Infiniti brand to exit the European market in 2020
- Nissan has confirmed that it will withdraw its luxury brand Infiniti from the European market in January 2020. This brand, which competes directly with Lexus, but also with German Premium models (Audi, BMW, Mercedes), has not succeeded in penetrating this highly competitive market in the top-of-the-range category. In addition, the Infiniti brand has not benefited from a differentiating technical feature like that of Lexus, which markets all its models in hybrid engines. Like Acura (Honda's luxury brand), Infiniti will therefore focus on the North American and Chinese markets, where it is still enjoying some success.
- Infiniti has been present in Europe for about ten years and has never been widely distributed there. While Carlos Ghosn expected 25,000 sales per year after five years in this market, by 2015 sales had peaked at less than 5,000. Until the arrival of the Q30 at the end of 2015, the models were more suited to customers in the United States, where the brand generates three-quarters of its sales. The Q30 is a premium compact sedan, competing with the Mercedes A-Class (which is built on the same platform), which could have boosted the brand's sales in the European market. A peak was certainly reached in 2016, with 16,000 units, but sales declined rapidly: to 11,000 units in 2017 and 6,000 in 2018. This modest figure is far from the 150,000 sold in the USA last year or even the 50,000 sold in China.
- The Sunderland plant will therefore cease production of the Infiniti Q30/QX30 as of next summer.
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