China has a rather strong luxury-car market at this time, with Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac, VW, and Buick selling well.
While Honda is creating a presence on the lower end of the market through its joint ventures with Chinese
manufacturers, it has not yet tackled the upper end of the market – until now. The Acura nameplate will be used for the
first time outside of the US when its RL model is introduced in China next year. The vehicles will be imported from
Japan (other luxury manufactures either build entire cars on the mainland or assemble them from “knock-down kits”), and
are to be sold through a dedicated dealer network. It’s that last part that leads us to believe Honda has their sights
set on bigger goals than the first-year target of 3,000 sales. Mao Tse-Tung is probably spinning in his grave faster
than a VTEC engine.
Acura goes to China
China has a rather strong luxury-car market at this time, with Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac, VW, and Buick selling well. While Honda is creating a presence on the lower end of the market through its joint ventures with Chinese manufacturers, it has not yet tackled the upper end of the market – until now. The Acura nameplate will be used for the first time outside of the US when its RL model is introduced in China next year. The vehicles will be imported from Japan (other luxury manufactures either build entire cars on the mainland or assemble them from “knock-down kits”), and are to be sold through a dedicated dealer network. It’s that last part that leads us to believe Honda has their sights set on bigger goals than the first-year target of 3,000 sales. Mao Tse-Tung is probably spinning in his grave faster than a VTEC engine.