Lexus, the luxury brand from the house of the Japanese carmaker Toyota, postponed its India launch to beyond 2013. It seems like Lexus is facing market blues before the launch. Sandeep Singh, Deputy MD of Toyota Kirloskar Motors confirmed the same.
He also said that the main reason behind the decision is high import duties on completely built cars, which further increased after the Union Budget of 2012. Lexus is very much taken aback as it is going to import cars in CBU (completely built units) form only. It doesn’t have a plan for local manufacturing.
Another reason cited by him is devaluation of the Indian Rupee. As mentioned earlier, Lexus will import cars in CBU form hence it becomes mandatory to consider the valuation of Indian Rupee else the price tag will become a major issue, which in turn will hamper sales extremely.
Lexus is a competitor to brands like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi. Success of all these brands in India pushed Lexus to make its debut here as well. Officials from Lexus say that, downward sales figure of Mercedes and an extreme pressure on BMW for staying in competition made them take a step backward instead of going forward. They also said that they will be more cautious for India because facing loss at the initial stage will reduce their motivational factor in future.
The announcement for India launch was made by a senior company official at the Tokyo Auto Show in 2011. It is also said that the Japanese carmaker will have a separate dealership network for Lexus, as it is retailing the same way in other countries too.
Started in 1989, Lexus now owns four production facility in Japan alone and it also make some of its products at the North American facility in Canada as well.