Scion News, Updates & Info

By Karey Wutkowski

NEW YORK, March 20 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Co’s (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) youthful urban brand Scion is considering adding a new model with a “polarizing” design to its line-up and surveying current Scion drivers about the kind of vehicle they would like to see, a senior executive said on Thursday.

Dawn Ahmed, corporate manager of Scion, also told Reuters that the Toyota-owned brand expected little change in 2008 sales compared with last year, at about 130,000 vehicles.

“Overall the light vehicle industry is pretty challenging right now,” Ahmed said. “It’s fortunate we’re not necessarily trying to sell to everybody.”

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NEW YORK — The head of Toyota’s youth-oriented Scion division said today the company may double its product lineup, adding as many as three new vehicles in the next few years.

The six-year-old brand, launched at the New York International Auto Show in 2002, showed off its Hako coupe concept — a boxy vehicle that’s reminiscent of classic American coupes, said Jack Hollis, vice president for Scion.

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Introduced on Wednesday: Scion Hako.

Is it real? Yes, but only conceptually. The Hako is a purely a design study from Toyota Tokyo Design.

What they said: Hako is a Japanese word for box, though the exterior designer on the concept, Thomas Bergeron, who is 28, said the vehicle was not inspired by the Scion xB. “American vintage has been very popular in Japan,” Mr. Bergeron added, referring to classic clothing and antique products, in addition to lowriders and rat rods.

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Scion is known for trying to be hip with the kids, but I have a feeling its latest concept, the Hako, is a couple steps too far, even for the spikey haired, angsty kids of America. Hako means box and this is very boxy, even more boxy than the xB. If you remember, Scion originally teased the Hako Coupe concept two weeks ago, but here she is in all of her ugly glory. Original speculation suggested that this could take the place of the xA, but something tells me that wouldn’t fly too well.

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Apparently Scion got the message from fans of the first generation xA and xB when the replacements grew larger and heavier. Today they debuted a new concept called the Hako Coupe at the New York Auto Show. The Hako was created by Toyota’s Tokyo design team with an eye on vintage American design. Frankly I think it just looks weird. Nonetheless it is smaller and it sounds like Scion is seriously considering this thing for production as a new addition to the lineup. At 145.7in the Hako is 9in shorter than the xD although Toyota didn’t give any other technical details. The interior is packed with all kinds of techno goodness such as video cameras and interfaces for ipods and other gadgets. Scion made a point of mentioning that they wanted a polarizing design that wouldn’t necessarily appeal to everyone, but those who like it would love it.

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Any hope that Scion would be revealing the next iteration of the tC, or a clean-sheet sports coupe with which to replace it, were dashed this afternoon in New York when the wraps were pulled off the Hako Coupe Concept. The Hako is essentially a Scion xB that’s lost a couple of doors and gained a massive schnoz, a seriously upright windshield and some highly stylized accents. Scion’s PR people insist that the coupe’s design is inspired by the “emergence of American vintage style among young Tokyo trendsetters,” which may be true, but Scion’s veep, Jack Hollis’ remark that the Hako “is the sporty version of a box.” Oxymoronic? We think so.

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Scion ended the first media day at the 2008 New York Auto by unveiling their stunning Hako Coupe Concept. The low slung coupe’s silhouette nods to the brands original boxy Xb that has since been smoothed out. The Hako has tons of techno-gadgetry built in including small round exterior cameras that allow the passenger to take travel photos from inside the vehicle and email them to friends or post them online. The idea is to allow owners to create their own digital travel log.

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