The Japanese automaker seems to take such a denomination personally, however, because it just revealed what it can truly do when the word "yacht" gets thrown around.
The Lexus LY680 is the newest creation from Toyota Marine, and it's larger and more luxurious than its 650-badged predecessor – giving the boat's "Luxus Yacht" branding even more credence.
The LY Is Lexus' Second Marine Design
The Luxus Yacht lineup debuted in 2018 with the LY650, which at the time was branded as the brand's fourth flagship, alongside the LS sedan, LX SUV, and LC sport coupe as part of a broad lineup of prestige transportation. Of the four-wheelers on that list, only the LX remains these days – the LC just exited production and the LS was discontinued earlier this year – and Lexus seems to have compensated somewhat by redesigning the boat and relaunching it as the LY680.
Styling is pretty much the same as before, with marine design house Nuvolari Lenard translating Lexus' L-Finesse design language into boat form via cantilevered window trim and trailing motifs on the upper deck and roof. The LY680's flybridge is 55 inches longer, and its swim deck has been extended 27.5 inches, making for an approximate overall length of 68 feet – hence the name change.
The LY680's interior is suitably posh as well, with three lower-deck sleeping cabins that can accommodate six passengers overnight. The interior design scheme is inspired by the shape of the Lexus logo, with rounded edges on the sculpted, cosseting furniture. The L itself appears inlaid into the floor of the living room/bridge.
An additional sundeck at the bow, combined with the open-air flybridge and covered seating area on the stern, allow seating for up to 15 passengers.
Wait, Does Toyota Build Boats, Too?
Toyota Marine has been in business for more than three decades at this point, but the automaker does rely heavily on partner companies to make big projects like the Luxus Yacht lineup happen. In addition to outsourcing the design to Nuvolari Lenard, the Lexus LY680 is manufactured by Taiwanese firm Horizon Yacht, which collaborated with the automaker on introducing the Toyota Production System (TPS) methodology – lean, waste-free production and an empowered workforce that can flag problems in real time.
Toyota does have some precedent of building its own marine products. The bygone line of Epic speedboats – manufactured from 1998 to 2001 – used the same 4.7-liter V8 as the Lexus LX 470 and Toyota Tundra, Sequoia, and Land Cruiser. For the LY680, however, the automaker turned to a bona fide known quantity in the marine world: Volvo Penta.
The company supplies two of its D13 turbodiesel 12.8-liter inline-six powerboat engines, either the IPS1050 model with 800 horsepower each or the IPS1350 with 1,000 hp each. Fuel tank capacity is a staggering 1,060 gallons, but considering the size of the engines at work, that's probably only good for between 600 and 1,200 conventional miles of range, depending on engine speed and ocean conditions. Although one mile per gallon is a shocker when coming from the world of cars, it's actually decent efficiency for a yacht.
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