A few days ago, some media reported that they learned from Acura's dealers that the Acura brand will withdraw from the Chinese market, and they are currently waiting for the manufacturer's final notice.
According to online sources, the only 4S store in Beijing, "GAC Acura Beijing Jingang Store", has officially stopped selling and will become McLaren's 4S store in the future.
It is understood that Acura since 2021, began to stop the import of car business in the Chinese market, some dealers said that Acura models in the country has been discontinued, the current 4S store sales is the last year's production of inventory cars, exit from the Chinese market is only waiting for the manufacturer's final notice. The subsequent repair and maintenance of Acura vehicles will be docked by the Guangqi Honda 4S store.
In this regard, Caijing Auto contacted the relevant person in charge of Guangqi Honda, who said: "At present, there is no such statement that Acura has withdrawn from the Chinese market. ”
Brand marketing is weak
According to public information, the Acura brand was founded in the United States in 1986 and is Honda Motor's high-end car brand and the first Japanese luxury brand. However, in terms of brand recognition, domestic consumers have a shallow understanding of the Acura brand, which is mainly due to its low presence in the domestic luxury brand camp.
In 2006, Acura was introduced into China in the form of imported cars, and at that time, the Acura brand in the domestic market competed with Brands such as Lexus and Infiniti, unfortunately, the market recognition was far less than the market recognition of BBA luxury brands, and the final sales were not optimistic. Today, Acura Beijing also has 4 dealer showrooms, all set up in the GUANGQI Honda 4S store.
In addition, from the perspective of brand recognition, in the domestic luxury car brand camp, Acura's brand market recognition is far less than the audience recognition of other second-tier luxury brands, and Infiniti and Lexus, which are also Japanese luxury brands, are far more recognizable than Acura, and the brand performance of other second-tier brands such as Lincoln and Cadillac has now undergone new changes, and Japanese luxury brands Acura are gradually being marginalized.
From the perspective of market communication performance, most of the content of GAC Acura's official public account content push is a conventional model product map, and brand activities have rarely become an influencing factor affecting consumer cognition.
The Acura brand has also reported that dealers are under great pressure to operate and are gradually reducing operating costs. Nowadays, the News that acura brands are about to withdraw from the Chinese market again, which may affect the market sales performance of Acura brands in China in the future, and the situation of GAC Acura's dealers will become more and more difficult.
Sales declined significantly
Acura brand and sales decline, not short-term factors affected, although it is a second-tier luxury brand, but Acura has also had a good market sales performance, in 2014 for the Chinese market launched the "2020 plan", in 2020 the market sales reached 100,000 vehicles, but ultimately failed to achieve, in 2015, Acura brand sales in China is also nearly 5,000 vehicles, in 2016 Acura brand in order to further expand market competition began to introduce ILX, TLX, RLX three sedans and RDX, MDX and ZDX three SUV models, and opened a localization product strategy with GAC Group, the launch of the first domestic model CDX won market growth for it, sales data show that in 2016 Acura in China market sales reached 9062 units, an increase of 120% year-on-year.
According to Honda China's sales data released by Acura, the market sales of Acura in China reached 16,300 vehicles in 2017, a significant year-on-year growth rate, and since 2018, the sales volume of the Acura brand in the Chinese market has declined, only 9424 vehicles, and in 2019, Acura's sales in the Chinese market have reached 14786 vehicles again.
In 2020, GAC Acura sold 11,193 vehicles, down 31.73% year-on-year. Entering 2021, the sales volume of the Acura brand in China continues to decline. According to the latest sales data, the cumulative sales volume of the GAC Acura brand in 2021 was only 6,554 units, down 45.05% year-on-year, of which the main sales model CDX was 3,264 units, and the other RDX sold 3,290 units.
Different from the domestic market, Acura brand's new car sales data in the United States in 2021 shows that its total sales reached 15,7408 units, an increase of 14.9% year-on-year, ranking in the top 5 in the US luxury car market, and the sales volume difference between the domestic market and the overseas market is obvious, mainly because Acura's marketing strategy is different.
Acura in the domestic market sales downturn, and overseas market performance is considerable, automotive industry analyst Zhang Xiang said, because Acura's main market is still for the North American market, the Japanese market, the performance in the Chinese market is sluggish, is due to product design and Chinese consumers' demand for cars is not in line with the chinese consumers' demand for cars, in addition, Acura in the Chinese market publicity investment is not enough, consumers only know that it is a luxury brand of Honda, but what are the characteristics of the product, Chinese consumers do not understand. For example, like the BBA brand, everyone knows that it is a German car, and the quality is better, cadillac is an American car, as the president of the car brand is relatively strong, but Acura does not have these brand aura, the popularity is not high, Chinese consumers do not understand much, with the entry of Chinese new forces car companies into the domestic market, but also intensified Acura's withdrawal from the domestic market.
