How bad can the situation be for Lexus, which has been "sung down"?

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2024-05-01 16:18Posted in Hebei Automobile Creator

In 2022, Lexus ended hastily with cumulative sales of 176,000 units, a year-on-year decline of 22.4%, ending the "myth" of continuous sales growth since its entry into China for more than ten years. Since then, the Lexus brand has begun to be questioned by everyone, and the "singing and declining" on the Internet has been continuous.

How bad can the situation be for Lexus, which has been "sung down"?

Although Lexus sales will increase by 3% year-on-year in 2023, it is still interpreted by everyone as building on a low base in the previous year. Confidence in the luxury brand of Lexus is declining. Compared with the new car-making forces such as Weilai and Ideal, which seem to have endless traffic, and a topic seems to be able to rush to the "hot search", Lexus seems to be indifferent and calm and even a little "cold". In such a situation, "Lexus may no longer be able to survive in the Chinese market", this statement can also be agreed by many people.

However, the reality has given this part of the singers a resounding "slap in the face", in fact, the current situation of Lexus is not as bad as imagined. According to the deputy general manager of Lexus China, Lexus's total sales in the Chinese market in the first quarter of this year were close to 40,000 units, an increase of 44.2% over the same period last year, of which the sales pillar Lexus ES sold 25,000 new cars, a year-on-year increase of 73%.

Although Lexus's sales lag much behind Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi's first-tier luxury sales, Lexus' sales are still in the forefront of the second-tier luxury brand camp. Therefore, Lexus, which is "no" in the mouth of netizens, can still make a lot of money in the Chinese market.

In addition, as early as the end of 2022, the independent high-end brand NIO announced that it would benchmark its sales in 2023 with Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi, surpassing Lexus. However, in 2023, NIO's sales not only failed to surpass Lexus, but also lagged behind it by a large margin. Although NIO seems to have an advantage over Lexus in terms of traffic and popularity, it has never surpassed the "silent" Lexus in terms of final sales figures. You must know that in the first quarter of this year, NIO sold only more than 30,000 vehicles, and it still failed to catch up with Lexus. Therefore, from this point of view, although the momentum can gain high traffic, it does not necessarily translate into the final sales.

The biggest reason why Lexus has been able to achieve a steady increase in sales without competing for traffic is also the brand value it has formed over the years and the "craftsman" spirit behind it. In Lexus's view, the most basic mechanical quality is the most basic and important point of this car. As a high-end brand under Toyota, Lexus has decades of technical precipitation and is still very good in terms of mechanical quality.

However, at present, many young people often go to the dazzling high-tech, refrigerators, color TVs, large sofas and other things when choosing a car, which seems to be a bit evasive. After all, cars are not fast-moving consumer goods, but durable automotive consumer goods that are convenient for people to travel, ensure people's safety, and at the same time have comfort.

It is undeniable that Lexus still has room for improvement in terms of intelligence, and with the upgrading of products, high-tech and intelligent configurations will also be popularized in Lexus products. Although electric vehicles have become a "trend" in the auto market, the fuel vehicle market will not disappear. In this case, if the intelligent things that electric vehicles have can appear on Lexus products, perhaps Lexus will be more loved by consumers.

Write at the end

In terms of vehicle quality, Lexus is indeed excellent, but in terms of intelligence, Lexus needs to be further improved. Although the current situation of Lexus is not as bad as people think, it should always be a sense of crisis for Lexus itself. In the current environment of the auto market, which is quite involuted, how can Lexus compete with traffic brands for consumers' minds, and how can it retain its tradition? This is a major problem to test.

(This article is originally produced by Wenwu Lane New Media Studio, please indicate the source: Wenwu Lane, the author of this article: Hefeng, personal opinion, for reference only)

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