it reported.

By comparison, Americans purchased 18,946 of the IS sedans in 2024, with only the exotic LC model coming in with lower numbers, at 1,464. The RX, the Lexus brand’s mainstay crossover, generated 118,636 orders.

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Driving off into the sunset

The Lexus RC is by no means the only model set to end its run sometime this year, with coupes and sedans among the most vulnerable models.

Among 2-door nameplates we won’t see around much longer:

• Audi A5 Coupe and A5 Cabriolet;
• Chevrolet Camaro;
• Jaguar F-Type and F-Type Convertible

Even some familiar exotics are being phased out, such as the Lamborghini Huracan and Nissan GT-R.

Sedans are also taking their hits. Chevrolet recently ended production of the Malibu, for example, while Ford motor company has eliminated all passenger cars from its U.S. fleet – with the exception of the Mustang “pony car.”