Recently, the Internet began to circulate the news that the Acura brand is about to withdraw from the Chinese market, although it has not yet waited for the official announcement, but some authorized dealer stores have begun to prepare, and some models have begun to reduce the price of sales. Today AM car mirror to take you to analyze, what kind of brand is Acura? Why exit the Chinese market? What other brands will also suffer this fate?
Acura and China
In 1986, the Acura brand was established in the United States, and the background of its establishment was that Americans began to prefer European luxury performance cars, and Honda, which wanted to expand the US market, established Acura, a luxury brand, specifically for the North American market. In 1991, Acura entered the Hong Kong market, with strong performance and luxurious configuration, in Hong Kong, such a place full of Japanese brands, mixed with fish.
Soon, the story of Acura spread to Guangdong, and gradually spread to the north and south of the motherland, which is why Cantonese people love Honda and love Acura. After there is demand, some people will find ways to import Acura to China, especially some Guangdong people who do business, because China and the United States are the same road regulations for left-hand drive models, so it is not difficult to import Acura to China.
In 2006, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the birth of the Acura brand, Acura officially landed in the Chinese market and released its RL and TL models in Shenzhen on September 27, and in 2007, acura MDX was also sold in China. Before 2016, Acura has been selling in China through official import channels, including RL, TL, ILX, TLX, RLX, RDX, MDX, ZDX and other models. In 2016, Acura began joint venture production with GAC, the first model was GAC Acura CDX, followed by RDX and TLX-L, and found the famous actor Jiang Wen as the brand spokesperson.
What the hell is the acura about
Since it is said that Acura has withdrawn from the Chinese market, then there must be a problem somewhere, is it that Acura itself is not good? In fact, AM car mirror has had many acura test drive experience, frankly acura is a good car! Take acura RDX, for example, excellent handling, solid chassis and Japanese system is completely different. The 2.0T engine matches the 10-speed manual transmission, and the power performance is more like the American system, and the wide space and brown interior make people feel more like an American luxury car. The design movement, configuration and design are biased towards the Japanese refinement. The excellent all-wheel drive system allows people to enjoy the handy handling pleasure of bending against the throttle, and the ELS Studio speaker, it is not an exaggeration to say that the tuning has surpassed some German luxury brands. If you do a little bit of research on the car, you can understand the feeling when you drive it.
The main reason why Acura eventually delisted
What about the reasons for the delisting? First of all, the shining point of the product itself is the excellent chassis performance, four-wheel drive system and power performance. But unfortunately, these flashpoints and the focus of Chinese auto consumer groups are not on the same channel at all, and the car machine system, intelligent configuration, fuel economy, wheelbase, cost performance, etc. that Chinese auto consumers pay attention to are not Acura's strengths at all. Coupled with fatal problems such as poor brand publicity, low brand awareness, low cost performance, and slow product replacement, Acura's journey to China can only end after 16 years. Can you imagine that the first joint venture Acura CDX of 2016 is not much different from the Acura CDX you bought today? In 6 years, the publicity has not kept up, the model changes are not large, the disconnected car machine system makes the practicality greatly reduced, and the same price consumers have a large number of excellent models to choose from.
Which joint venture brands are delisted in China
To say that the Chinese market, there are still many particularities, people for a certain field of professional models do not accept, more is to buy an "all-round car". Because at present, the Chinese people can not do a car, basically a car can be driven by a family, the space is powerful self-driving, and the configuration is convenient for high use, which is also the reason why SUVs are more popular in China.
In the early years, Suzuki sold well in China, just in time to catch up with the wave of low-cost small cars, and then the Suzuki models gradually decreased, and the space was too small. The last model, Vitra off-road, performed well, but the small space and high price did not make Suzuki turn over.
Fiat's previous joint venture models in China were produced by Nanjing Fiat, Palio, Sienna, and Weekend Wind, and household names were also good. However, Fiat did not keep up with the pace, and instead entered the Chinese market again to cooperate with GAC, producing two models of Feixiang and Zhiyue, which originally had certain product advantages, but the publicity was not in place and the sales were not good, and finally until the suspension of production, there were many people who had not heard of these two cars.
