DETROIT – Japan formally entered the U.S. luxury-car market 30 years ago with Honda’s launch of the Acura brand. Three years later, Lexus and Infiniti, the luxury brands of Toyota and Nissan, respectively, arrived on the scene.
Depending on how one looks at it, two of the three brands still are works in progress, while all three remain strongly focused on the North American market.
“As far as Acura and Infiniti are concerned, they are really not visible brands anywhere but the U.S.,” says Tokyo analyst Koji Endo, managing director-Advanced Research Japan. “And even in the U.S., they are not among the top tier.”
Chris Richter, managing director-CLSA, adds: “The thing the Japanese brands have in common is that they are principally American brands. Even Lexus, the strongest of the three, is an American brand with a small presence in Europe and China. And Infiniti and Acura do not exist in the home markets of their parent companies.”
Lexus sales are relatively small in Japan, but so are BMW and Mercedes, respectively at 48,231, 46,229 and 65,162 units.
In 2015, Lexus reported global sales of 652,000 units, including 368,000 in North America, up 12% and 14%, respectively. Infiniti reported record global sales of 215,250 and Acura 205,600, (below the latter’s 2005 peak), while sales in the U.S. and Canada totaled 144,798 and 177,167 units, respectively.
Against this backdrop, global luxury brands sold a record 2.1 million cars, SUVs and CUVs in the U.S. last year, up 7.9% over prior-year, according to WardsAuto data. Ranking one, two and three, all less than 1.5 percentage points apart, were Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Lexus.
“No question about it, Lexus has been successful,” says Richter. “They’re competing head-to-head with the stars of the industry. On the other hand, this success hasn’t extended in the same way to other major markets.”
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In 2015, Lexus sold 88,000 units in China and 64,000 in Europe (mostly hybrids), not bad, but well below the combined North American total.
Meanwhile, Toyota opened a new $360 million line in October at its Georgetown, KY, plant to produce the Lexus ES 350 sedan. Capacity is 50,000 units, boosting total capacity at the plant, including Toyota and Lexus brands, to 550,000 vehicles.
The automaker will continue building the hybrid version of the car, the ES 300h, in Japan, and the RX series, the RX 350 and RX 450h, at Toyota Motor Mfg. Canada in Cambridge, ON.
Nissan began production of the Infiniti QX30 CUV at Nissan Motor Mfg. U.K. in December. The automaker now produces four Infiniti models outside Japan. The others are the QX50 and X60 CUVs and the Q50 sedan; the QX60 at Nissan North America in Smyrna, TN; and the Q50 and QX50 at the Xiangyang plant of Dongfeng Nissan Passenger Vehicle in China. Both Chinese models also are produced in Japan.
Infiniti’s 2018 China sales target is 100,000 units divided evenly between imports and locally produced models. In 2015, the Nissan luxury brand sold 40,000 units there.
Infiniti displayed the Q50 and all-new Q60 sedans in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The upgraded Q50 will hit U.S. showrooms this spring, the all-new Q60 coupe in summer. Both cars are equipped with new engines: a 2.0L, 4-cyl. turbo-gasoline unit (currently available in China and Europe) and an all-new 3.0L twin-turbo V-6.
For Acura, a new NSX supercar is due in showrooms in April.
Honda produces five Acura models in North America: the ILX in Greensburg, IN; the MDX in Lincoln, AL; the TLX and NSX in Marysville, OH; and the RDX in East Liberty, OH.
