Acura Is Leaving China After Just 6 Years In The Market
After a very short attempt at gaining a foothold in the Chinese market, Honda has decided to pull its Acura-branded vehicles from the country at the end of 2022. This comes just six years after the brand was introduced in 2016 in cooperation with its local joint venture GAC. Honda issued a statement saying that it will reallocate resources towards its e:NP lineup for the Chinese market moving forward.
GAC stands for Guangqi, one of many Chinese brands that Honda has partnered with to sell its products in the country. Three different GAC Acura branded vehicles, the CDX, the RDX, and the TLX-L will remain on sale until all 2023 model year units are sold through.
Once that day comes, GAC Honda dealers will continue to service GAC Acura vehicles across the country. Employees from the Acura side will be integrated into the Honda branch.
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China is one of the most important markets for automakers and represents a huge opportunity for growth. Despite that, GAC Acura’s best sales year was 2019 when just 14,701 vehicles made their way from the dealership to customer’s garages, as reported by Carnewschina. Last year, the brand sold just 6,554 total units.
In place of GAC Acura branded vehicles, GAC Honda will focus more heavily on its e:NP brand which promises affordable EVs for the market. The first car from that marque, the e:NS1 is the first of many EVs planned for the market over the next few years.
GAC Acura isn’t the only brand to struggle in the burgeoning market. The Honda NSX was a sales flop as were both Infiniti and Citroen’s DS luxury brand. It seems that more established luxury brands like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi have a much stronger foothold in the company.
It’ll be interesting to see how the e:NP brand fairs against the likes of Tesla which is a very popular EV brand in the country. Sure, the Japanese-built cars won’t cost as much but that’s no guarantee of success.
It should also be noted that Acura could make a return at some point in the future, especially once a number of models are all-electric. If you’re in China we’re willing to bet that there’s a good deal to be had on a new GAC Acura or two.