Toyota Axes Scion Brand After 13 Years

“This isn’t a step backward for Scion; it’s a leap forward for Toyota”, Toyota CEO Jim Lentz said.

Toyota said this morning that it is ending the Scion brand and will fold the models into the Toyota brand starting in August.

Scion says 70% of its customers were new to the brand and Toyota, and that half were under 35 years old. “Today’s younger buyers still want fun-to drive vehicles that look good, but they are also more practical”.

The Japanese automaker said the Scion FR-S, iA sedan and iM hatchback will be re-badged as Toyotas. However, the tC coupe will be given one final edition and then sent out to pasture at the end of the 2016 model year.

The production version of Toyota’s C-HR compact crossover was also displayed as a Scion model at last year’s LA Auto Show, indicating a plan was in place to grow the brand further. Scion owners will continue to receive those services from Toyota dealerships and service centers. Others followed suit (Nissan and Infiniti, Honda and Acura), and Toyota tried it for a second time with Scion, a sub-brand aimed at the young.

Scion sold more than 1 million vehicles since its debut in 2003, but its 2015 sales totals were less than a third of its 2006 peak. If Scion had been allowed to carry on, building out its lineup with a few more similarly funky cars, it could have become so much more than the lineup we have today. While its products were very closely related to Toyota vehicles they had a unique, slightly chunky, style, created to be easily customizable.

With Auto Show season in full swing (keep an eye on Techaeris for news coming out of the Chicago Auto Show next week!), some may have noticed that Scion actually announced a new concept vehicle at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September. Three years ago, Reuters reported that the average Scion owner was 49 years old, whereas a Toyota exec had claimed the average age was closer to 30.

“The Scion brand never quite caught on in the way that Toyota hoped it would”. The Scion brand will be merged and the cars will be marketed under the name of company’s signature brand Toyota. “They, like their parents, have come to appreciate the Toyota brand”. With the brand folding, the C-HR is heading back to Toyota. “Scion has had some wonderful products over the years and our current vehicles are packed with premium features at value prices”, declared Andrew Gilleland, Scion vice president.