Lexus, like Toyota, managed to pull off a sound 12.6% fall for registrations in a market down 29.4%. That took it from 0.67% to 0.84%. That's a low figure of under 1% but much better than say Germany, where it achieved a minuscule 0.12% or a tenth of 1%! You can see that it isn't a big marque in Europe. North Americans love them but not so in Europe
In the UK premium segment which was -25.6%, it was half the average drop. It went from 2.1% to 2.4% so a move in the right direction but still behind the likes of Porsche. It may all sound depressing but Toyota plays the long game and it won't sacrifice margins for market share. The fact is things are moving in an upward direction.
What does PC stand for?
ReplyDeleteI cant help thinking that the better sales of the Japanese were largely due to stock based sales strategy and the shorter /less strict lockdown in Japan.
The reason why Lexus is not popular in Europe is for the fact that they do not develop cars for the European market, but try to sell what is sustained by the US market presence.
Many of their cars are totally unreasonable for the Euroean tax regimes.
PC means passenger car. Lexus doesn't appeal to Euro tastes for sure but they do better in some markets than others. They are several times more popular in the UK than Germany for example.
ReplyDeleteokay, you never know in these PC times :)
DeleteBasically, I don't recall Lexus offering anything else but passenger cars.
They are bred for the US market, understandably they sell better there.
Every European country has a different tax regime with different criterias (engine size, peak power output, co2, emission standards). Lexus does not fare well in these, and its not about weather one likes the shape or the grill, but weather one is ready to pay an extra in registration taxes.