For lexus, the wait to raise prices is a thing of the past. Now, many dealers have launched special offers, even involving the most popular ES, in order to clear inventory and withdraw funds.Despite the temporary suspension of production at Japanese plants, domestic lexus supplies will not be affected due to sharply reduced demand in Europe and the United States and customs clearance.

    Lexus, which has been selling well in China for a long time, benefits from being well versed in the psychology of consumer groups and fits its demand for cars.But recent signs suggest lexus's brand in China may struggle to retain its appeal.

Inventory cycle extension, terminal sales promotion

    "The ES 200 is available now, and the official price is 290,000 yuan. We have been promoting recently, so we can offer a discount on this basis. You can come to the store and talk with us about the specific price."Beijing guangtong lexus 4S shop a sales staff said to the car network.

    The salesman also revealed that, in addition to ES, lexus under the CT, NX and other models of the price are also preferential, the activity continues until the 28th of this month.In the past, the ES model often did not have an existing car, requiring advance booking and waiting for two or three months to pick up the car.Now launched preferential activities, because of the epidemic, the boss is in a hurry to withdraw funds.

    Finally, the salesman said: "when there is time, you can come to the store to see off," his tone is all with urgency.

    China car network telephone inquiries Beijing garden bridge lexus 4S shop, learned that the store NX, CT is also currently around 20,000 preferential prices, ES is not preferential, and the official recommended price is the same, a week or so can be picked up.

    Enter lexus on the web page, it shows "April 10 Beijing lexus special sale, lexus full discount", emphasizing "priority to pick up the car, buy expensive repair, the city's regular 4S shop cooperation.

    Sun muzi, founder of automotive consultancy talbointh, told China auto network: "it is normal for lexus to cut prices at its terminals recently. Dealers are expected to replenish their inventory around the Spring Festival and hope to get payment back from sales as soon as possible.The outbreak itself is an emergency. Toyota should arrange the shipment according to the situation before the outbreak, and it will take time to adjust the shipment quantity of dealers later. The terminal price reduction is a short-term phenomenon.

    A lexus insider responded to CNR about dealers' current inventory, which is low in the industry, with dealers typically holding only half a month's supply.But inventories are higher than usual, "but normal."

    Dealer inventories are rising at a time when lexus is suffering from a sales slump because of the outbreak.Lexus sold 5,660 vehicles in Asia in February and less than 4,000 in China, down more than 60% from a year earlier.Lexus did not respond to a request for comment on whether the February sales figures were true.Speaking of whether the terminal sales in March, the person replied that the statistics have been completed, but it is not convenient to announce.

    Lexus, the only luxury brand currently owned by Toyota, was first launched in North America in 1983 and was once named the lexus in China.The brand currently has production bases only in the us and Japan, and earlier this year it set up a production line at a Toyota plant in India.Because of the small number of factories in the world, lexus has limited production compared with its competitors.

    Luxury sense of the interior, maintenance rate is low, high maintenance rate, make lexus in North America.In recent years, lexus proposed, once the owner of the purchase, 10 years of free maintenance of 200,000 km, attracted by the low use cost, lexus in China is also developing smoothly.

    Lexus's sales in China bucked the trend before the outbreak, with 202,000 vehicles sold in the country for the whole of 2019, up 25 per cent from the previous year and accounting for 26.4 per cent of its global sales.

Market heat decline, production stop does not affect the car

    Mr. Sun said lexus has built a good reputation in China over the past decade for its outstanding performance in failure rate and durability.From the value of the value of the point of view, lexus insurance rate is the highest fuel car.In addition, the supply and demand management of its products is good, although the current NX, CT series of products relatively aging, but do not see the production and demand problems, after the management of production and order supply, the terminal does not need to through fierce bargaining, in order to sell the product.

    But compared with the days when you had to raise prices to pick up a car, the rex market seems to be losing some of its lustre.Lexus's most popular model, the ES, is reported to be out of dealers' hands by 2019, with buyers having to make an appointment in advance and needing a mark-up of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan to pick it up in one to three months.In late 2019, Toyota was fined 87 million yuan for alleged price-fixing.

    Although Cadillac and Volvo, both second-tier luxury brands like lexus, have seen their sales rise in China in 2019, they are gaining in the face of falling prices, and both brands have established production bases in China.Lexus, however, is not yet produced in China and is still a pure importer.

