Lexus to Get Stand-Alone Hybrid Vehicle by 2009
TOKYO, JAPAN --A Japanese business newspaper reports that Toyota plans to begin selling a second dedicated brand of hybrid automobiles in 2009.
TOKYO, JAPAN --A Japanese business newspaper reports that Toyota plans to begin selling a second dedicated brand of hybrid automobiles in 2009, according to the Web site, www.fox28.com.
According to an unsourced story in The Nikkei, Toyota plans to sell around 100,000 of the as-yet-unnamed hybrid annually around the world at the outset.
The auto would be Toyota's second hybrid-only brand following the Prius. Toyota offers several other hybrid models, including the hybrid Camry and hybrid Lexus models.
Toyota plans to increase hybrid sales to one million vehicles a year after 2010.
According to Motor Trend magazine, it appears Lexus will be the division getting its own dedicated hybrid model as well.
Lexus presently has three hybrid vehicles in its lineup, all of which, variants of the LS, RX, and GS, are versions of existing models.
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