jruhi4

It's quite possible, judging by this Reuters article:

Toyota to make hybrids of Lexus models: report

Toyota Motor Corp intends to introduce hybrid versions of its Lexus luxury vehicles as early as possible, according to a report by Nikkei Business News citing Toyota managing officer Toshio Furutani.

The report on Nikkei's website said hybrids are currently available for the LS and GS models, making up about 10 percent of all Lexus vehicles. It quoted Furutani as saying in the medium to long term, Toyota was "considering making the Lexus lineup hybrid-only.

Toyota to make hybrids of Lexus models: report | Environment | Reuters

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

Hybrid ONLY?

It's possible, but only when the cost of gas outweighs the cost of they hybrid technology and its maintenance for the average driver...

spwolf

2020? maybe... thats 3rd generation models from where we are looking today..

Toyota will build 1,000,000 hybrids in 2010... I am sure their capacity will be much larger in 2020..

Gojirra99

I think that article from Nikkei's website may be referring to Japan only too, since they mention Lexus only available for the GS and LS, but not the RX (RX not a Lexus yet in Japan)

LexFather

Makes good business sense, especially as technology improves and cheapens.
Please keep the F coming though!

jruhi4

An excellent point.

RXSF

definately possible. if they perfect lithium batteries, which eliminates the current negatives and questions on space, power, and fuel consumption.

however, i dont see it happening in the current market since hybrids are still a niche segment. plus, gas prices are going down!

RON430

Like everybody said, interesting question. I guess I see it more of a possibility as hybrid develops. Especially approaches like bimmer is ostensibly taking where I believe the electric motor is build into the tranny. Besides finding a place for the lithium pack and a controller, that would simplify hybridizing quite a bit although at present I don't think this approach provides the big mileage advantage like a Prius setup gets. Still, an interesting question and not just for Lexus. Then again, with oil crashing through $90/bbl again who knows where the emphasis is going to be.

SLegacy99

Well what about the idea that they could all indeed be hybrid, but not neccessarily full hybrids. A full mild hybrid lineup wouldn't be that impractical.

spwolf

as i said before, they will be building 1,000,000 hybrids in 2010 alone... thats twice the volume of Lexus worldwide sales. Thats full hybrids too.

I have no troubles assuming that by 2020 complete Lexus lineup will be hybrid only.

There was some interview with Lexus boss in Europe during Paris show, where he said they will have capacity to build lithium ion batteries in million per year in 2010, that they are already testing successor to lithium ion and that they started working on successor of successor :-).

In short, they are spending billions on hybrids and that will be their differentation very soon, because simply no other company has ability to produce so many. And in fact no other company has their own battery R&D and factories (maybe Honda?) which means their cost for buying the technology will be much higher...