Short Attention Span

Toyota Motor Corp.'s Scion vehicles aren't even on sale on a national basis yet, but officials recently met in Japan to begin planning the next-generation xA and xB.

That's because Scion is designed for shorter than average production cycles to keep pace with the attention span of the youth market the brand longs to capture.

While the successors may not be called the xA and xB, and likely won't resemble the current iterations in the least, planners say there definitely will be successors.

“I guarantee you they won't be linear product evolutions,” says Jim Farley, Scion vice president. He says concrete decisions currently are being made and a radical departure, especially for the popular xB, is ensured.

For inspiration for the xB, Scion is looking at products from the Dodge Magnum to a modern version of the VW Microbus.

Key to product development, especially with high-risk, high-turnaround Scion models, is shared platforms and components.

The platform has to be shared with vehicles sold in Japan or elsewhere, but Scion will lead the design concept.