Acura delays Japan introduction
The introduction of the Acura brand to Japan is said to be delayed by at least two years according to Honda. The company originally planned to bring Acura to its home market in 2008, but is turning to target the year 2010 or 2011 as their release date. Honda did not mention any specific reason regarding the change, they did said that, “[the decision was] based on a comprehensive evaluation of the current market environment.”
Both Lexus and Acura were started as premium brands in the US. Toyota introduced Lexus to the Japanese market in 2005 but sales were not become very good until the LS was released late last year. Acura has no such super-premium model and will have to compete in the tough small-to-mid size market along with the German marques.
The fact that Acura had already begun a sales strategy and had started recruiting dealerships or the 2008 launch shows that the decision to delay the brand’s introduction wasn’t taken lightly.