Scion (automobile)
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| Division of Toyota | |
| Industry | Automotive industry |
| Fate | Absorbed into Toyota |
| Founded | June 9, 2003 |
| Defunct | August 5, 2016 |
| Headquarters | Torrance, California, U.S. |
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Area served
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United States and Canada |
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Key people
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Andrew Gilleland (VP, US) |
| Parent | Toyota |
| Website | Scion.com |
Scion is a discontinued marque of Toyota that started in 2003. It was designed as an extension of its efforts to appeal towards younger customers. The Scion brand primarily featured sports compact vehicles (primarily badge engineered from Toyota's international models), a simplified "pure price" model, and eschewed trim levels in favor of offering a single trim for each vehicle with a range of factory and aftermarket options for buyers to choose from to personalize their vehicle. The name, meaning the descendant of a family or heir, refers both to the brand's cars and their owners. The brand first soft launched in the United States at selected Toyota dealers in the state of California in June 2003, before expanding nationwide by February 2004. In 2010, Scion expanded into Canada. In an effort to target the generation Y demographic, Scion primarily relied on guerrilla and viral marketing techniques.
Scion was originally launched with promises of short product cycle and value based partly on low dealer margins, which became difficult to keep as sales fell after the economic downturn. On February 3, 2016, Toyota announced that it would shut down the Scion brand in August 2016, with selected models to be re-branded to be part of new Toyota vehicles for the 2017 model year.
In 1999, Toyota launched Project Genesis, an effort to bring younger buyers to the Toyota marque in the United States. This project aimed to create a "marque within a marque" in sales and advertising strategy for compact and coupe models sold by Toyota. The effort, which included the introduction of the Toyota Echo economy car, along with late generation Toyota MR-2 and Toyota Celica models, was judged unsuccessful and cancelled in 2001. In response, Toyota chose to launch a separate marque, an effort called Project Exodus. A Los Angeles-based digital design company, Fresh Machine, was retained by Toyota to develop the brand, logo, and website. This project became known as Scion. Toyota had previously participated in a project in Japan with other Japanese companies who attempted to market products to younger buyers. Toyota manufactured three vehicles under the WiLL brandname, which were exclusive to Toyota NETZ Store Japanese dealerships.
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