Another day…another report of a Toyota trademark filing. Or two of them, to be precise: NX 200t and NX 300h, both filed on 15 October 2012 for “use in association with automobiles and structural parts thereof”.
In the United States, Trademark Application No. 85754116 was filed for NX 200t, and Trademark Application No. 85754176 for NX 300h. In Canada, Trade-Mark Application No. 1598147 was filed for NX200t, with its immediate followup No. 1598148 applied for NX300h.
Figuring out what these trademarks will eventually go with is pretty straightforward. They follow a Lexus, as opposed to Toyota or Scion brand naming convention. The second letter X denotes a crossover or SUV. In other words, this is seemingly the RAV4-derived sub-RX Lexus crossover that the world’s automotive press persists in calling by the more Citroën or Mazda-associated CX and that this author previously believed would wear the trademarked-in-2009 TX prefix. As for the numbers, those, too, are fairly obvious. The 200t is the new 2.0-liter, turbo-charged AR engine set to launch in 2014, bearing either the 3AR-FTE or 3AR-GTE engine code, depending on whether it uses an economy-minded narrow-angle valve DOHC (dual overhead camshaft) head or a more performance-oriented wide-angle valve DOHC. The 300h, meanwhile, is the 2AR-FXE 2.5-liter 4-cylinder Atkinson cycle hybrid engine used on the current Toyota Camry Hybrid, Lexus ES 300h and upcoming Toyota Avalon Hybrid. It is unlikely to use the D-4S dual direct+port injection system in the front-wheel-drive-centric Lexus NX. The first part of our TMC Environmental Technology Development update article features commentary on both engines.
Finally, it seems that Toyota and Nissan seem to be playing a game of tit-for-tat with dormant two-letter model prefixes. The NX badge adorned a Nissan Sentra-derived sports coupe in the early 1990’s, and Lexus’ using this previously Nissan-centric name might be payback of sorts for the latter’s usurping of Lexus’ unused, trademarked JX prefix for the Infiniti JX crossover SUV.
Our thanks go out to my.IS moderator k3vo for bringing this to our attention in
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Hi, Bill.
After months of receiving nothing but worthless spam comments, it is truly refreshing to receive intelligent and informative commentary such as yours. Thank you for providing it, and thanks for your kind words regarding our efforts.
In spite of my fixation on engine and transmission codes, I’m far from an engineering-oriented person, and bow to your mechanical engineering background. The economy-minded narrow-angle valve / performance-oriented wide-angle valve distinction is something I first mentioned in my commentary on Toyota / Lexus’s powetrain future, which preceded the above article by a couple of weeks. That one, in turn, used Wikipedia’s article listing Toyota’s engines and explaining their engine codes as the ultimate source for my information.
I can already picture you either laughing or throwing your arms up in despair at my using Wikipedia as my source. Perhaps the narrow / wide valve angle distinction is a subtle one and a matter of semantics, with narrow and narrower being more correct descriptions. At any rate, I not only thank you profusely for your education on thermal efficiency and valvetrain technology, but you’ve piqued my curiosity enough that I intend to reach out to Toyota / Lexus staff for clarification on the wide/narrow angle issue.
Interesting that you touched upon the Atkinson cycle as well. An upcoming Kaizen Factor article will touch upon the Atkinson-to-Otto cycle function found on the Lexus RC F’s 5-liter V8, a story which, of necessity, will also veer into Miller cycle territory.
I also welcome your commentary on the GT86. At Lexus’s invitation to sample the extensive mid-cycle refresh for the LS line, I was fortunate enough to have the use of a manual Scion FR-S press car, which I drove in the mountains in the general San Francisco vicinity. it was quite nice, but not compelling enough to make me trade in my 2008 Mazda MX-5 Miata. The primary reason: the balky shifter, which is notably inferior in feel and precision to the Miata’s. Seeing the Toyobaru coupe’s less than stellar initial quality, as you noted, is sad. I still hold out hope that later model years will see an improvement and wish for further derivatives and body styles, but I’m losing some of my initial optimism.