    The collapse in overseas demand has hurt lexus's output, but the shutdown of its local factories is not a concern.Recently, Toyota announced that from April 3, will suspend the production of Japan's kyushu miyata plant, including five factories, at the latest on the 15th of this month to restart the plant.

    It is reported that the kyushu miyata plant is responsible for the production of lexus CT, ES, NX, UX, RX and other models, the plant produces more than 90 percent of the lexus supply overseas market, the vast majority of exports to China.

    The lexus insider told cnr.cn that the suspension of production at the kyushu plant had little impact on the Chinese market and that the plant itself produced enough to supply the Chinese market.In addition, due to the severe epidemic situation in North America and Europe, the demand has dropped significantly, and now the logistics and transportation are not smooth, further affecting the local sales. 

    "As demand in the European and us markets decreases, some cars that were originally exported to the local market can be adjusted to supply the Chinese market.And the Japanese factory has not stopped production for a long time, less than half a month. We now have existing cars in the customs, and the customs is gradually going out, which will not affect the overall sales.""The person stressed.

    Cui dongshu, general secretary of the association, told CRRC: "lexus plants in Japan have stopped production because they don't have demand, not because they can't make cars now."Japan didn't shut down because of the epidemic in the early days, and the inventory is relatively rich. Now lexus can't sell even if the production line is not stopped, and the production has to be suspended because the sales can't keep up."

    Instead, rival Volvo is reportedly reverting to lexus's old practice of letting buyers accept mark-ups on terminal sales to pick up their cars.

Will the subsequent return of brand value if the beneficiary is well versed in the consumer group?

    Others in the industry believe that lexus sales decline in China, the end of the price cut is only the beginning, the subsequent return of its brand value.Auto analyst jia xinguang told China auto network that when lexus was first launched, it did not open the market in Japan and was among the luxury brands in China.

    Cui dongshu is more bluntly: "although lexus is still selling well in China, but compared with the lexus era has fallen into decline, the past lexus is the domestic smuggling car" key object ", in the domestic number one luxury brands.

    In the 1990s, "lexus" in the domestic hand price of nearly 700,000, but in the eyes of people comparable to Mercedes Benz, BMW, quite popular."Lexus" has also become a synonym for good cars, luxury cars.Because of its American origin, lexus became popular among Chinese in the United States and factory owners in fujian and guangdong provinces in the early days, which laid the foundation for lexus's brand in China.At that time, lexus's supply was more limited and there were fewer sources of information about cars, so demand was higher than it is today.

    In Europe, lexus's competitors are the magotan and passat, which are also relatively close to each other at around 200,000 yuan, auto analyst jianfei shi told China auto network.Around the world, lexus brand luxury attributes are relatively poor, recognition is not high.

    "The lexus ES shares a lot of modules with the camry, which in the eyes of the europeans is a high-end camry without a lot of technical content, which is well known in the industry.Luxury brands are generally prominent in engine technology, variable control technology, Internet function in a certain aspect, lexus is not a bright spot in these aspects."But lexus has one thing that luxury brands generally lack, which is reliability and durability, which makes lexus competitive," scissors said.

    Lexus, as an entry-level luxury car, has been selling well in China for a long time, thanks to the psychology of the consumer group.Newly affluent new customers, still in the early stages of their careers and new families, do not want to buy a large number of brand products when they buy a new car, but they cannot afford to pay for expensive luxury cars, hoping to buy a car that is easy to use, durable and low cost to use.

    According to jianfei, since the reform and opening up, China has been in the rising stage of new wealth. Most of these people accumulate wealth by their own labor remuneration, and they are not inclined to choose BMW, audi and other cars with higher maintenance costs. Lexus has a 10-year warranty of 200,000 kilometers, which has a strong appeal to these people.It can be said that lexus will correspond to the consumer group characteristics of the study is very clear and accurate.

    "Before audi and BMW entered China, lexus was one of our key smuggled cars. At that time, the supply was severely insufficient, so the premium was high.Now lexus's supply is up, the need to buy long ago no smuggling, price, less popular than before."In the future, when we have more information channels, the auto market is more open and the supply is more abundant, more brands, including lexus, will return to their rightful place in the international market in huadu.""Said shi jianfei.