Scion may employ AWD in future models

Since the release of the FT-Ch, a compact hybrid concept, at the North American International Auto Show, Toyota has been fielding questions of where a production model would fit in the family. In a recent interview with Wardsauto.com, Scion Toyota Motor Sales USA vice president Jack Hollis dismissed the possibility of the FT-Ch starting as a Scion model. “We really still feel (hybrids) fit into the Toyota lineup better than the Scion lineup, from a pricing structure,” he says.

[courtesy of Toyota]

This means the FT-Ch will probably start out in the Prius family, but Scion may still get one of Toyota's recent concepts. There is considerable interest in employing all-wheel-drive in the Scion lineup, and due to Toyota's partnership with Subaru through Fuji Heavy Industries, of which Toyota owns 16.5 percent, “I don’t think [AWD] ups the cost past what the consumer would pay," according to Hollis.

[courtesy of Toyota]

What could this mean for Scion's near future? The most recent AWD collaboration between Toyota and Subaru has been the FT-86, a rear-wheel-drive concept that will be offered both by Toyota as is and by Subaru as an AWD model. The FT-86 is a two-door coupe that has an aggressive stance and appearance, and both companies are still figuring out exactly where the FT-86 would fit in their respective U.S. lineups. Since Toyota doesn't seem ready to bring back the Supra or MR2 names, their most recent RWD vehicles, they wouldn't be constrained in deferring to tradition in using front-wheel-drive names like the Celica and the tC.

Interestingly, in Japan the Scion tC is currently offered in both front- and all-wheel-drive forms. The reason this isn't the case in the States is mostly price, but there has been talk of offering AWD in the next generation tC. This makes it likely that the FT-86 will see future duty as the Scion tC in the U.S., with RWD standard and AWD as an option.

With talk of a track-oriented FT-86 that could list around the $20,000 mark, it seems likely that an AWD model could be priced inside a Scion customer's budget. Add to this speculation the fact that Hollis believes Toyota's partnership with Fuji Heavy Industries has "just begun," and that it "holds a lot of untapped potential," and the possibility for AWD in the Scion lineup seems a certainty.

[Sources: Autoblog, Wardsauto]