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Weak Yen Won't Stop Push Outside Japan: Lexus

Weak Yen Won't Change Expansion Plans: Lexus
VIDEO4:3904:39
Weak Yen Won't Change Expansion Plans: Lexus

The recent weakness in the Japanese yen is not coming in the way of the country's luxury carmaker Lexus International's plans to invest overseas, said a senior company executive.

Mark Templin executive vice president of Lexus, which is a division of Toyota Motor, said the automaker will not rethink expansion plans in the U.S. and other key global markets because of a weaker yen.

"We don't run our business based on these fluctuations in exchange rates," Templin told CNBC's "The Call" on Wednesday. "I think we'd make a big mistake if we moved things around and ran our business based on currency fluctuations."

Lexus' long term goal remains to build cars in markets where they sell them, according to Templin, who said that is the best strategy for the automaker going forward. At the moment, almost all Lexus cars are manufactured in Japan, where Toyota has 12 factories, with the Lexus RX SUV produced in Canada.

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But in April, Toyota Motor announced that it plans to assemble the Lexus ES 350 sedan at its Kentucky plant in 2015 - marking the first time the Japanese automaker would build a vehicle from its luxury lineup in the U.S.

There were also reports from the Shanghai auto show in April that Lexus was considering manufacturing vehicles in China as well.

(Read More: Japan's Autos Are Finally Shrugging Off China Blues)

While the yen has fallen nearly 30 percent against the U.S. dollar since mid-November, making it cheaper to invest in Japan, Templin said that Lexus has got only a "little bit" of a lift from the weak yen in the last quarter, as "it's [the yen] nowhere near where it used to be before the global economic decline." The yen was trading at 102.5 against the dollar on Wednesday.

Templin added the company isn't abandoning plans to manufacture cars in Japan and is sticking to Toyota President Akio Toyoda's ongoing commitment to produce 3 million vehicles a year in the country, but global expansion is key.

"We're seeing big recovery in the U.S., we see big opportunity in China, we see bright future in other Asian markets. We're rolling out Lexus now in Latin America, several markets for the first time - Lexus was a U.S. only brand for quite some time and now we're on a global expansion spree," said Templin.

— By CNBC.com's Rajeshni Naidu-Ghelani; Follow her on Twitter@RajeshniNaidu

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Weak Yen Won't Change Expansion Plans: Lexus
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