Luxury brands are not as well known and well-known as their own ordinary brands? Meeting this condition, the first things that come to my mind are DS and Acura. However, if you bring in the contrast between Honda and Acura in the market, you will feel that Acura's situation in China is more "embarrassing". And this embarrassment may be the end of time. Of course, it is not that Acura can turn over, but it has been exposed to the news that it will withdraw from the Chinese market. Officially entered China for 16 years, domestic production for 6 years, once "2020 market sales of 100,000 vehicles" rhetoric has long been forgotten, leaving the best results have not touched the 20,000 vehicles / year of Waterloo. And will this regret be buried forever?
quit? The news was not determined, the price was not loosened, and the sales were not shy
Acura's exit from the Chinese market is not an official statement. However, the reports of many media are not empty, and the situation of Acura's domestic dealers may already explain many problems. It is reported that Acura's only independent 4S store in Beijing, GAC Acura Beijing Jingang Store, is currently clearing inventory. The new storefront, which is being renovated, will be replaced by Honda's new all-electric brand.
According to my field survey of a local Acura dealer, although there is only one group of customers (weekdays) in the exhibition hall, the operation of the store is still orderly. The store has been operating the Acura brand for decades and is one of the earliest acura dealers in China. For the in-store hot Acura CDX model, we have learned that the current cash discount of the 1.5T version of the model is about 40,000 yuan, which is not much different from the previous one. In addition, sales are also recommended to buy the test drive type in the store, as the top of the 1.5T, the mileage is less than 10,000 kilometers, and the price can be about 190,000 yuan.
As for the rumors about the launch of Acura in the Chinese market on the Internet, the staff of the store said that it was only media news and the withdrawal behavior of some channel dealers. At present, according to what they know, Acura has not clearly launched the news of the Chinese market. However, in terms of after-sales maintenance, in view of the fact that Acura channel outlets are too few, GAC Acura is expected to announce that Acura models can be maintained after-sales at the GAC Honda 4S store within the year.
Although borrowing official information to "prevaricate" the news about Acura's launch in China, the store staff still quoted the story of Renault's "withdrawal" when introducing the price of the vehicle. The main message is that even if the brand withdraws (or part of the business withdraws), the price of terminal clearance will not be exaggerated. In short, the official has not withdrawn from the news, at present there is only channel behavior, but the terminal does not exclude talking about related topics.
The current situation of GAC Acura was actually first seen last year. In 2021, in the case of the overall rise of the domestic luxury car market, GAC Acura's annual sales are only about 6500 vehicles. Even compared with yourself, the year-on-year decline is more than 45%, almost waist cut. Whether it is the annual sales of thousands of vehicles, or the best result of 16,300 vehicles after domestic production in 2017, it is even inferior to the monthly sales of some hot items of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.
Honda uses the rest of the technology, Acura is still used in China?
There are many reasons why Acura eventually declines in China, but the first thing to explain is that it has no decisive relationship with the product force itself. This can be seen from the development of Honda in China in the same period. In China, with Guangqi Honda as a reference, from the perspective of acura domestic timeline, Guangben has been in a state of ultra-high-speed growth, with a year-on-year increase of nearly 10% in 2016 and 2017, and then the slowdown is also affected by the domestic auto market environment in 2018. From the perspective of specific technology, the 2.0T+10AT power system that is coveted by domestic Honda fans is only exclusive to Acura in China. Not to mention the SH-AWD super four-wheel drive system that was starved of water.
If the domestic Acura and Honda technologies are not completely consistent, then we can also look at the performance of overseas markets. In the U.S. market, Acura will sell about 157,000 units in 2021, which is a fraction of what it sold last year in the domestic market. This leads to the first reason for Acura's performance in China - origin. Like the other two Japanese luxury brands, Acura was born to conquer the North American market. Even its creation was in the United States, its name is derived from the Latin "precise" root, and the logo image shaped by caliper shapes is the result of in-depth research on American consumers at that time.
However, the success of the US market also makes Acura's product characteristics infinitely close to the aesthetics of American consumers, so that the logo is replaced and Acura is regarded as the work of the American brand, without any sense of violation. Although it has been domestically produced, in addition to acura TLX-L's "rough" pandering, the gap between acura's products and the aesthetic needs of domestic consumers has always existed. Looking at the first-line luxury BBA, it can be described as full of talent in the scale and depth of "localization". This may also be the reason why the Acura brand entered China late, and after the hasty domestic production, it did not bring much perception of the needs of local consumers.
If there are still objective factors to follow, then subjectively, the domestic acura also has unsatisfactory places, that is, the product update iteration speed is too slow. After the domestic acura, it has only launched 3 products from beginning to end, of which the only car TLX-L announced its discontinuation in 2019. Compared with Infiniti, which was "demoted" next door, and also launched a new product QX60 in China, Acura with an "ambiguous" attitude chose to lie flat early.
For example, let's take a look at acura's TWO SUVs, CDX and RDX, which are still on sale, of which cdX is suspended after the torque beam is only the reason for the "water and soil dissatisfaction" mentioned earlier. Then the 8-speed parallel-shaft wet dual-clutch transmission used in its low-threshold turbocharged model is already the technology of the previous generation of Honda Spirent, which has long been the old yellow calendar. If in the dry dual-clutch "thunderstorm" period, this gearbox can also play a technical edge ball. So in today's increasingly stable dual-clutch technology, the strange setting with a torque converter will only make more and more people feel that its technology tree is wrong. What's more, the gearbox's occupation of space has stepped on another sensitive nerve of domestic consumers.
The other RDX may be One of the few "full blood" models in China, but in addition to 2.0T+10AT, the model equipped with Acura's proud SH-AWD super four-wheel drive system has a guiding price of more than 380,000 yuan. And this medium-sized SUV with a wheelbase of only 2750mm has a terrifying fuel consumption of up to 9L/100km even under the NEDC standard. It seems that the model and technology iteration are slow, and the two points of product force are that you have me and vicious circles.
Written in the end: All along, we have always classified the Acura brand as a domestic second-tier luxury brand in the sequence. If before acura domestic production, such a division can be counted as a spur. After acura is domestic, this can only be said to be a kind of face praise. Look at Cadillac and Volvo, and you know that Acura has never really entered the field of second-tier luxury. Even if you look at Lincoln, who entered the palace of the second place, only last year, the sales volume has exceeded 90,000, and its reaction speed, flexibility, and localization are worth learning from. No, it can only be said now, it is worth celebrating and reflecting.