Luxgen has confirmed recently that its entry model of S3 and U5 will no longer be sold upon their discontinuance.
Despite the circulating rumors regarding the minor facelift to U5, as well as the leaked photos of test cars, Luxgen has expressed that the model will not undergo further facelifts, but will be discontinued instead, according to the coverage of <Liberty Times> today. As indicated by the statistical data of Taiwan Transportation Vehicle Manufacturers Association, only 87 units of model S3 were manufactured last year, and the model was discontinued after July, whereas U5 was also discontinued after the last batch of 16 units were manufactured in November last year, with merely 333 units produced in the entire year.
Both S3 and U5 are entry models of Luxgen, though they are highlighted with innovative digital functions, and added with configurations that are rarely seen on lower end models such as a sunroof design, which is a pioneering move in the industry. However, the model made its way out of the market sooner than expected. U5 has a relatively well design concept that was considerably recognized by the market back then, and was even sent to Europe for crash test to highlight its safety assurance, which is not commonly seen in vehicles of the same level. U5 became the champion of sales in domestically manufactured SUV when it was released in 2017.
However, a number of owners complained that the vehicle manifested many issues after driving for a period of time, such as severe carbon deposit, which even resulted in stalls. Although the company responded accordingly to the issue, its reputation was rapidly deteriorated, which of course led to gradually declining sales. Nonetheless, many car owners were expecting Luxgen to perform minor facelift and resolve issues such as abnormal vibration to the body before re-releasing it again. At the end, the automobile market took an accelerated downward turn, and prompted Luxgen to give up on the model.
Of course, such decision may be closely tied to the existing development plan of Luxgen. After announcing the cooperation with Foxconn Technology Group on constructing a vehicle IDM value chain platform, Luxgen plans to integrate all resources into implementing motorization for its product starting from small vehicles, and its future products will be of hybrid models at least. Under this sluggish automobile market, a retreat is more than normal, and investing its limited resources on the latest URX model is obviously the expected strategy for Luxgen.
(Cover photo source: Flickr / Ming-yen Hsu CC BY 2.0)