Lexus IS To Become Hybrid Only And Add Wagon

When the Lexus IS originally made its debut in Europe, it was offered with an estate (station wagon) variant called SportCross. However, Lexus eventually dropped the estate version but now admits that the policy has hurt sales of the model in Europe where it faces competition from the 3-Series Touring and A4 Avant.

To fix all that, Lexus is now working on an estate variant of the next-generation Lexus IS. The third-generation of the IS lineup is due out in 2011.





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fatandsassy - 3/12/2010 3:28:35 PM

-5 Boost

So Lexus admits to defeat from BMW, AUDI, MB and they are going to just go hybrid so that they can say they were the first to offer that in this class.

I hate Toyota and LExus

LexSucks - 3/12/2010 3:34:56 PM

-1 Boost

Who cares?

VISO - 3/12/2010 5:38:27 PM

+1 Boost

Interesting considering Audi, BMW, and MB, sold 47,000, 36,000, 31,000 units in Western Europe for February alone while Lexus managed 1900 units. How are they going to beat the A4 Avant or the 3-Series Touring or the C-Class Estate with a single IS Hybrid Wagon model?

david999 - 3/13/2010 2:56:14 AM

0 Boost

Ya your right, Germany is the only country that matters in Europe, not the UK or Russia. Also hybrids are going nowhere, that's why even Ferrari is aiming to produce a hybrid version of every one of its models.

STJ88 - 3/12/2010 5:48:16 PM

+1 Boost

No way this will ever happin, in europe most lexus IS sold are IS250 with a MT or IS220D with a MT. Toyota's hybrid system is CVT only, this would mean the death to euro sales of the IS!

BondMI6 - 3/13/2010 1:26:11 AM

+2 Boost

From reading the article it seems that they are saying the whole IS lineup will be hybrid only- which I find very hard to believe.....

delan - 3/13/2010 9:35:51 AM

+1 Boost

So...ummm....does that mean the HS is now irrelevant?