Honda’s luxury division Acura will expand beyond North America over the next few years, as the Japanese company plans to take its upscale brand onto the global stage. Mostly focused in North America since it was formed in 1986, Acura will expand in Russia and the Ukraine in 2014 and to Brazil and the Middle East in 2015. Acura also plans to expand its sales operation in China.
However, Autonews reports that Honda’s ambitions for Acura are more modest than Nissan’s global aspirations for Infiniti. Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn wants Infiniti sales to grow from 170,000 to 500,000 by 2017. Last year Acura sold about 176,000 vehicles worldwide, with 156,216 of them going to the United States and 17,154 to Canada. The remaining cars were delivered to China and Mexico. In the near term, Honda executives want Acura’s U.S. volumes to rise to 200,000 sales.
Acura expects its larger vehicles such as the MDX, TL and RLX (pictured above) to perform well in markets such as Russia and China. The MDX has been a gray-market favorite in Russia for several years.
Honda needs to decide how Acura products will be badged in markets where the brand is not present – especially the NSX, which arrives in late 2014. The first-generation NSX was badged as a Honda outside of the United States.
As for Western Europe, Acura does not have any expansion plans for now, mostly because of the region’s economic problems.
By Dan Mihalascu
Story References: Autonews
PHOTO GALLERY
