In the U.S., after an almost ironclad reign of more than a decade, Lexus is set to lose its position as the best-selling luxury car brand. And this news comes straight from the horse’s mouth.

Mark Templin, Lexus Division General Manager in the U.S., said that sales of the brand’s vehicles will drop to around 190,000 units during 2011, a fall of some 17 percent from last year. He said that the reduction in volume is largely attributed to the earthquake and Tsunami back in March, which severely hampered Japanese automobile production. All Lexus models sold in North America, bar the RX350, which is built in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada are sourced from Japan.

Dealers were down to about half their usual stock in June, resulting in overall sales plummeting by around 38 percent, however with production at plants in Japan essentially back to full strength, and RX production, bar the hybrid said to reach 100 capacity by September, things are apparently looking up.

“June was the trough, and we’ve turned the corner. We see the rest of the year being much better for us,” stated Templin, during an address to reporters in Chicago.

As Lexus sales have dropped, other luxury car makers, especially those from Germany, have been picking up the slack. In fact, by the end of this year BMW is on target to become the best-selling premium nameplate in the US, marking the first time it has beat out Lexus since 1997. While the latter sold 88,010 in the first half of 2011, the Bavarian automaker shifted some 113,705.

As to whether Lexus will regain the top spot, Templin said that wasn’t the brand’s focus, “whether we’re No. 1 or not, I don’t care. We’ve never focused on that. We won’t change our plan midyear because someone else is selling more cars than us.”

That said, there are those, particularly industry analysts who think that in the coming years it might be harder and harder for Lexus to remain among the top selling luxury brands, citing an aging customer base and products that don’t resonate with younger buyers being two major factors for a decline in market share.

Aaron Bragman of IHS Automotive Insight, believes that even at full capacity, the brand will struggle to stay in the top spot. ”Like Toyota, they’ve lost their momentum,” he says. “A a lot of their dealers are afraid they will become the next Buick.”

[Source: Automotive News]

We recently reported that the Audi A4 beat out the BMW 3 Series as the most popular luxury car in Germany for 2008 and now Audi is continuing to rack up the successes by boasting that it was the best-selling brand in all of Western Europe in the month of January.

These figures support news from the Simpson Carpenter market research institute which recently announced that Audi was Germany’s favorite brand.

During a time when sales figures are declining around the world, Audi has posted losses but not to the extent of its competitors. As a result the company managed to grab a total market share of 5.1 percent – compared to just 3.9 percent for the same period a year ago. In terms of units, this amounted to 45,124 vehicles.

Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member of the Board of Management for Sales and Marketing at AUDI AG credits the success to the long list of vehicles that Audi has either newly brought to market or completely redesigned. “We have moved our product offensive into the passing lane,” says Schwarzenbauer. “Particularly in economically strained times, it is crucial that we at Audi offer our customers precisely what they want. We must offer appealing and sporty models which stir enthusiasm among Audi fans – vehicles that are also highly energy-efficient and low on consumption. In 2009, we will remain on the offensive.”

In 2008 Audi launched 12 new vehicles and in the first half of ’09 the Ingolstadt-based manufacturer will launch another six. “By 2015, we expect to offer Audi customers 40 different models,” says Schwarzenbauer, ” all loaded with forward-thinking technologies. To this end, we invest some two billion euros annually in product development.”

Official release after the jump:

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