Recent reports from Australia, including one from Go Auto, hinted at the market launch of a mid-cycle facelift for Lexus’ underperforming CT 200h as early as next year. Today, an allegedly official image, said to have been scanned from the 2014 CT 200h’s brochure, has surfaced online.

At this point, we cannot verify its authenticity, especially since its size doesn’t allow us to get a closer look at the changes made, and which seem to be limited to the full height spindle grille that sports the same zig-zag mesh pattern as the one used on the latest LS F Sport sedan.

With the Los Angeles and Tokyo auto shows coming up next month, there’s a good chance that we’ll see whether this image of the updated model is genuine or not.

In the U.S., year-to-date (from January through September) sales of the CT 200h are down 16.0 percent to 11,440 units, while the compact hybrid isn’t doing well in other markets either, with monthly sales in Australia, for example, plummeting from 150 units last year to 54 in September.

Story References: Indianautosblog

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