Severe Lexus RX400h hybrid shortage?

So, you drove the Toyota Prius and you absolutely loved it. If you could have picked your options on a new one and drove it out of the dealership you would have bought it in an instant, but you were told at least 6 months.

Since the Lexus RX400h hybrid and the Toyota Highlander hybrid were to be released soon, you decided to wait. Unfortunately, you might be waiting even longer for one of these hybrids.

Because production of the Hybrid Synergy Drive is almost completely internal, Toyota is having a hard time keeping up with demand. To help with Prius demand, Toyota is looking to China to help out with production, but there are no such plans for the RX400h.

Toyota claims that under its current production capabilities, it can produce only 38,000 hybrid RX400s per year, but only 24,000 of those hybrids are destined for the U.S., and almost half of those vehicles already have downpayments on them.

That means that if Toyota doesn't raise production, supply will be far less than demand. Therefore, interested buyers might not be able to purchase the Lexus hybrid until late 2005 or even 2006.

Of course, overwhelming demand is great news for Toyota, but not for interested consumers.

Toyota's production shortage should help spur sales of the Ford Escape hybrid and the Honda Accord hybrid - which might be the only options for many serious hybrid consumers. Since the Escape hybrid uses Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive, that will also be good news for Toyota.

Overall; however, this will be very disappointing news for Toyota hybrid fans and customers. Hybrid vehicles are an emotion-driven sale for many potential customers, and playing with one's emotions is not a good customer relations practice.

Either Toyota will have to figure out a way to significantly increase production, or Toyota will risk losing tens of thousands of potential customers. If someone has to wait a year or two, pay an extra $3000.00 for a hybrid version, plus and extra $3000.00 to $5000.00 to Toyota dealers for some bogus handling costs, customers will begin to resent Toyota and look for other options.

Toyota has the ability to change the entire automotive industry, but the longer it frustrates customers, the less appeal Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive will have, and the less appeal Toyota will have.

While that might not be fair considering Toyota's leadership in clean technologies, such as hybrid vehicles, to allow demand to wither away awaiting supply demonstrates that Toyota might not believe in hybrids as much as it claims.

Whether Toyota can catch up to demand for its Prius this year will say a lot about where Toyota is going with hybrids in the next few years.

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