Scion Hybrid Not Coming Yet

As the hybrid vehicles gain more and more importance these days, many companies evaluate the option of introducing them in their vehicle line-up. Toyota’s North American sub-brand Scion has decided that hybrids would perfectly suit its clients’ profile but would exceed their financial possibilities, as Ward’s Auto reports.

“Youth seem to be very, very cognizant of their environment and the footprint they’re leaving,” Jack Hollis, vice president-Scion, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. told Ward’s Auto.

Although the Toyota FT-CH hybrid concept introduced last month at NAIAS seemed like it could be destined to receive the Scion badge, this is not going to happen. According to the aforementioned source the car will join the Prius line-up instead. Scion will apparently introduce hybrid cars to its range but this move will come later.

“We really still feel (hybrids) fit into the Toyota lineup better than the Scion lineup, from a pricing structure,” Hollis was quoted as saying by Ward’s Auto.

“I don’t know what they’re working on (for) the pricing of that,” Hollis says. “We just know it fits into that Prius family. Scion would want to have a totally differentiating hybrid, and we don’t have that ready yet,”

The company’s strategy is to have a vehicle range with starting prices below $20,000. And the good news is that AWD technology will be featured on the brand’s vehicles for that kind of price tag. Hollis told the aforementioned source that a AWD technology infusion from Toyota’s partner Subaru might be possible in the future.