Hybrid Lexus upcoming - Toyota
31 July 2002: A hybrid version of the Lexus RX300 will be sold on the US market by the end of next year, according to Toyota, the brand's owner.
It's all part of a programme to double Toyota's hybrid lineup, which will now include the RX300 (sold as the Harrier in Japan), its 2-litre Crown sedan and its recently debuted Alphard MPV.
Hybrids - up to now best represented by Toyota's Prius saloon and more latterly by a local-only version Previa MPV called the Estima - are more expensive than petrol-only cars, because they have an additional electric motor and complex electronics to manage power output and generation.
Toyota will market the 2-liter hybrid Crown mainly to government and municipal offices that are increasingly replacing their cars with low-emission vehicles. Since leading the way with the Prius in 1997, Toyota has sold 30 percent of a total 100,000 hybrid cars in overseas markets.
Honda is the only other carmaker so far to mass-market hybrid vehicles - the two-seater Insight and a recently-launched hybrid version of the Civic.
Toyota has a 90 percent share of the global market for eco-friendly vehicles and hopes to triple annual production of hybrid cars to 300,000 units in 2005.
July 2002