Lexus exploiting hybrid reputation to sell more expensive vehicles
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Lexus wants to add to their US sales total by over 100,000 units a year and they are planning to trade on the environmental reputation they built with the Prius to do it. The new tag-line Lexus just introduced is "Gives more to the driver, takes less from the world," but the applications of hybrid technology in the Lexus lineup are clearly geared more toward improving performance than making much impact on efficiency.
Lexus already got reprimanded by the British advertising watchdog OFCOM for emphasizing the environmental friendliness of the RX400h in spite of the fact that it has CO2 emissions well above the average for European cars. Fortunately for Lexus the US government is unlikely to do anything about misleading advertising; after all why start now? One possible reason for Toyota to use Lexus to sell hybrids is that they can command a much higher price and likely generate enough profit to offset the loss they are probably taking on Prius and Camry hybrid sales.
[Source: Detroit News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kardax 9:57AM (7/19/2007)
Huh? I highly doubt Toyota is taking a loss on any vehicles. The only people saying Toyota loses money on every Prius are the Detroit Big Three (and their parrots in the press).
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Don M 10:35AM (7/19/2007)
Hybrid Lexus luxury is a lot greener than ethanol Suburbans or Honda Fuelcell car or even worse Ford's Hydrogen ICE cars to come.
Toyota is by far the greenest of the lot and going strong.
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RxTx 11:27AM (7/19/2007)
I wish I had a link but Toyota has said, publically, it is making a profit on the Prius - not a huge profit but a profit. So no it is NOT making a loss - else why would they make them in the first place???
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Jimmy 12:31PM (7/19/2007)
Don M says "Toyota is by far the greenest of the lot", however that does not seem to be supported by the facts (with regard to CO2 and Lexus):
CO2 emissions for the UK:
Mercedes Benz C200 CDI: 149 g/km
Audi A4 TDI: 152 g/km
BMW 320d: 153 g/km
Audi A6 TDI: 160 g/km
BMW 525d: 165 g/km
BMW 530d: 170 g/km
Volvo S80 D5: 170g/km
Lexus GS 450h: 186 g/km
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Don M 1:35PM (7/19/2007)
Kardax, I found the parrot!
Seems that the referred article was not putting off the hybrid technology.
Jimmy, sorry but I was speaking of the cars available in the US.
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Joseph 7:24PM (7/19/2007)
I doubt that Toyota is losing money on the Prius. They're selling so many of them, it just wouldn't make sense to sell so much of a product that you lose money on!
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motorman 10:07AM (7/20/2007)
they make up for the loss on the hybrids by selling those big gas guzzling V-8 powered trucks and cars at a big profit. why do you think toyota is aginst the proposed lib CAFE standards,because they need to sell the big money makers just like GM
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Hoffy 6:28PM (7/20/2007)
Don M,
Do some research before posting. Honda is the greenest automaker.
http://corporate.honda.com/press/article.aspx?id=200704033945
The entire point of this article is that Toyota is using their new green image to push cars as being "green" that aren't necessarily very green. For instance, the LS600h reports no better gas mileage or CO2 emissions than the LS460. On top of that, the LS460 even out accelerates the more powerful LS600h. What benefit does the hybrid drive have in this car?
Lexus is going to run adds claiming that the LS600h is greener than its competitors. It's not. This is the same reason that Lexus was forced to pull their commercial for the RX400h in Britain.
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Don M 10:21AM (7/23/2007)
Hybrids have set a record for Mar-2007.
Prius 19,156
Camry 5,144
Highlander 2,501
Rx400 1,471
Gs450 181
Toyota Total - 28,453
Accord 385
Civic 2813
Honda Total - 3,198
Total of 2 companies - 31,651
Honda may have made more fuel-efficient ICE vehicles in the easy markets- mini and small car segments. But Toyota has sold more green technology, got more public involvement and interest in green technology and concentrates their research on greener technology (i.e plug-ins rather than Hydrogen) thereby making it the greenest car company in my book.
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T 10:03PM (7/23/2007)
You're so smart, motorman. Imagine how much smarter you would be if you had a clue...
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T 10:14PM (7/23/2007)
Hoffy,
Look at the cars that LS 600h L is set to compete against; the MB S600 and the BMW 760Li.
The S600 makes 510 hp and is rated at 11/17 city/highway mpg. 0-60 in 4.5 seconds. Base price $144, 975.
The 760Li makes 438 hp and is rated at 14/22 city/highway mpg. 0-60 in 5.8 seconds. Base price $122,600.
The LS 600h L makes 438 combined hp and is rated at 20/22 city/highway mpg. 0-60 in 5.5 seconds. Base price $104,000.
It is rated at 6 mpg better than the nearest competitor.
I've not read one review of this car that actually compared it to its competition. It's always the S550 or the 750Li; those cars are not its competition.
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Hamster 11:45PM (7/23/2007)
Detroit Press is BS when it comes to automaker insight.
Personally I believe that Toyota has been doing and will continue to do more good for the American consumers, employees and environment than any of the Big 3.
They don't let US pay their share of corporate and income taxes or threaten to go bankrupt
They don't have US taxpayers pay for their research for gas-guzzling hydrogen and Ethanol projects.
They pay american employees a fair compensation.
The money that they make goes to research into technology that will make us energy-independent and green.
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Green Eggs 9:18AM (7/24/2007)
Toyota gets all its parts from China and does some QA in Japan and then they Lego together the parts in US. I
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T 12:03PM (7/24/2007)
Green Eggs,
It would be best to reserve your comments until you actually know what you are talking about.
All of the auto manufacturers buy parts from China, in addition to the USA, Canada, and Japan.
At Toyota, a great deal of QA work is done at the NA headquarters in Los Angeles.
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bead 4:25AM (3/29/2008)
T:
It's like you're missing the forest for the trees. The point is that Toyota is marketing a car as eco-friendly that is clearly not by trying to recontextualize the concept. 6 mpg is hardly cause for celebration when one considers that that is still under-performs the gas engine corolla by almost three times that.
But they're not in the same category.
That's the whole problem. Toyota is trying to sell godzilla on a meager diet as a domesticated animal. Just because a car is more comfortable or powerful does not mean it is somehow morally entitled to do more damage to the environment and should be applauded when it does only slightly less damage.
The real point is that Toyota is lying about the true nature of its car in order to ease the guilty consciences of performance addicted consumers by swapping heroin for methadone. And implying that a car that gets 22 mpg is eco-friendly is like implying that methadone is as harmless as aspirin.
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