Toyota Likely to Sell Hybrid Version of Lexus Sedan

NAGOYA, Japan September 11, 2003; Norihiko Shirouzu of the WSJ reported that Toyota Motor Corp. , which is expected to start selling a gasoline-electric sport-utility vehicle in the U.S. next year, also will likely add a hybrid version of its premium sedan, or the Lexus LS430, to its expanding lineup of alternative-fuel vehicles.

A senior Toyota executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he has test-driven the hybrid LS430 sedan and found it to be "balanced" between performance and environmental gains a hybrid system provides. A hybrid car combines an electric motor with a gasoline engine to get much better fuel economy and performance than traditional cars.

As in the hybrid version of the Lexus RX330 called the Lexus RX400h, which is expected to hit dealer showrooms in the fall of 2004, the hybrid LS430 uses its hybrid system in part as a supercharger to help accelerate the vehicle. The hybrid sedan also will provide improved fuel economy, the executive said.

The focus on performance is part of Toyota's effort to make hybrid technology more appealing to mainstream customers, and not just tree-huggers. Initially, Toyota focused on fuel economy gains with hybrid technology, but that approach has limited hybrid vehicles' appeal more or less to tech-savvy or environmentally conscious consumers.

Toyota has said it hopes by the middle of this decade to sell 300,000 hybrids a year world-wide, most of them in the U.S.

Toyota's redesigned Prius hybrid car is expected to start arriving in dealers next month. The Japanese auto maker wants to expand sales of the new Prius to 36,000 in 2004 from 21,000 this year -- an increase of about 70%.

The Prius will be followed by the Lexus RX400h and a hybrid version of the Toyota Highlander. A Toyota executive in Torrance, Calif. said the hybrid Highlander's launch will very closely follow that of the RX400h.

In addition to the two hybrid SUVs, the American Toyota executive, who also declined to be named, said the auto maker is "exploring" the possibility of offering a hybrid version of the full-size Tundra pickup truck.

The executive said he believes even pickup-truck drivers who typically pay premiums for big horsepower and towing capacity will care enough about fuel economy that there should be enough demand to justify turning Toyota's next- generation Tundra into a full-fledged hybrid vehicle. The hybrid Tundra pickup likely would arrive in showrooms after Toyota launches the redesigned Tundra pickup in a few years, he said.