Lexus is looking to build upon its reputation as the luxury segment's greenest brand by moving to a completely hybrid lineup, according to comments made by managing officer Toshio Furutani to
Japan's Nikkei business daily, "in the medium to long term." The information backs up statements previously made by Lexus executives in Europe and Australia about the future of
the brand as it expands out of the North American market.
Meanwhile, the head of Toyota's American sales division says that Toyota may create a separate brand for its Prius hybrid
car and could add both larger and smaller Prius models to the lineup, reports Micheline Maynard in the Times
.
James E. Lentz III, president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., says he came to that conclusion after an unsuccessful effort to create a brand around hybrid synergy drive, the system
that is in all hybrid models sold by Toyota and Lexus. Consumers just did not latch on to that idea; instead "they've latched onto the Prius. We have to go with what they want," Lentz
tells Maynard.
Maynard also writes The Prius Diary on the Times' Green, Inc. blog, chronicling
her conversion from an S.U.V. to a hybrid-electric car
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