encore888

Is it just going to be word-of-mouth, considering how much preorders there have been for the RX 400h? I think that Lexus could release a TV spot or a few magazine ads, perhaps to highlight the Lexus brand's technological prowess and the hybrids at the same time.

Do you guys think Lexus is capitalizing on the hybrid launches well enough? I think this could be a watershed technology success for Lexus, just don't know how much the general public knows about it yet. It's yet another achievement in the illustrious history of Lexus automobiles.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

word of mouth is a lot already. with the new gs, i think the new gs is more important right now. they can probably start push out advertising on the rx400h towards the summer time to get that push, coz' in late summer they will need to advertise for the new IS

Rockville

as there are already some 13,000 orders. It is really the next phenomena from Lexus...Lexus is pumping the GS ads right now. Expect the hybrid ads at release on April 15th. The GS450h is a year away so it's a little early to promote that.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

yeah it's hard to say what's going to be the next phenomenol anymore..... over 10k orders on the rx400h, planning to sell over 30k gs this yr, the new IS out this fall (which is the real deal), and their flagship restyle next yr.... it's amazing

flipside909

The lists for the Lexus hybrids are huge, just as they are for the Toyota ones. High demand.

mmarshall

Rockville pointed out that there are already 13,000 orders for the RX Hybrid, and I have no reason to question that figure.......I'm sure he/she used a valid source. But, as I pointed out in another thread, I'm not sure it was the right thing for the Toyota marketers to bring out the RX Hybrid first and hold the Highlander Hybrid until the Lexus was out.. There are a lot more potential Highlander customers out there who either cannot or will not spend the extra money for the Lexus. IMO the Highlander should have been put on the market first but that decision has been made and we'll deal with it as it is. Also, I agree that the marketers may have decided on the Lexus first for a reason.....my opinions, strong as they can be sometimes, are not always necessarily correct. For one thing, Lexus, unlike Toyota with its high-demand Prius, did not already have a gas-electric vehicle for sale....maybe the marketers wanted to address that issue first.

Speaking of Rockville, good to see some more Washington, DC area people in CL.....I'm just a few miles away in Vienna. There are a huge number of Lexus owners in this area...the second-largest new car market in the country to SoCal.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

well, if lexus figures that they are going to make more money by selling the rx first, there is no arguement. somehow i think lexus might have a bigger margin selling the rx400h, and since they are not going to be able to meet the demand completely anyway, why not just make the money they can?

mmarshall

If by " margin " you mean the difference between wholesale and list price, then yes, I agree...there is more margin in a normal gas RX than a gas Highlander. But with hybrids, it is a questionmark. Rumor has it that Toyota and Honda both lost money with the Prius and Civic hybrids even selling them at list. ( The new Prius, of course, often commands more than list ). In other words, because of the expensive components used, the cars literally cost more to build than the wholesale price that dealers were paying for them, and maybe even more than list. Toyota and Honda were willing to lose some dollars on each car sold for the PR of being the first companies in the hybrid buisness. I don't know the exact amount that was lost on each car.....maybe flipside knows? Toyota and Honda never publically announced it.
So....that brings us to the RX and Highlander Hybrids. Even with the higher sticker price, your guess is as good as mine as to whether Lexus will actually make money or not on the RX400H. The RX400H is MUCH more complex than even the new Prius........ with AWD, an electric gas-engine booster, separate electric motors and regenerative braking at each rear wheel and a far more complex electrical system. This vehicle will obviously be very expensive to produce.

Just an aside note......I would not want to be a Lexus Technician trying to diagnose electrical problems on this puppy.

Gojirra99

According to a Lexus salesman I talked to, their RX400h allocation for the year is already sold out . . .

mmarshall

This shows the panic people are in over rising gas prices again. Dealers will be able to make money by selling them over list.............but that doesn't mean that Lexus itself will, for reasons that I stated above.

XeroK00L

No way Lexus/Toyota is gonna spend money advertising for this thing, only to lag further behind in keeping up with the high demand!

Demand/orders are only good when you can fill them; otherwise they become the source of frustration.

encore888

I read somewhere that while the Prius may be sold at a loss in some cases, the RX 400h is a pure profit machine.

I think it was Businessweek or some other magazine.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

umm, rumor is one thing, but can anyone confirm for sure that toyota and honda are losing money by selling hybrid? dunno, just thinking that if it's the case, doesn't make sense for lexus to sell that many of them...

in any case, even if they are losing money, that only means it's soooo much better selling the rx400h than the highlander hybrid, coz' lexus probably lose less money by selling the rx

mmarshall

That was the point I was making in my post, Henry. I've seen a number of different sources claiming that Toyota and Honda lose money at the factory level on hybrids, and even some vague references from company officials. But.....no concrete figures have been given ( perhaps that is a corporate secret and off-limits for discussion ), but even so, I tend to believe it when you consider how expensive some of the hybrid components are...especially the nickel-hydride battery packs.

VVT-i

Toyota losing money on the Prius because they spend $800 million dollas for R&D the Hybrid from ground up. Now, they can use the experiences and technologies from the Prius and use them on RX, Highlander, GS, IS and everything else they made.

By selling Prius alone Toyota's not gonna make $800 million dollas back, but in the future they will...easily. Right now they just telling another car company not to do it, like " Man, I'm losing my butt over this Hybrid and don't do it"...scare them off. Next thing you know they will sell the Hybrid technology to every car company in the world.