Yes and no. Those of us who know of other Crown models would feel like it’s already a sub-brand. The general public, who barely know what a Crown Crossover is, don’t know of the other Crown products and just view Crown as another Toyota product.
Then you’ve got the whole generic naming convention that is really going to confuse people. The Toyota Crown Crossover is arguably a sedan (it has a trunk which most people associate with sedans), then the Toyota Crown Sport is really the crossover in the Crown lineup, then there’s the Toyota Crown Sedan, which is aptly named but conflicts with the Toyota Crown Crossover (which most people think of as a sedan). So, we have the Toyota Crown Crossover sedan, the Toyota Crown Sport crossover and the Toyota Crown Sedan sedan. That’s bananas.
I guarantee that’s how the general public is going to view the lineup. Hopefully, by the time the other Crown models make it to North America, the Crown sub-brand will have been established and other names besides Sedan, Sport, and Crossover can be used. I like what I see in the Crown brand, and I want it to succeed. I don’t want to see it fail like Scion. Toyota has got to come up with better branding though.