Nissan once mulled pulling the plug on Infiniti - Automobile News

Speaking with WardsAuto on the sidelines of the Detroit show, Nissan Executive Vice President Andy Palmer recalled that Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn once contemplated shutting down the brand.

"Mr. Ghosn challenged me and said, �We don't have to do Infiniti, you can cancel it if you want," Palmer said.

Ultimately, Palmer made the decision to stick with Infiniti, but decided to eliminate the high-volume focus that had plagued the brand since its inception.

"(Infiniti has) nice premium cars, but frankly, (they're) kind of discount," he says. "And we've been selling those cars over a period of 23 years with a Nissan-push mentality."

Palmer stated that the company looks at Audi as a model for how a luxury brand can enjoy success while maintaining a healthy distance from the volume goals of a mass-market parent company. For that reason, Nissan recently hired former Audi of American president Johan de Nysschen as Infiniti's Senior Vice President.

De Nysschen has pledged to help reinvent Infiniti as a quality-first tier-one premium brand, with one of his first decisions since signing on being to push back a previous goal of selling 500,000 worldwide from 2016 to 2017. Rather than chasing sales targets, de Nysschen wants to make certain that Infiniti develops the "brand metrics which entrench Infiniti as an unquestioned member of the club of premium automotive brands."

Over the next four years, Infiniti will begin put its new strategy into action by releasing four new models : a compact hatchback derived from the Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class, a production version of the LE electric concept and two mystery vehicles. De Nyscchen has hinted that the Essence supercar concept may still make it showrooms, as could a non-traditional model positioned above the M sedan. /* @Himanshu 09-01-2013 New code to work with br tag, p tag and /n */ div.post-content1{ color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.333em; margin-bottom: 16px; margin-top: 10px; } /* @Himanshu 09-01-2013 New code to work with br tag, p tag and /n */ div.post-content1 ul li { list-style:disc !important; margin-left:20px; color:#000000; } div.post-content1 ol li { list-style-type: decimal !important; margin-left:20px; color:#000000; } #editorial_graph ul li { list-style:none !important; margin-left:0px; }

Source: Leftlanenews