Lexus, the once-booming luxury brand, suffered a huge sales hit in 2022, however, recent sales figures have brought a hint of improvement. From stagnation to contrarian rise, how exactly did Lexus achieve this counterattack?
In 2022, Lexus sales fell to 1840,000 units, ending years of growth. In the first half of 2023, its domestic sales fell by 18 year-on-year7%, which is a sigh of relief. Surprisingly, however, recent sales figures show a positive trend.
According to the latest luxury brand sales list in the Chinese market (December 1-December 17) released by Ideal, Lexus sold 10,000 units in just over ten days, surpassing Cadillac by 1,800 units, ranking first among traditional second-tier luxury brands. This performance is surprising, and if this trend continues, sales in December are expected to reach nearly 20,000 units.
What is the reason for the rise of the once controversial Lexus?In this regard, a key word has surfaced: price reduction.
In the past few years, Lexus has been showing its import status, with superior product quality and high value retention rate, which has attracted the favor of many consumers. However, what followed was that Lexus gradually became arrogant, and the vehicle even needed to be purchased at a higher price, which caused dissatisfaction among many consumers.
However, in 2022, Lexus took a serious hit. With the rise of new energy vehicles, especially the rapid development of some new power brands, Lexus has gradually lost its advantages in power performance, intelligent configuration, fuel economy and other aspects. This has also led to challenges to Lexus in terms of market share.
In order to reverse this situation, Lexus has adopted a price reduction strategy. It is reported that its main sales model, Lexus ES, enjoys a discount of 5-70,000 yuan in the terminal market, and the minimum naked car ** has dropped to 24690,000 yuan. In some areas, consumers can even get more discounts through negotiations, and control the price of the car at about 250,000 yuan.
This is a staggering price reduction. Just a few years ago, the starting price of the Lexus ES was around 290,000 yuan, and an additional 2-30,000 yuan was needed in the process of buying a car. Coupled with various expenses, the total amount easily exceeded 10,000 yuan. And now, the Lexus ES, which has a price cut of nearly 100,000 yuan, is obviously more cost-effective.
However, such price reductions also raise a series of questions. Old car owners may feel that it is not worth it, and a significant price reduction will inevitably affect the value retention rate of the vehicle. This also makes Lexus need to seriously think about how to balance ** and brand value in the future.
On the whole, the involution of the current automobile market is shocking, and the rise of new energy vehicles has forced traditional luxury brands to put down their bodies. In this new energy era, Tesla, BYD and other car companies have emerged, and whether Lexus, as a traditional brand, can re-emerge in this field remains to be tested by time.