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A few days ago, Lexus officially announced global sales. According to the data, Lexus sold 824258 vehicles worldwide in 2023, up 32% from the same period last year, setting a record high for brand sales, including 94647 in Japan and 729611 in overseas markets.

From a specific market point of view, the major global markets of Lexus have achieved large-scale growth. Of these, Lexus sold 355606 vehicles in North America, up 124% from the same period last year; 69202 vehicles were sold in the European market, up 46% from the same period last year; in the Japanese domestic market, Lexus sold 94647 vehicles, up 229% from the same period last year; in addition, Lexus sold 46472 vehicles in the Middle East, up 60% from the same period last year, making it the fastest growing market in the world.

In the Asian market, Lexus sold 236587 vehicles for the year, up 13 per cent from a year earlier, of which 181411 were sold in China, up 3 per cent from 176071 in the same period in 2022.

Since entering China in 1995, Lexus has been sold in the form of imports and has never been domestically produced. Over the past many years, as a second-tier luxury brand, Lexus has always been at the forefront in terms of brand awareness and praise. There has been a price increase for products sold in the Chinese market, but its sales have grown steadily. And hit an all-time high 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, sales of Lexus in China declined in 2022, with sales of 176000 vehicles for the whole year, down 22.5% from a year earlier, the first decline since the brand entered the Chinese market.

Lexus is no longer as popular in the Chinese market as it used to be. on the one hand, with the change of car purchase preference in the domestic market, new energy vehicle brands represented by independent brands and new forces are growing rapidly. to a certain extent, it squeezes the market share of some luxury brands and imported cars, on the other hand, with the improvement of consumers' awareness of brand image, the high-end image of imported brands begins to weaken.

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. Earlier, Lexus launched the Lexus RZ, the first pure electric vehicle based on an all-electric architecture, but in the "intelligent second half" competition, the Lexus RZ still gave priority to comfort and driving experience, lacked intelligence and technology in its design, and ultimately failed to bring significant market growth, with monthly sales in the single digits.

In fact, the decline in Lexus sales is also a microcosm of the current Japanese brands in the Chinese market. Japanese brands have a 14.4% market share in China in 2023, compared with 19.9% in 2022 and 22.6% in 2021, according to the Federation. According to the data, sales of Japanese car companies (Toyota, Honda and Nissan) in China collectively declined in 2023, with Nissan China down 24% and Honda China down 10%, while Toyota China fell 2% year on year for the second year in a row.

The reason why traditional luxury brands are not as popular as in the past, on the one hand, is that electric cars are updated too quickly, and the rhythm of three-year and six-year replacement has been directly broken, coupled with the extreme inward volume of the new energy vehicle market, which continues to affect the status of luxury brands in the domestic market. On the other hand, the premium of second-tier luxury brands is not as good as before, even if the mechanical quality of the products is still worth affirming, but in the context of the rapid development of electric vehicles, consumers are more willing to buy electric cars to experience freshness. In fact, with the rapid development of new energy vehicles, not only the first-line luxury BBA, the second-line luxury market share will also be encroached on. Of course, there is still a long way to go for new energy car brands to replace traditional luxury brands.

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