Recently, Lexus announced the global sales in 2021, under the lexus statistical method, Lexus sales in China in 2021 is 227,000 vehicles, an increase of 1% year-on-year, but if calculated according to the amount of insurance, Lexus sales will decline by 6.8% year-on-year, only 219,000 vehicles. Other luxury brands almost all calculate sales according to the amount of insurance, which shows that Lexus sales have indeed declined.
And this is the first time in the past five years, Lexus sales in China declined, to know that in the past few years, Lexus can maintain a growth rate of more than 20% per year, and, before in terms of sales after the BBA and Cadillac's Lexus, this year's sales in China have been surpassed by Tesla, Hongqi and Cadillac this year, ranking only 7th among luxury brands.
Specifically, the three best-selling models of Lexus are ES, RX, and NX. Sales were 105836 units, 48,624 units, and 36,461 units, down 7.7%, 1.3%, and 9.2% year-on-year, respectively.
Lexus for a long time, are the more special existence of luxury brands, adhere to the way of full import sales in China, known for excellent quality and reliability, some of the hot models need to increase the price, ES price increase of more than 20,000, LM models are often to increase the price of more than one million, if you ask 4S shop, the price increase of 500,000 can be mentioned Lexus LM? Sales may tell you, sorry sir, there is no such a big deal.
In the past few years, the development in China has been smooth, and Lexus, which is regarded as a sacred car by the Chinese people, why did it not work last year?
Impact of chip shortages
It is undeniable that the chip shortage must have a certain impact on Lexus's sales, affected by the chip shortage, Lexus's factory has stopped production many times, but the problem is that toyota brand domestic sales in 2021 are 1.944 million vehicles, an increase of 8.2% year-on-year, while Lexus's hybrid models in the United States in 2021 Total delivery of 55,374 units, an increase of 24.6% year-on-year, it can be seen that although the chip shortage has an impact on Lexus sales, it should not be attributed to chips.
The markup can't be moved?
Buying a popular model of Lexus requires a price increase, which has become an unspoken rule. Take the hot-selling model Lexus ES as an example, the price increase of 20,000 is already a "preferential price", if you want to buy this car, you must increase the price to buy decoration, and the price of these decorations is often inflated, 4S shops seek huge profits from it, and if you do not increase the price, you can only slowly queue up, three months or even half a year may not be able to mention the car.
In the past few years, the strength of independent brand products is weak, the competition of joint venture brands has not been so fierce, Lexus's price increase strategy can indeed work, but now, consumers can choose more and more models, first-line luxury brand BBA are in a large terminal discount, in such a situation, many consumers are no longer willing to pay for the "mark-up car".
Electrification transition is slow
In the era of fuel vehicles, Lexus relies on self-priming engines, with CVT/AT transmissions, coupled with excellent quality control, it is indeed able to achieve extremely low quality stability, but with the arrival of the electrification wave, the gears replace the gearbox, the motor replaces the internal combustion engine, the reliability of the electrified powertrain is significantly stronger, the quality on which Lexus depends is no longer outstanding, and Lexus itself is slow in the electrification transformation, and there is no pure electric platform so far.
Quality issues exploded
In the various quality ranking lists at home and abroad, Lexus ranks among the best, almost defaulting to the most stable quality car brand, but in recent years, Lexus's quality reputation has begun to waver.
In 2021, Lexus recalled as many as 140,000 defective vehicles, accounting for about half of global sales in 2021. In the past three years, Lexus has recalled nearly 400,000 defective vehicles, and the problems are mainly concentrated in the problems of low-pressure fuel pump impellers that may cause engines to stop during driving, as well as oil emulsification problems. Lexus uses "the pursuit of quality" as the slogan of its brand, but frequent recalls have caused many consumers to re-examine Lexus quality.
Lexus has always been known for its excellent reliability, in today's wave of electrification transformation, has reached the time to change, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac, Hongqi, have launched a number of pure electric products, and Lexus in the new energy pace is slow, wait until the new energy model really becomes the mainstream of the market, Lexus reliability advantages will no longer exist, at that time, the lexus crisis will really come.