Toyota Motor Corp. is bringing its Scion brand to Canada, saying the timing is finally right as consumer appetite gels for smaller, fashionable cars.
The automaker will launch the brand, which targets affluent urban youth, starting in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver in 2010, said Stephen Beatty, managing director of Toyota Canada Inc.
“Obviously we’re pretty pumped about this,” Mr. Beatty said in an interview Sunday.
As recently as this summer, Toyota denied it was making plans to introduce Scion to Canada despite having filed trademark applications with Industry Canada to use the name. The company had previously said that Canada does not have the same demographic strength in urban areas to justify the costs of marketing and supporting Scion vehicles.
But an even greater shift towards smaller cars in Canada brought on by a rapid climb in gasoline prices earlier this year has changed the equation, Mr. Beatty said. Scion’s target market, the so-called “echo generation” or Generation Y, now represents roughly 24% of Canada’s population, he noted. They are the children of baby-boomers, born anywhere between 1976 and 2001.
The cars will be sold through Scion showrooms in existing Toyota dealerships, rather than standalone stores, said one dealer.
That’s a similar strategy to the one adopted by Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc., which started selling its micro-compact Smart cars in 2004 at separate showrooms set up inside existing Mercedes outlets. Scion would be the first new brand to enter Canada since Smart.
Scion dealers sold 130,181 cars in the United States last year, down 25 per cent from the peak of 173,034 hit in 2006.
A four-door version of the xB with an automatic transmission carries a manufacturers suggested retail price of $16,700 (U.S.). The tC, which has a more traditional shape as a compact car, goes for $17,800 and the xD is listed at $14,650.
The move to bring the brand to Canada builds on Toyota Canada president Yoichi Tomihara’s aggressive strategy of boosting the company’s sales in Canada to 250,000 vehicles annually or 15 per cent of the market by 2010.
As of the end of September, Toyota and its luxury Lexus brand have captured 14.2 per cent of the Canadian market.
0 comments ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment