Lexus cars 'out of favor' in Vietnam

Despite a price reduction of hundreds of millions of dong, the Lexus luxury car line is still "out of favor" in Vietnam, selling only 48 cars in February.

After the Tet holiday, the domestic car market fell into a gloomy state, with total car sales reaching 17,621 units, down 13% compared to January.

While car manufacturers are struggling to cope with falling sales with various tricks such as giving away promotions or discounts, only Japanese car manufacturer Toyota has very impressive car sales.

Specifically, in February, Toyota sold a total of 3,577 cars. In the top 10 best-selling car models in February, Toyota holds the top 3 positions with the Vios, Innova and Fortuner models.

Toyota Lexus is "out of favor" in the Vietnamese market.

However, according to Toyota's announcement, this number does not include Lexus cars.

According to the sales report from the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), Toyota Lexus only sold 48 cars in February. This number has been decreasing steadily over the months.

According to a survey by reporters, at Toyota Hanoi dealers, Lexus cars are always in a state of "shelving" due to prolonged sluggish sales. Many dealers admit that Lexus sales are very low and are overshadowed by other mid-range and low-priced cars.

According to many dealers, the reason for the sluggish sales of the Toyota Lexus luxury car line is still due to its high price. Specifically, the cheapest Lexus version costs about 2.5 billion VND. The higher-end version, the Lexus LX 570 2017 AT AWD, costs up to 8.5 billion VND.

Although still affected by the change in tax policy for large-cylinder vehicles that took effect from July 2016, Toyota Vietnam has reduced the price of this vehicle by up to hundreds of millions of VND to stimulate demand. However, the reduced amount is nothing compared to the exorbitant price of Lexus.

Meanwhile, in the high-end segment with the same price as Lexus, rival Mercedes-Benz is making waves. In February, Mercedes-Benz sold 400 cars, 8 times more than Lexus. Total number of cars sold since the beginning of 2017 of Mercedes-Benz is 5 times more than Lexus.

Dealers say the reason Toyota’s Lexus line is “crushed” by its rival Mercedes-Benz is due to design and brand. In the high-end segment, Mercedes-Benz has a more luxurious and classy design than Lexus.

Another reason lies in the brand. Mercedes has long been positioned as a supercar in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Toyota dominates almost every segment, except the luxury car segment.

According to dealers' forecasts, it is inevitable that Lexus cars will continue to be "out of favor" for a long time to come.

According to VNN