Nissan will continue to expand its Infiniti luxury brand globally to meet the world’s growing luxury car demand. Infiniti announced last year that it would launch the brand in western Europe to better compete with its German rivals, and has already seen some success in Russia.
“We expect that Infiniti will continue to experience double-digit sales increases well into the future on a worldwide basis,” Mark McNabb, Nissan North America’s marketing chief, said today.
Infiniti currently has 240 dealers in 15 countries throughout Asia, Europe and the Middle East. According to McNabb, Infiniti was represented in 43% of world luxury markets in 2006, a number he expects to climb to 93% by the end of 2008.
McNabb predicts that younger buyers will help sustain the Infiniti’s brands recent success. “We foresee a continuing transition of the buyer base in the luxury market over the next five years, a transition that presents many opportunities for Infiniti,” he said.
Along with fresh products, Infiniti will continue to focus on customer service.
01/22, 5:12 PM
posted by:
frost
ha! first post
01/22, 5:32 PM
posted by:
441Zuke
as Martha Stuart would say infiniti is a good thing
01/22, 6:01 PM
posted by:
CTS DRIVER
Hey why not they make a great car.
01/22, 7:13 PM
posted by:
El Aleman
I don’t think they will be successful in Western Europe, except for Britain maybe, but not much there either..
For some reason the european luxury market is completely dominated by the Germans.
01/22, 7:37 PM
posted by:
corvette
Nissan is pushing their luck and going into unsuccessful territory.
01/22, 8:30 PM
posted by:
JoshL
“Nissan is pushing their luck and going into unsuccessful territory.” by: Corvette
100% agreed. Nissan is getting as greedy as Toyota is in some ways…
01/22, 10:31 PM
posted by:
autonut
Of course Nissan is greedy – it is a nature of being in business! As long as they make profit on all cars they sell they will be pushing into higher profits markets. Luxury does cost R&D, nor those cars are better screwed together. There is larger profit margin on sale ’cause luxury service cost them afterwards. Now Nissan is part of Renault (or partially owned by Renault) and they have a good access to European design. Their engineering was always good.
01/22, 11:09 PM
posted by:
iglesias294
nissan makes dope cars like the G35 and the gt-r boosts their cred a lot.
01/23, 1:37 AM
posted by:
mazdaman
I do like Infiniti and wish them well with their expansion plans. I do think they will have a tough time in Europe though. As El Aleman stated, the Germans seem to have a strangle hold on this territory; I’m not sure Infiniti can break it, but they sure as heck can try.
01/23, 8:12 AM
posted by:
Rotman
Haven’t seen them here yet. We do have Lexus officially, but I hardly see one driving around. People who have that kind of money to spend on a car will go to BMW or Mercedes first.
01/23, 9:16 AM
posted by:
MikeFX
As Infiniti is more tuned for performance than Lexus, perhaps those considering a BMW would consider a G35 or M35. Even in the US I can’t see someone cross shopping BMW with Lexus.
01/23, 11:18 AM
posted by:
CA36GTP
They should be careful. Europeans are not quite so ignorant as Americans as to the truth about Japanese faux-brands, mainly because they are still getting HONDAS badged as HONDAS, NISSANS badged as NISSANS, etc. Even Lexus is not that big in Europe.
These brands were all originally created simply to trick Americans into paying more for the same cars. Trying to pull that on the Europeans could be a mistake.
01/23, 12:47 PM
posted by:
CTS DRIVER
one of my female friends called me last night asking why the little car symbol on her dash of her 2003 325i had a little red headlight on it all of the sudden, seriously she didnt know the car was telling her she had a blown headlight.
its the small details like that where the germans are supreme.
01/23, 2:42 PM
posted by:
CTS DRIVER
my caddie dont have it at least that i have paid attention to i havnt blown a light on it yet, and my nissan sure dosn`t have have it. then i stand correctinated
.
i was just a little surprised she was completely clueless
01/24, 2:29 PM
posted by:
planet_drive
Infiniti will be very succesfull in Europe. Everybody knows its a Nissan and Nissans have a good reputation all over the world. My best friend purchased a G37 in September and shipped it to Europe to do a 1 month cross european roadtrip with it and everywhere he went people were giving him thumbs ups and taking pics of it and wanted to know more about it. Its a very nice luxury performance car at a very respectable price. It will definately be a hit in Europe.