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Open the GAC Acura official website, has been unable to access the status, technically, 504 error code is that the server failure caused by the failure to return the user's request, normally it only takes a few minutes to deal with this failure. This unhandled status quo, or eulogizing in obscurity, finally became history in 2023.

On April 8, 2022, GAC Honda and GAC Acura announced in a notice on their website that in order to further promote the landing of the electrification strategy, the joint venture GAC Acura resources will be integrated into GAC Honda to join the electrification business. From 2023, Guangzhou Auto Honda will no longer produce and sell existing products of Guangzhou Auto Acura brand. GAC Honda related channels will continue to provide honorable services to GAC Acura owners and always protect the rights and interests of car owners. It also means that Acura will officially withdraw from Chinese mainland from January 1 and no longer produce or sell existing models.

Acura, a high-end car brand owned by Honda, was founded in the United States in 1986. Its English "Acura" originates from the Latin word "Accuracy". It is marked as an image of calipers used in engineering measurement, reflecting Acura's exquisite car-building craftsmanship and the pursuit of perfection.

In 1986, Acura launched the Legend and Integra models in the United States, and the following year it sold more cars than any other European luxury car. In 1990, Acura launched the world's first all-aluminum car "NSX", directly against Ferrari, Porsche and other European supercars, known as "the best sports car in history".

Acura's development in the United States is very smooth, with a near-perfect start, through the Legend, Integra and NSX three models in the United States market awareness, directly Mercedes-Benz, BMW and other traditional luxury brands directly. In 2005, Acura reached a sales peak in the United States, with annual sales of 209600 vehicles. Then Acura struck while the iron was hot and relied on Honda's solid endorsement to enter the Chinese market.

In 2006, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the birth of the brand, Acura announced to enter the Chinese market and introduced TL and RL cars by import, with a guidance price of 430000 yuan and 690000 yuan respectively, while Acura was not well known in the Chinese market at that time, coupled with the guidance prices of the two models are not low, the sales performance in the Chinese market can be imagined. Since then, Acura has launched MDX, RDX, ZDX, TSX and other models, but sales are still not satisfactory.

In 2011, the fifth year of Acura's entry into China, it sold 4104 vehicles. It is understood that Acura had about 40 dealers in China at that time, and each supplier sold about 5 cars per month. Under the pressure of huge inventory and loss, more and more dealers are forced to withdraw from the net, which has become the news reported by many media in that year.

In order to reverse this decline, Acura announced at the 2014 Guangzhou International Auto Show that it will launch products that are more in line with the preferences of Chinese consumers, and will achieve localization in 2016, with a goal of "selling 100000 vehicles in 2020."

In 2016, Guangzhou Auto Honda established a wholly owned subsidiary, Guangzhou Automobile Honda Automobile sales Co., Ltd., and set up a brand-new Beijing branch to set up the business headquarters of the Acura brand, with the Beijing branch as the core, responsible for selling Acura domestic and imported models. Officially "take root" in the Chinese market.

Acura's first domestic model is the CDX, which is tailor-made for Chinese consumers, in other words, "special car". For multinational car companies, in order to quickly open the market, they often take the lead in introducing well-known global models, and are positioned above medium-sized cars, while Acura's first domestic car CDX is a compact SUV, and it is a "special car" for the Chinese market. Acura's development in the Chinese market is destined to be very bumpy. However, after localization, Acura did change the decline, with sales of 16300 vehicles in China in 2017, setting a peak since Acura entered China.

After the launch of the CDX, Acura launched a second SUV model, the RDX, which is significantly higher than the CDX and is also a well-known model in overseas markets. However, Acura didn't make it home until the end of 2018, missing the best period for the rapid rise of the luxury SUV market, and CDX left a bad impact on Chinese consumers, so RDX sales are still poor. Before the RDX, Acura also introduced a medium-sized sedan, the TLX, which is also popular in North America, while Acura built the TLX-L to lengthen its body and wheelbase for the Chinese market, but the car was discontinued after only two years of domestic sales. Due to market pressure, Acura stopped the imported car business and car business in 2020, leaving only the production and sales of CDX and RDX SUV.

According to the data, Acura's domestic sales fell to 7337 in 2018, down 55.11% from the same period last year. Although sales rose to 14786 in 2019, they declined year by year in 2020 and 2021, to 11193 and 6554 respectively. In other words, Acura's goal of "selling 100000 vehicles by 2020" in 2014 not only failed to meet, but even 16300 vehicles in 2017 became an insurmountable gap.

Acura sells very well in the United States, once challenged the market position of BBA, but showed decline after entering the Chinese market, and finally ended up in the awkward position of withdrawing from the Chinese market. There are three main reasons: first, the brand strength is insufficient, Acura, as a luxury brand, has poor awareness and influence, and this situation has not changed after being domesticated. Without its own brand identity, long-term sales with Guangzhou Auto Honda will have a more adverse impact. The second is the lack of product power, product lineup is thin, lack of competitiveness, want to rely on two or three cars to support sales is too difficult; finally, the lack of investment, many are borrowlism, localization is not very good.

In fact, the Japanese luxury brands that encountered difficulties in the Chinese market in 2022 are not just eulogizing.

Infiniti's development path is very similar to that of Acura. It was born in North America in 1989, entered the Chinese market in 2007 and achieved local sales in 2014. However, after localization, Infiniti did not develop as fast as expected. until today, Infiniti only has three domestic models, Q50L, QX50 and QX60, with a slow pace of product update, and the speed of model introduction and renewal lags behind compared with other luxury brands. In 2022, Infiniti sold only 6391 vehicles for the whole year. Now, Acura has announced its withdrawal from Chinese mainland, and Infiniti will be the next "Acura".

The same is true of Lexus, a luxury brand owned by Toyota, which was founded in 1983 and entered the Chinese market in 1994. Since entering the Chinese market, Lexus has grown for 17 consecutive years compared with the same period last year. According to the data, the cumulative global sales of Lexus in 2021 were 760000, up 6 per cent from a year earlier, with sales in North America up 12 per cent to 332000, Japan up 4 per cent to 51000 and China slightly up 1 per cent to 227000. After entering 2022, affected by the epidemic and spare parts supply, the number of Lexus in China was 168000, down 16.5% from the same period last year. If nothing happens, this will be the first decline in sales since Lexus entered the Chinese market.

Today, Acura has announced its withdrawal in the face of the highly competitive Chinese market, while Infiniti and Lexus need to put more effort into making themselves stronger in the face of the increasingly important Chinese market in the global automotive sector. After all, no one wants to be the next "eulogize" in China's new energy luxury car battlefield in the future.

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