Launch of Lexus hybrid delayed

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Friday, Nov. 12, 2004 | 9:28 a.m.

DETROIT -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus division said it was delaying the U.S. launch of a gasoline-electric hybrid version of its RX 400h sport-utility vehicle.

The Japanese automaker's luxury arm said in late September that it planned to begin selling the RX 400h hybrids early next year. But Toyota announced this week that it would put them on sale April 15, the federal deadline for filing taxes, as a 2006 model-year vehicle.

Lexus decided to delay the release to accommodate burgeoning demand for the SUV, which will be built at the company's Kyushu, Japan, plant, spokesman Bill Ussery said.

"We are attempting to increase the number of vehicles available at launch," Ussery told the Detroit Free Press.