Or will withdraw from the domestic market
The factors affecting the sluggish sales volume in the Chinese market, Acura also manifested in product and marketing mistakes, and did not make factual changes to the Chinese market. Today, Acura imported models MDX and NSX have long been discontinued in China, and GAC Acura TLX-L also announced the suspension of production in 2019. Today, Acura only has two domestic models, CDX and RDX, on sale in China.
To this end, Caijing Auto also contacted the relevant person in charge of Guangqi Honda, who said: "The official side has not issued any statement, but there is currently some information that can be revealed, combined with the development trend of the Chinese market and the changing trend of consumer demand, Guangqi Honda is exploring the integration of brand resources." In terms of after-sales service, GUANGQI Honda will continue to provide after-sales service for existing users. Under the premise of good cooperation, GUANGQI Honda will communicate with the special stores, suppliers and other related parties one by one, properly handle relevant matters, and protect the interests of the special stores and suppliers. ”
On whether the Acura brand can eventually withdraw from the Chinese market, automotive industry analyst Zhang Xiang said that the current Chinese market has become the world's largest automobile market, in the fierce market competition, the market competition in the field of luxury cars is more intense, all the world's major luxury car brands have entered the Chinese market, so in the process of market competition, there will certainly be some brands to win, some brands to withdraw from the market, with the intensification of market competition, some brands in the Chinese market is inevitable to be eliminated.
A person close to guangqi Honda dealer revealed to the media that in the future, the dealer authorization of Honda's new pure electric brand e:N will give priority to the original Acura dealer, and Acura users can choose the Acura dealer store where they bought the car before, and can also go to the GAC Honda dealer store for after-sales.
In the face of the sales situation of Acura Automobile, Caijing Network Automobile contacted acura official customer service, the other party said that we are currently Acura brand 4S stores are in normal operation, the customer service center has not received the relevant information of the manufacturer, the relevant vehicles of our brand are normal sales, the customer's orders can also be satisfied normally, you can buy with confidence, and the manufacturer will do a good job in the customer's related after-sales work. For after-sales maintenance services, manufacturers will provide protection. For the abnormal situation of acura dealerships in the Beijing area, customer service said that it will further feedback to the manufacturer and verify.
Subsequently, Acura related 4S dealerships gave feedback on the financial network car, but it was not the feedback obtained by GAC Acura Beijing Jingang store, but the other party said that "at present, the Acura brand is still in normal operation, and the news circulating on the Internet at present, our dealerships are now selling cars normally, normal sales, orders can basically be satisfied, do not worry about new cars and follow-up after-sales service problems." For whether it will withdraw from the domestic market, the sales staff said that "after all, these are news from the Internet, not the official response, at present, Honda and Acura are normal sales, car booking and maintenance." ”
According to the integration of brand resources described by Honda officials, the feedback given by the dealership is that "Acura and Honda have also implemented this strategic adjustment measure of the same store, that is, Acura and Honda will sell in the same store in the future."
To this end, the financial network car also contacted the GAC Acura Beijing Jingang offline dealership, the new car sales situation to understand, the other party said that "the current Jingang store is a normal state of business, about the GAC Acura Jingang store out of the news is some false information, the new car booking is about 20 days can arrive, if you buy a car will not delay the follow-up car and maintenance." ”
For Honda, Acura's market performance is facing a situation of dissatisfaction, automotive industry analyst Zhang Xiang said: For Honda, Acura mainstream product pricing range of 300,000 to 500,000 yuan, in this range of new forces brand Ideal Car, Xiaopeng Automobile and Tesla, etc., are all carrying out product layout, including BYD is also in the market of about 300,000 yuan, the entry of these new power brands, not only squeezed the BBA market space, but also squeezed the living space of Acura, in the Chinese market can not be profitable, If it continues to operate, the loss will become more and more serious, so Acura withdrew from the Chinese market.
Acura brand is facing dissatisfaction, but also manifested in Honda's layout transformation in the field of new energy vehicles is not ideal, Honda is still taking the hybrid technology route, itself is not willing to invest in the new energy field, and many luxury brands such as BMW, Audi, Porsche, Cadillac, etc. are actively laying out the new energy field, creating a new energy product platform, and Infiniti, Acura, etc. have not yet made new progress, which will also lead to the withdrawal of the brand from the domestic market in the long run.
In the face of the upward movement of independent brands and the rise of new brand car companies, the market competitiveness of joint venture brands has gradually weakened. Nowadays, China's auto market products are becoming more and more diversified, luxury car market competition is also more intense, especially the second-tier luxury brand car market, Cadillac, Infiniti, Lincoln, Volvo and other car brands are now adjusting their market strategies in China, Acura brand will presumably also make adjustments. In the face of the development of China's new energy vehicle market, how the Acura brand will face uncertain market challenges, leaving it less and less room for thinking.