Toyota considering a Prius-badged family

According to Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Sales in the U.S., a Prius family of hybrid vehicles we’ve been hearing could very well be on the way.

Lentz says that Toyota’s way of marketing its “Hybrid Synergy Drive” technology as a kind of brand hasn’t worked out so well with the Japanese automaker. Toyota is now looking into other options and lending the ‘Prius’ badge to all future hybrid models is currently the top choice.

“Try as we might to ingrain Hybrid Synergy Drive with consumers, what really stuck was Prius,” Lentz said in an interview. “So rather than...
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Lyall - 5/12/2008 1:43:35 PM

+1 Boost

Trust a GIANt corporation and 5000 MBA's to figure out how best to DILUTE a brand's equity- which is nothing more than the affection its drivers have.

Will a 16 foot long Camry rebadged Prius full size- have the same value?
We'll have to put the question to the 5000MBA's and Lawyere at ToMoCo.

lexusrox123 - 5/12/2008 2:03:06 PM

+1 Boost

it would be interesting how this all works out...

sector - 5/12/2008 2:31:42 PM

-3 Boost

no, diluting the brand name is the domain of the BMW execs. 1,3,5,7 series... and Xn, where n=3,4,5,6... looks like they have enough permutations to cover ever man/women/child on this earth! shear genius :)

mpls - 5/12/2008 7:18:40 PM

+1 Boost

BMW tries to be exclusive, yet it is common as muck nowadays because of alot badge snobbery. Despite that people still pay a premium over more reliable and sometimes better looking cars. Even more funny is how BMW tries to keep the residuals high.. Suckers (i mean customers) on most occasions fall for it over and over again.. Driving dynamics! why do most people have theirs in Automatic ? hmmm..

Agent63 - 5/14/2008 2:06:21 AM

+1 Boost

They will have house-brand Toyota, premium Toyota(Lexus), Scion, & PRIUS? I don't think they should do this though. Focusing on the already existing models and giving them a hybrid option would be better IMO because people already know the cars Toyota & Lexus has to offer so adding the hybrid badge would be easier than completely re-branding hybrid cars.