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According to the insurance figures, Lexus terminal sales in 2022 were 183983, down 16.06% from the same period last year, of which 15339 were sold in December 2022, up 59.66% from the same period last year. It should be noted that the above figures are not official, but the insurance figures better reflect the sales of Lexus in the Chinese market than those officially released by Lexus.

In terms of specific models, the best performer is still the ES series, with cumulative sales falling 7.00% year-on-year to 98439 vehicles in 2022. This was followed by the RX series, where cumulative sales fell 8.35 per cent year-on-year to 44556 vehicles in 2022. The third is the NX series, where cumulative sales for the year fell 47.01% year-on-year to 19325 vehicles. In addition, Lexus UX, LS and LM sold 9695, 4494 and 3610 vehicles respectively, with a very low sense of presence in their respective market segments.

As we all know, Lexus is a luxury brand of Toyota Group, which was founded in 1983. In March 2005, the third generation of Lexus GS430 and GS300 cars were officially put on the market in China, which means that the Lexus brand has officially entered the market in China. Since entering the Chinese market, relying on the endorsement of luxury brands and the halo of imported brands, there has been a price increase in the products sold by Lexus in China, but its sales have grown steadily and reached an all-time peak in 2021. According to official Lexus data, Lexus sold a total of 227000 vehicles in China in 2021, up 1 per cent from a year earlier. However, after entering 2022, there is obvious pressure on Lexus in the Chinese market, and most of its models begin to offer significant promotions, but even so, it is still difficult to reverse the downward trend of Lexus in the Chinese market.

For the sharp decline in Lexus sales, the market generally attributed to two main reasons. Lexus is currently the only mainstream luxury car brand that has not been domestically produced, and there is also some delay in shipping under the epidemic. At the same time, the epidemic and chip shortage are problems faced by almost all car companies, and the production of Lexus is indeed threatened. Toyota repeatedly announced production cuts in some production lines in the first half of 2022, including Japanese factory lines that make a number of Lexus models, and the impact continues so far. Toyota's Taiyuan plant, which produces Lexus GX and Prado, will stop production in January, according to officials. On the whole, the impact of the epidemic and the shortage of parts on Lexus is huge.

In addition to objective factors, there are deeper reasons for the decline in Lexus sales. With the rise of domestic luxury brands and new car manufacturers, the advantage of Lexus has become less and less obvious, and its market share has been carved up. On the one hand, the rise of domestic luxury brands, such as Red Flag brand total sales of 285973 vehicles in 2022, an increase of 5.31% over the same period last year, the growth rate is higher than other second-tier luxury brands. On the other hand, with the rapid growth of the new energy market, Ulai and ideal also began to seize the market share that originally belonged to Lexus, whether in terms of product price range or brand service tonality. Ulai, ideal and other new car-building enterprises have strong competition with Lexus, both aim at markets of 30-400000 yuan or more, and are famous for their strong customer service ability. At the same time, more and more high-end new energy brands are introduced to the market, such as polar krypton, question, etc., which have a certain impact on Lexus.

In terms of product power, the competitiveness of Lexus fuel models has been obviously insufficient to compete head-on with the new brands, while in the field of electrification, the layout of Lexus is relatively slow. On April 20, 2022, the Lexus RZ made its debut. It is the first pure electric car built by Lexus under the e-TNGA architecture, positioning the medium-sized SUV. On January 10, 2023, Lexus RZ began pre-sale at a price of 37.5-465000 yuan.

In fact, the decline in Lexus sales is also a microcosm of the current Japanese brands in the Chinese market. Japanese brands have a market share of 19.9% in China in 2022, compared with 22.6% in 2021 and 24.1% in 2020, according to the Federation. Data show that sales of Japanese car companies (Toyota, Honda and Nissan) in China collectively declined in 2022, with Nissan China down 22.1% and Honda China down 12.1%, while Toyota China fell 0.2% year-on-year, falling for the first time in 10 years.

One of the important reasons why Japanese cars are so popular is that Japanese brands have the characteristics of stable tonality, ingenuity and high economy, which meet the consumer needs of the rising middle class in China. At the beginning of the epidemic in 2020, when the national disposable income decreased for a period of time, the market share of Japanese brands increased instead of falling, and it once became a staple in the automobile market, but this reverse trend growth suddenly extinguished this year.

Repeated outbreaks and an overall economic slowdown act as catalysts and are accelerating the transformation of the auto market. It is not only Japanese brands, in fact, the current mainstream traditional joint venture brands are gradually falling behind, and the German brands dominated by Volkswagen are not keeping up with the pace.

Li Bin, chairman of Xilai Automobile, said at a media conference on December 24, 2022, "next year, our annual sales will be far behind those of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi. But I am still very confident that next year's sales will surpass that of Lexus." Data show that a total of 122486 new cars were delivered in 2022, an increase of 34.0% over the same period last year.

As a new power brand, it may not be difficult for NIO to overtake Lexus in 2023, but the deeper meaning is that not only Lexus, but also luxury brands such as Volvo and Cadillac are likely to be overtaken. In other words, "new" luxury brands have begun to seize the market of "old" luxury brands, and there is not much time left for traditional luxury brands.

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