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Shenzhen Zhongsheng Lexus Automobile Co., Ltd. was fined 500,000 yuan for making false or misleading commercial propaganda on its goods and violating the anti-unfair competition law, according to the state enterprise credit information publicity system.

Shen Shi Jian Punishment [2022] Ji No.285 shows that the types of illegal acts are: unfair competition acts; The punishment is based on the Law of the People's Republic of China against Unfair Competition (Revised in 2019) /Chapter IV Legal Liability/Article 20/Paragraph 1. If an operator violates the provisions of Article 8 of this Law by making false or misleading commercial propaganda on his commodities, or helps other operators to carry out false or misleading commercial propaganda by organizing false transactions, the supervision and inspection department shall order him to stop the illegal act and impose a fine of not less than 200,000 yuan but not more than 1 million yuan; If the circumstances are serious, a fine of not less than one million yuan but not more than two million yuan shall be imposed, and the business license may be revoked.

According to industrial and commercial information, Shenzhen Zhongsheng Lexus Automobile Co., Ltd. was established in December 2003 with a registered capital of HK $30 million. Its business scope includes Lexus brand imported automobile sales, vehicle maintenance and related technical consultation. Longhua Automobile Co., Ltd. holds 100% equity of Shenzhen Zhongsheng Lexus Automobile, according to equity penetration. According to the 2021 annual report of Zhongsheng Holdings, Shenzhen Zhongsheng Lexus is a subsidiary of Zhongsheng Holdings.

According to the number of risks, the cumulative sales volume of Lexus from January to November 2022 was 168644 vehicles, down 16.45% year-on-year, including 12643 vehicles sold in November, down 8.85% year-on-year. Unsurprisingly, this will be Lexus 'first sales decline since entering the Chinese market.

Lexus is a luxury brand owned by Toyota Motor Group, which is the best performance among the second-tier luxury brands in China, but Lexus 'life in China market is not comfortable after entering 2022. As for the reasons for the decline in sales, on the one hand, due to insufficient capacity and epidemic impact, production obstacles and freight delays, but more importantly, due to the overall decline trend of traditional fuel vehicles, Lexus is inevitably involved in the competition between fuel vehicles and electric vehicles.

You know, Lexus in the "crazy" price increase premise, annual sales can easily maintain 200,000 vehicles, and now even if the parity sales, even some models of the case of price reduction promotion, Lexus half a year cumulative sales of only more than 60,000 vehicles. It has to be said that Lexus has finally been "punished" by the market and has to pay for its previous "arrogance".

Lexus sales have fallen sharply this year and are believed to be affected by multiple factors. First of all, objectively, Lexus 'production and sales this year have been greatly affected by factors such as epidemic situation and supply chain shortage. Toyota has repeatedly announced production cuts at some of its production lines this year, including production lines at Japanese plants that produce Lexus models.

Epidemic diseases and chip shortages are problems faced by almost all car companies. For Lexus, it is currently the only mainstream luxury car brand not made in China, and there is also a certain delay in shipping freight under the epidemic, further affecting its performance in the Chinese market. At the same time, this also puts Lexus 'all-import model, which Lexus has always adhered to, to the test again.

In addition to objective factors, Lexus sales decline has deeper reasons. Most obviously, with the rise of domestic luxury brands and new car-making companies, Lexus 'advantages began to become less obvious and market share was divided. It is understood that Lexus 'best-selling models are ES, RX, NX, etc., and these models have no product power at all except for the annual repair update.

At present, Lexus, as a luxury brand, has only product highlights that can no longer support exaggerated price increases. Lexus did have a brilliant experience, but it must also face up to the fact that Lexus is lagging behind in its times. According to the plan, Lexus plans to provide pure electric versions of all its models by 2030, and take the lead in achieving 100% pure electric vehicle sales in China, Europe and North America, achieving the goal of selling 1 million units worldwide. Lexus also plans to sell 100% pure electric vehicles worldwide by 2035.

In fact, in addition to Lexus, other Japanese brands are getting harder and harder. According to the latest data of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, from January to November 2022, the market share of Chinese brands reached a new high of 49.2%, while that of German and Japanese fell, among which German was 19.7%, Japanese was 18.2%, American was 9.6%, and Korean was only 1.7%. Specifically, Toyota China fell 18.4% year-on-year in November 2022, Honda fell 42.8% year-on-year, and Nissan was the worst. Its sales volume in November was particularly tragic, including Nissan, Qichen and Infiniti, which sold only 45,300 vehicles in China, down 52.5% year-on-year.

On April 8, GAC Honda and GAC Acura issued a notice on their official website announcing that GAC Honda will no longer produce and sell existing products of GAC Acura brand from 2023, and relevant channels of GAC Honda will continue to provide honorable service for GAC Acura owners and always protect the rights and interests of owners. This also means that Honda's high-end brand Acura will officially withdraw from the Chinese market from 2023.

Of course, the development dilemma faced by the current second-tier luxury brands is not a case in the Chinese market. For example, Infiniti, which is also a Japanese brand, is also not optimistic. According to the data, Infiniti is a luxury car brand owned by Nissan. It was born in the North American market in 1989, and Infiniti officially entered China in 2007. It realized domestic sales in 2014. 2022 is the seventh year of Infiniti's domestic production. However, after localization, Infiniti did not develop as fast as expected. Until today, Infiniti only has three domestic models Q50L, QX50 and QX60 on sale. The product update rhythm is slow, and the introduction and update speed of models lag behind other luxury brands. According to the data disclosed by Dongfeng Motor Group, the sales volume of Dongfeng Infiniti from 2016 to 2019 was 26131 vehicles, 27766 vehicles, 28868 vehicles and 35035 vehicles respectively, with a year-on-year decline of 26.66% to 25695 vehicles in 2020 and 66.15% to 8697 vehicles in 2021. It is not difficult to see from the data that although Dongfeng Infiniti has maintained growth before 2020, it has not achieved a big breakthrough. Only two domestic models have been launched in six years after entering China. The brand influence, product competitiveness and brand service are far inferior to luxury brands of the same level, even hovering at the edge of luxury market.

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