AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)09/25 Report--

For the "Japanese top three" Honda, Toyota, and Nissan in the domestic market, they have already stabilized a certain proportion by virtue of reassuring word-of-mouth, and even under the epidemic, they still show a trend of counter-trend growth. But by contrast, the performance of the three luxury brands in China is very different, and the monthly sales of the top three are only a fraction of those of the first.

With the end of September, car companies that announced sales late have disclosed their own brand sales one after another. Therefore, the sales of Lexus, Dongfeng Infiniti and Guangzhou Automobile Acura of Nissan's three luxury brands are counted.

Due to the bright performance of the luxury market this year, it has been showing a general trend against the trend. Luxury car retail sales rose 31.6 per cent to 243687 vehicles in August from a year earlier, with a market share of more than 14 per cent since May, according to the Federation of passengers. In the first eight months of this year, luxury car retail sales totaled 1532975, an increase of 8.3 per cent year-on-year. However, there is a very obvious gap in August sales between the three, and the monthly sales even show a decline in the order of 5-digit, 4-digit and 3-digit sales.

Different from many mainstream luxury brands, Lexus, as a luxury brand of Toyota, has always been sold in China in the way of imported models, but its sales have always shown excellent market performance. The Lexus brand sold 20698 vehicles in August, up 22.3% from a year earlier, according to the China Automobile Association. In the first eight months of this year, total sales of the brand in China reached 138349, up 9.06 per cent from a year earlier.

It is worth noting that the use of import methods also led to the high price of Lexus models, and did not participate in the price reduction competition in the domestic market, and even attracted some consumers to increase prices because of their imported car status.

Some industry insiders pointed out that Lexus can maintain positive growth, on the one hand, through order sales, can effectively control prices and orders, on the other hand, the production capacity released by Japanese factories during the epidemic has been transferred to support the Chinese market, and the best-selling models ES, RX, and the upcoming replacement of NX have all had good positive growth.

Dongfeng Infiniti, as a luxury brand under Nissan, is also made in China very early in order to improve sales, but the result is not obvious. Infiniti sold 2604 vehicles in August, compared with 13265 in the previous eight months, according to wholesale data from the China Automobile Association.

In fact, it is not surprising for Infiniti to lag behind in sales. Infiniti, which began to achieve domestic sales in 2014, has only two domestic models on sale so far, namely QX50 and Q50L, while the generally high prices for imported models have not been favored by consumers, resulting in tepid sales.

In order to increase sales, Infiniti launched the "5 IN 5" strategy as early as 2018, that is, to launch five new domestic models in the next five years, and hopes to achieve 150000 sales by 2022. But until now, the number of models under the domestic brand has not increased, coupled with the aging of vehicle configuration, weak market resilience and other important reasons, have become the embodiment of Infiniti difficult to achieve reversal.

Earlier, there was news that Infiniti had officially withdrawn from the ranks of luxury brands and was downgraded and transformed. In this regard, the relevant person in charge of Dongfeng Infiniti told the media: "the positioning of Infiniti as the only luxury brand in Dongfeng and Nissan business remains unchanged."

By contrast, Acura, which owns the halo of Honda Dafa, is not as good as the former two. According to the data, only 804 vehicles were sold in August, compared with less than 10, 000 in the previous eight months, with only 6655 vehicles, ranking last among luxury brands. I have to say, such sales are not only less than half that of Dongfeng Infiniti, let alone those of Lexus.

Although GAC Acura has one more domestic model than Dongfeng Infiniti, and the replacement speed of the model is also better than the former, it seems that Acura is one of the most "unaccustomed" luxury brands in the Chinese market. Not only brand recognition is one of the biggest factors, but also lack of sufficient publicity and brand image establishment, so that sales are perennially at the bottom of the luxury brand market.

Some analysts believe that Acura brand premium capacity is low, the price is falsely high, the design does not conform to the luxury car image, few after-sales outlets, marketing problems, as well as the second and third-tier luxury brands are mostly in the terminal sharp price concessions to participate in the competition, so that the original brand awareness of lower Acura, to break through the tight encirclement of fierce market competition has become even more difficult.

Therefore, even if the luxury market maintains the trend of counter-trend growth this year, brands that fail to improve their competitiveness will be gradually marginalized by the market, while the more powerful Lexus brands will continue to maintain an upward trend. it even surpasses the Cadillac brand, which is in the second line in previous years.

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