Acura, Honda’s premium sub-brand, will be dropping its business in China in late 2022, Carscoops reports pointing out disappointing sales and insufficient variety of cars.
The Japanese marque concluded a partnership with GAC in 2016. As of right now, the joint enterprise makes two crossover SUVs named the RDX and CDX (see video). Acura says it will continue selling both models until it runs out of stock. All maintenance of these cars will later be performed by GAC-Honda dealerships.
The premium brand hit its high in 2019, selling around 14,700 cars in China that year. It barely managed to move 6,500 units last year. This should explain why Honda is determined to redistribute resources towards designing and producing more e:NP electric vehicles instead: the latter lineup is much more popular among customers.
To this end, Honda will be designing ten new EV models specifically for China in the nearest future. All ten will be made locally, the carmaker says, revealing that two new factories will soon be launched in the country, including one in Wuhan Province. A much-anticipated electric supercar and successor to the NSX series will also likely debut in China before becoming available worldwide.