Lexus RX AL10 (third generation)

The third generation Lexus RX, AL10, was developed from 2004 under chief engineer Takayuki Katsuda, with design conducted from 2005. In late 2006 the design work of Masanari Sakae was chosen, and the final designs, presented as full-size models, were approved for production in the first half of 2007. On 9 October 2007 design patents were filed at the Japanese Patent Office, and on 7 April 2008 in the United States, for a conceptual variant and two production variants, the RX and the RX 450h. The first North American pre-production prototypes went to Cambridge, Canada, in early 2008 for testing, before the first RX 350 rolled off the production line on 28 November 2008. A hybrid concept vehicle, the LF-Xh, previewed the generation.