GREEN WITH LUXURY; Raising the bar for full hybrids.(News)

Byline: ROGER HART

Toyota created a gasoline-electric-hybrid consumer monster, and now it's struggling to feed it.

Since Lexus announced at last year's Detroit show that a hybrid version of its best-selling RX sport/utility vehicle would be for sale, nearly 10,000 people have plunked down deposits. More than 46,000 others say they're also interested in the RX 400h.

In the car world, that's a home run-out of the park.

While the line gets longer to own an RX 400h, building them is taking more time than first thought.

Why: Toyota was taken aback by the popularity of its Prius hybrid and increased production to meet demand. More than a year after launch, supplies are still short for the economy car. Toyota makes most of the hybrid drivetrain parts in-house, so it can't simply say to a supplier, "Give us more.'' To help meet demand, Toyota recently announced it is looking to build hybrids at a U.S. plant to supplement supply from Japan.

"We fully expect the RX 400h to be 25 percent of [U.S.] RX sales,'' says Denny Clements, Lexus group vice president and general manager. Lexus sold 106,531 RX 330s in 2004, making it the best-selling Lexus model. Annual production from the RX 400h plant in Japan is about 38,000 vehicles, and as the hybrid sport/ute will be sold worldwide, Clements has been told the United States will get 24,000 vehicles annually. "We know that's probably not enough to meet demand,'' he says.