There is also the French Renault, only entered the market in 2015, in the domestic brand awareness is low, product competitiveness is insufficient, the same level of model sales in the same period, Renault's publicity did not keep up, just 5 years quietly left China.
Obviously, a commonality between these brands withdrawing from the Chinese market comes from insufficient marketing, especially brands like Fiat and Suzuki, which have a certain degree of popularity in China, are still insufficiently publicized after getting on new cars. Coupled with the fact that the product does not have too prominent advantages, the selling point does not match the consumer demand at that time, and the superposition will lead to withdrawal from China.
Which brands will also be on the brink of danger
Now that we have learned from the past, which brands are on the verge of withdrawing from China? Mazda is one of them, FAW Mazda and Changan Mazda have been reorganized, and this is a signal. In recent years, Mazda's advertising has become less and less, the competitive advantage of its models has been insufficient, the car engine system and intelligent technology configuration can not keep up with the times, and the market state of Suzuki is somewhat similar. But fortunately, Mazda's product line covers a wide range, and there are still 7 models on sale, and it still has certain product advantages in appearance and power.
Another brand is Infiniti, which is also a Japanese high-end brand, which entered the Chinese market in 2007, about the same time as Acura. It is also a high-end brand originally established for the North American market. Similarly, at present, there are problems such as low publicity in China, low brand awareness, and inconspicuous product advantages that do not meet the needs of Chinese people. But fortunately, Infiniti is still launching new models, and the models are still changing. However, I am afraid that the domestic Infiniti QX60 will become a masterpiece, because the launch of a medium-sized SUV with a starting price of 399,800 yuan is obviously against the Chinese auto market under the condition of low brand awareness.
In addition, Subaru, horizontally opposed to full-time four-wheel drive, this is Subaru's mastery skill, but the fault is that the selling point and the needs of Chinese consumers do not match. Of course, the advantage lies in the high cost performance, and imported cars like subaru XV with a starting price of less than 200,000 are rare. However, in the future, the new energy vehicles jointly developed by Subaru and Toyota will enter the Chinese market, and it is also considered to conform to the times without disconnection, depending on the future performance.
Finally, let's talk about Mitsubishi, in the domestic Mitsubishi brand awareness is not low, but Mitsubishi is really making people love and hate, EVOLUTION is gone, Pajero is gone, before the joint venture with many Chinese companies, and finally can't get it, Southeast Mitsubishi also said goodbye to everyone. Only GAC Mitsubishi is still stable, and stable to the point that a car like Outlander has been in place since 2016 until today, and has not been replaced for 6 years but has continued to make small changes. After the replacement of Jinxuan and Yige's publicity did not keep up, resulting in mitsubishi's three cars now being shelved. Now mitsubishi's only valuable piece of logo in the Chinese market is left, depending on whether the new Outlander publicity that will be listed this year is in place. As for the Artuco that GAC and Mitsubishi cooperated to produce, AM Car Mirror believes that not to vigorously publicize it is a protection for the new Orlander in the future.
Chedegang Summary:
China's auto market is changing rapidly, can not keep up with the pace will be eliminated, those withdrawn from the Chinese market and on the verge of danger of the brand, more or less have the problem of product performance does not meet the needs of consumers. This point Ford is a clear case, again and again on the edge of the danger of crazy temptation, fortunately from last year's EVOS began Ford is a makeover, coupled with the cooperation with Jiangling Ford, the launch of the SUV also has a certain competitive advantage.
Luxury brands such as Cadillac, GM has given a reasonable price, so that its cost-effective advantage is obvious. Lincoln also began to tilt toward the Chinese market, introducing products that meet the needs of Chinese consumers. Volvo also has a high brand awareness, while the terminal offer is obvious, the cost performance is outstanding. As for Lexus, that LOGO is enough!